What is the corporate culture of Coca-Cola?

There are a thousand Hamlets in the hearts of a thousand people. There are many different understandings and expressions about the concept of corporate culture. According to incomplete statistics, there are as many as 300 definitions of corporate culture in business and academic circles! Among so many definitions, the most influential is:

1, corporate culture is the purpose of guiding enterprises to formulate employee and customer policies (William Ochi, 198 1, Z theory; Charlie Pascal and Anthony Ados, 198 1, The Art of Japanese Business Management).

2, corporate culture is the main values that an enterprise believes in (Tres? Deere and Allen? Kennedy, 1982, corporate culture).

3, corporate culture is a model composed of some basic assumptions, these assumptions are created and formed in the process of exploring and solving the problem of adapting to the external environment and internal integration, they are effective, and they are the correct methods that new members must master when they know, think and feel problems (Edgar? Shain, 1985, Corporate Culture and Leadership).

4. Corporate culture is the common values and behavior of employees, at least senior managers (John? Kurt, 1992, Corporate Culture and Business Performance).

5. Corporate culture is the enterprise spirit, development strategy, business philosophy and management philosophy with enterprise characteristics gradually formed and cultivated in the development process. It is also the values, corporate ethics and behavioral norms (generally defined in China) generally recognized by enterprise employees.

We believe that: from the connotation point of view, culture includes two basic elements, namely, concept and behavior. The so-called corporate culture is the sum of the mainstream ideas and behaviors of an enterprise. Idea is a value proposition about how to create and distribute benefits. It is the most basic idea that enterprises hope employees to accept (sometimes force employees to accept), which reflects the basic views of senior managers on the effective operation of enterprises. Behavior is the attitude and way of doing things needed to implement values, and it is the code of conduct that enterprises hope employees to accept (sometimes force employees to accept), including employees' attitudes and specific behaviors. These codes of conduct are basically derived from the basic ideas of enterprises, and they are the performance of putting ideas into specific behaviors.

Second, the structure of corporate culture

Broadly speaking, corporate culture is usually divided into four layers: material layer, behavior layer, system layer and spiritual layer. As shown in the following figure: the first layer is the surface material culture, the second layer is the behavior culture of the mantle layer, the third layer is the system culture of the middle layer, and the fourth layer is the spiritual culture of the core layer.

1, the material layer of corporate culture

The material layer of enterprise culture is also called the material culture of enterprise. It is a tool culture composed of products and various material facilities created by enterprise employees, and it is a surface enterprise culture with material form as the main research object.

The products and services provided by an enterprise are the fruits of its production and operation and the primary content of its material culture. Secondly, the production environment, enterprise architecture, enterprise advertising, product packaging and design created by enterprises are the main contents of enterprise material culture.

2. Behavior layer of corporate culture

The behavior layer of corporate culture is also called corporate behavior culture. If enterprise material culture is the outermost layer of enterprise culture, then enterprise behavior culture can be called the mantle layer of enterprise culture, or the second layer, that is, the shallow behavior culture.

Corporate behavior culture refers to the activity culture produced by employees in production, management, learning and entertainment. It includes cultural phenomena arising from enterprise management, education and publicity, interpersonal communication and cultural and sports activities. It is a dynamic embodiment of enterprise management style, mental outlook and interpersonal relationship, and also a reflection of enterprise spirit and enterprise values.

From the perspective of personnel structure, enterprise behavior includes the behavior of entrepreneurs, the behavior of enterprise model figures and the behavior of enterprise employees.

3. Institutional layer of corporate culture

The institutional layer of enterprise culture is also called enterprise institutional culture, which mainly includes enterprise leadership system, enterprise organization and enterprise management system.

The emergence, development and change of enterprise leadership system is the inevitable result of enterprise production development. The leadership system, especially the management concept and style of leaders, has a great influence on corporate culture. In Shain's view, leadership and culture are two sides of the same coin. Enterprise organizational structure includes formal organizational structure and informal organization, which is the carrier of enterprise culture. In Alfred? In Chandler's view, strategy comes first, which determines the organizational structure of an enterprise, and culture is largely the result of organizational construction (andler, 1966). Enterprise management system is a set of rules or regulations formulated by enterprises in the process of production, operation and management, which plays a normative and protective role. What needs to be pointed out in particular is that the mandatory and binding system plays a very key role in the formation of corporate culture, especially behavioral culture.

As the intermediary and combination of people and things, people and enterprise operation, ideas and behaviors in enterprise culture, enterprise institutional culture is a normative culture that restricts the behavior of enterprises and employees, and makes enterprises in a good state in a complex and changeable and competitive economic environment, thus ensuring the realization of enterprise goals.

