Xerox and The Coca-Cola Company – Old Brands Find New Marketing Credibility

I watched PBS CEO Exchange hosted by Jeff Greenfield this weekend (yes I do need a life). It was the premier episode of the 5^th season of this excellent series and had Anne M Mulcahy Chairman & CEO, Xerox Corporation and Neville Isdell, Chairman & CEO, The Coca-Cola Company as its first guests. Both of these CEO’s talked about the huge jobs they faced when brought in to turnaround there respective companies (Neville was brought from the outside, Anne brought up from the inside).

The discussion was enlightening and so encouraging. They both had similar philosophies about listening, identifying the internal cultures and working from within that environment, coaching it to success. They encouraged project management that had built in best practices of making mistakes. Anne mentioned that making a mistake is a requirement, but encouraged that those mistakes occur at the beginning of projects to catch them before they became bigger. This created a more open collaborative environment. Imagine not wasting time in the blame game and just moving to the solution, then actually having that as a corporate culture?!?

Neville got his degree as a social worker and said it helped him to be able to truly listen and take in what was being said. It also taught him how to encourage people to come up with their own solutions instead of having to supply all the answers. That is a solution all CEOs could take a look at.

Both CEOs demanded that their management teams tell them the good, the bad, and the ugly. That the bad and the ugly were more important, and those that shared their criticisms were rewarded. This also created a culture of improvement, collaboration and authenticity.

Neville discussed the importance of environmental issues for the planet, and creating measures to ensure there was less of an environmental footprint left behind by its manufacturing plants around the world. Now I would have to do some research to see if this is really happening, but he gave an example of measures being taken in India to protect the groundwater (after an audience member questioned him on this point).

These companies are reinvigorating their corporate integrity and enhancing their points of credibility. They are not on the show discussing new lean manufacturing trends; those are now just a tactics (see last weeks post about this; Forrester). They are talking about humanizing their companies and using sound interpersonal cultural skills to make improvements. They are talking to their customers and channel partners and asking them how they use the products and where they see room for improvements. Neville talked about how easy it is to get lazy in success, and I would add it is easy to myopically focus on trimming and efficiencies rather than market need and understanding the end user benefits. Seth Godin has been talking about this topic for years, and The Coca-Cola Company is a case study in new holistic and humanistic forms of business strategy. Both of these CEO’s are demanding their employees offer criticisms and insights into areas of improvements… then they are actually listening and applying them.

Now what happened to me as I sat on my couch watching the integrity and passion of these CEOs in action? Xerox and Coca-Cola have gained instant respect from me. And what am I doing now? Spreading my newfound enthusiasms I have for these companies in this blog post and further improving their credibility factor. That is credibility branding in action.

Comments

[Raimo van der Klein]

Hi Jennifer, love your last two posts. Will write about Coca Cola and Xerox and their commitment to humanize and become more holistic. I created a new blog (Marikaya) where I am trying to support corporations to realize this change. It is right in your corner! ;-)
Talk soon!!