And speaking of Coke, the word on the street is if you're not President and Chief Operating Officer Steve Heyer, you should be worried about your job!
Atlanta is hurting!
Coke cauldron bubbles over
By SCOTT LEITH
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Coca-Cola headquarters on North Avenue in Atlanta.
For the second time in three years, Coca-Cola has slashed jobs, prompting more questions about when the turmoil is going to stop.
Coke remains a place of ongoing change, as illustrated by Thursday's announcement of an additional 1,000 job losses and a planned rehab of North American operations. Five hundred of the jobs will be shed in Atlanta.
While many big companies are going through changes to deal with a moribund economy -- Delta Air Lines and BellSouth are two prominent Atlanta examples -- Coke's upheaval started before the boom times ended, with 5,200 layoffs in 2000.
Some say the company's work force never really recovered from that upheaval, and this week's announcement adds to the tumult at the company.
On Friday morning, Coke employees gathered to hear details about the reorganization. The presentation, led by new President and Chief Operating Officer Steve Heyer, provided a glimpse at what's ahead.
The event was centered in a large auditorium at Coke's North Avenue headquarters, drawing a throng so sizable that many employees had to watch on TVs in conference rooms around the complex.
In conversations with many people associated with the company -- from current employees to ex-staffers to industry analysts -- a picture emerges of a company again in flux, at least for now.
One Coke marketing staff member said after attending Friday's meeting that employees exchanged phone calls through the afternoon, speculating about who will survive and who is in jeopardy.
The employee, a 14-year Coke North America worker, said he left the meeting worried about the mood at the company, and convinced that Coca-Cola is changing in fundamental ways.
Jeff Dunn, president of Coke North America and a key player in Friday's presentation, said in an interview later that the changes are necessary and already paying off.
"There's probably a group of employees who wish it would go back to the good old days, but the fact of the matter is the culture has to evolve," Dunn said.
Coke said it plans to make the cuts by the end of March. For now, few details are available, nor is Coke providing information on how much it expects to save or what it will do with the extra cash.
More information will be released Feb. 12, when Coke announces financial results for 2002.
The cuts happen as Coke comes off a year of sales volume growth in its North America operations, led by the introduction of new products like Vanilla Coke, plus rising sales of Dasani water and other products.
"The risk is that such momentum will likely suffer," said Bill Pecoriello, a Morgan Stanley analyst. He noted that the reorganization happens as Coke rolls out new marketing in advance of its peak selling season. The upside is that many believe the changes seem different from those of three years ago, when Coke was struggling to start a turnaround and was bloated with too many workers in some areas.
At the time, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Doug Daft said those cuts were "difficult and devastating" to make and would not be repeated on such a large scale.
Today, Coke is seen by some outsiders as headed in the right direction -- though it still has much work to do, as shown by the latest announcements.
"Coke is in better shape now than a few years ago, and the difference is, first, Steve Heyer and, second, a management team that has been in place, gained experience and begun to jell," said John Sicher, editor and publisher of Beverage Digest.
Many of those who know Coca-Cola -- current and former employees and industry analysts -- say the cuts are likely to be disruptive.
"You're freezing the entire company, because no one knows if it's going to be them or not," said Robert Nishikawa, who went through the process in 2000. He lost his Coke job and went on to Turner Broadcasting, where he works in purchasing today.
Nishikawa, who worked at Coke during the glory years of the 1990s, said many people he knows at the company are no longer happy and are worried again about losing jobs.
Staffers at a variety of levels told of how Coke's corporate culture has changed, starting under the leadership of previous CEO Doug Ivester and continuing under Daft, who took over in late 1999.
Dunn said he understands why people are worried, even if changes are necessary.
"The change is clearly a big one, and that creates some uncertainty." |