4. The spiritual level of corporate culture

The spiritual layer of corporate culture is also called corporate spiritual culture. Compared with enterprise material culture and behavior culture, enterprise spiritual culture is a deeper cultural phenomenon, which is at the core of the whole enterprise cultural system.

Enterprise spiritual culture refers to a kind of spiritual achievement and cultural concept formed by certain social and cultural background and ideology in the process of production and operation. It includes enterprise spirit, enterprise management philosophy, enterprise ethics, enterprise values, enterprise style, etc. It is the sum of enterprise ideology. It is the sublimation of enterprise material culture and behavior culture, and it is the superstructure of enterprise.

According to the above structural theory, the four levels of our corporate culture are broken down as shown in the following figure:

Spiritual layer: including corporate mission, strategic objectives, service concept and core values;

System layer: it mainly includes culture-based human resource management system, front-office marketing, network operation and maintenance management system, and cultural transformation and adjustment mechanism, such as ongoing enterprise operation mode innovation, five mechanism innovations, five centralized management, etc., all of which belong to the cultural system layer;

Behavior layer: it mainly includes employee behavior norms, various cultural activities organized by enterprises, etc.

The content of the material layer mainly includes corporate visual identity system (VI), corporate image slogan, corporate poster, corporate brand and so on.

Corporate culture is an important part of the core competitiveness of enterprises. Excellent corporate culture can enhance the core competitiveness of enterprises and improve their business performance.

After studying more than 200 large enterprises around the world, John? Kurt and James. Herscott found that corporate culture is closely related to corporate performance:

Test index

Attach importance to the construction of corporate culture

Companies with excellent culture do not attach importance to cultural construction.

1, boot function

Corporate culture can guide the value and behavior orientation of the whole enterprise and its members. It is embodied in two aspects: first, it plays a guiding role in the thoughts and behaviors of individual members of enterprises; Second, it plays a guiding role in the overall value orientation and management of enterprises. This is because once the corporate culture of an enterprise is formed, it establishes its own systematic values and norms. If the values and behavior orientation of enterprise members are contrary to the systematic standards of enterprise culture, enterprise culture will correct them and guide them to the values and norms of enterprise.

2. Constraint function

Corporate culture has a restrictive and normative effect on employees' thoughts, psychology and behavior. The constraint of corporate culture is not a hard constraint of the system, but a soft constraint, which comes from the corporate culture atmosphere, group code of conduct and moral norms of the enterprise. Different spiritual and cultural contents, such as group consciousness, public opinion, customs and fashion, will cause strong group psychological pressure and motivation, make individual behavior conform to the crowd, make enterprise members produce psychological buzz, and then realize self-control of behavior.

3. Coagulation function

The cohesive function of corporate culture means that when a value is recognized by employees, it will become a cohesive force, which will aggregate its members from all aspects, thus producing great centripetal force and cohesion. There are many ways to adjust interpersonal relationships in enterprises, including mandatory "hard adjustment", such as systems and orders; There is also the "soft adjustment" of persuasion education such as public opinion and morality. Corporate culture belongs to soft regulation, which enables all employees to acquire * * * knowledge in basic aspects such as corporate mission, strategic objectives, strategic measures, operational processes, cooperation and communication, and fundamentally ensures the harmony, stability and health of corporate interpersonal relationships, thus enhancing the cohesion of enterprises. It is precisely because of its firm "collectivism" values that the Japanese consortium Mitsui & Co., Ltd. was reorganized after more than 20 years of disintegration.

Data: Corporate culture reunites Mitsui Company.

1945 After the US occupied Japan, US President Truman ordered the dissolution of the Japanese consortium. Mitsui & Co., Japan's major financial group, was divided into 170 enterprises and was forbidden to use the original enterprise name. These enterprises have the conditions to operate independently, but two years later, these enterprises began to gather together and tried to reorganize under the original banner of Mitsui. After more than 20 years, the original divided enterprise has become a company that began to operate abroad and resumed the use of Mitsui. Why is Mitsui reunited after more than 20 years? Ali? De Hess (who proposed the concept of "learning organization") explained this in his book Longevity Company. He said that the reason is that Mitsui's * * * values are at work, and the core of this value is collectivism.

4. Incentive function

Corporate culture has the function of making enterprise members have high emotions and enterprising spirit from the heart. Corporate culture takes respecting people as the central content and people-oriented management as the center. Corporate culture meets the multiple needs of employees and can adjust all kinds of unreasonable needs with its "soft constraints". Therefore, positive ideas and codes of conduct will form a strong sense of mission and lasting driving force, and become a yardstick for employees' self-motivation. Once employees truly accept the core concept of the enterprise, they will consciously and voluntarily exert their potential and work harder and more efficiently for the company under the drive of this concept.

