Inside Coca-Cola by Neville Isdell
Author:Neville Isdell
Language: eng
Format: epub, azw3
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Six
GOING BACK TO INDIA
Coca-Cola left South Africa over apartheid. In the Middle East, we were ejected for selling our products in Israel. In India, we departed for an entirely different reason: the secret formula.
In 1977 a newly elected Indian government demanded that we partner with an Indian company and disclose the secret formula, which we refused to do. Then we packed our bags and left the world’s second most populous country. For those who believe the secret formula is nothing more than a marketing myth, let India be a lesson. In defense of our secret formula, we walked away from a market of a billion people, as did IBM after refusing to reveal its source code.
India began liberalizing its economy in the early 1990s under Manmohan Singh, then the finance minister and now the prime minister. Coke had the opportunity to return.
As the reentry slowly progressed under John Hunter, I gained India as part of my territory in 1993, although I lost Africa to Carl Ware. I liked and respected Carl but was very unhappy about this decision because of my lifelong ties to Africa. Also, without Africa, the sales volume in my group was diminished by half since sales in the Indian market were minuscule at the time. Once again, I was given a turnaround market.
It was a blow and I considered leaving the company for the first time since that night in Germany when Heinz Wiezorek and I vowed to resign. The difference now was that I would soon turn fifty and retirement was within reach. I was going to have to live with it. I told Pamela, “I’m going to build what I have into something as big as what I used to have. I’ll show them just what I can do.” I also was reassured by Don Keough and John Hunter that the move was in no way performance related but situational and that my future was still bright.
India proved to be a very interesting, enjoyable, and challenging assignment. It was equally the most fascinating country I’ve ever worked in and the most frustrating. The images in my memory of India are stunning. Pamela and I will never forget the Beating of the Retreat in Delhi, a military ceremony dating back to the 1600s. It’s theater like you’ve never seen, held each year in January, in front of the Parliament Building. As the sun sets, spotlights illuminate the Camel Corps. The best military bands play and soldiers march past the reviewing stand. There are soldiers playing bagpipes, wearing kilts. As a bugler sounds the call for retreat, the Indian flags are slowly lowered and the bands march away. Close your eyes and you will believe the British raj never left.
When I assumed responsibility for India, Coke’s reentry was at a very tentative stage. Coca-Cola, under Hunter’s direction, had formed a joint venture with Rajan Pillai, who had gained control of Indian-based cookie-maker Britannia Biscuits. Pillai had also purchased the Asian operations of RJR Nabisco, with the help of a group of investors, including RJR’s former CEO, F.
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