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The New Systems
Greater regionalisation meant dilution of several central jobs (1,500 employees have already been retired at bottling plants), some of them senior ones. Coke has six managerial grades from 8 to 14, and the new line of control strengthened entry and middle-level jobs (8 to 12) at regions, while downgrading many at the centre. This, expectedly, ruffled feathers. In the last six months, the company has seen the exits of its Head (capability services), Ravi Deol, and head (northern operations), Sunil Sawhney, and 40-odd junior and middle-level managers. If Coke insiders are to be believed, more could follow.
To support the localised structure, Coke is introducing a detailed career planning system for its 530 managers. the system would be individual-based, but led by market and performance. It would be driven regionally with talent development meetings at the regional and functional levels before making recommendations to the hr council, which would approve and implement the process through the central hr team.
The New Future
Has the HR-led change initiative worked for the beleaguered company? The Coke brass claims that volume growth is up by 14 per cent and marketshare has climbed by a percentage point (ORG 1999 figures put Coke's share at 61.5 per cent against Pepsi's 36 per cent, although Pepsi, which uses IMRB data, claims a 40 per cent share) as a consequence of the regionalisation drive. (The company, however, refused to part with any figures.) Coke's global CEO Douglas Daft, is also said to have keen interest in the Indian experiment. Market and competitions, however, are not impressed. Counters Mahendra Swarup, Executive Director (hr), at arch-rival PepsiCo India: ''Such an init ...