5, radiation function

Once the corporate culture has formed a relatively fixed pattern, it will not only play a role within the enterprise, but also have an impact on society through various channels (publicity, communication, etc.). The spread of corporate culture helps to establish a good public image of the enterprise and improve its social visibility and reputation. Excellent corporate culture will also have an important impact on the development of social culture.

6. Brand function

The brand image of an enterprise in the eyes of the public is a combination of "hardware" based on products and services and "software" based on corporate culture. Excellent corporate culture will play a great role in enhancing the brand image of enterprises. Unique and excellent corporate culture can produce great brand effect. Whether it is a world-famous multinational company, such as Microsoft, Ford, General Electric, Coca-Cola, or a well-known domestic enterprise group, such as Haier and Lenovo, its unique corporate culture has played a huge role in shaping its brand image. Brand value is the accumulation of time and corporate culture.

In philosophy, essence is higher than characteristics. Essence is generally hidden under the appearance of things and has strong stability. It exists with things and runs through the development of things. But the characteristics are different and will change with the development stage of things and the external environment in which things are located. A very important reason why China has made a major breakthrough in reform and opening up in recent years is that Deng Xiaoping, our chief architect of reform and opening up, expounded and clearly put forward the essence of socialism from the aspects of distribution according to work, public ownership and other socialist characteristics, that is, "liberating and developing productive forces, eliminating exploitation, eliminating polarization, and finally achieving prosperity with * * *".

Corporate culture is also a trading tool based on psychological contract behind the above characteristics, which has certain universal significance. Different from naked money transaction and barter transaction, this transaction is based on psychological contract, so it is covered with a veil of "gentleness", dignified, elegant and noble!

Corporate culture is essentially a trading tool because:

1. The relationship between enterprises and employees is essentially a transaction relationship based on interests.

Although it is difficult for many people to accept this view emotionally, in fact, in the market economy environment, under the condition that labor is not a kind of enjoyment for most people, the relationship between enterprises and employees is indeed a trading relationship: enterprises attract and retain employees through salaries and benefits to meet the labor needs derived from their production and operation; Employees exchange their labor for job opportunities in enterprises and the resulting salary, benefits, training and development.

In different historical periods, the content of the transaction between enterprises and employees and the key points of the transaction are different:

The content of the period transaction emphasizes the key points.

Cash labor obedience in the early stage of agricultural economy and industrial economy.

Safety in the Middle and Late Period of Industrial Economy —— Performance Loyalty

Opportunity of Knowledge Economy —— Knowledge Commitment and Cooperation

By extension, even in different enterprises and different development stages of the same enterprise in the same historical period, the content and emphasis of transactions between enterprises and employees are different. This requires us to take correct countermeasures on the basis of fully grasping the relationship between enterprises and employees, change from time to time, improve the situation, reduce the transaction cost of enterprises, enhance the transaction ability of enterprises, thus expanding the boundaries of enterprises and enhancing their competitiveness.

2. Functionally, corporate culture can greatly reduce the transaction cost between enterprises and employees.

To trade, you have to have trading tools, and trading tools will generate transaction costs. Common trading tools include material benefits represented by money, formal contracts represented by contracts and psychological contracts represented by corporate culture. Transaction costs include a wide range, including not only salary, but also negotiation costs, signing costs, supervision and implementation, and so on.

Because the transaction between enterprises and employees is not completed at one time, especially in the era of knowledge economy, it is difficult for us to accurately measure and define the performance and ability of knowledge employees, which determines that the transaction relationship between enterprises and them cannot be completed at one time like "cash on delivery" and "advance order". In this case, if there is no culture based on psychological contract and haggle over every ounce, then there may be two situations, one is that it is impossible for both parties to realize the transaction, and the other is that the endless negotiations between enterprises and employees lead to the incalculable transaction cost. In either case, it is unfavorable to enterprises and employees. The culture based on psychological contract is different (for example, if you work hard, I won't treat you badly. In practice, by doing so, enterprises can sublimate the concerns of both sides from their narrow "interests", thus reducing the transaction cost and making the transaction go smoothly.

In addition to the above reasons, the prevalence of team production mode is also the main reason why the culture based on psychological contract is becoming more and more important in enterprises. An enterprise is an organization composed of many people who provide products and/or services to the society in a team way. Team production has two characteristics: first, the total output of the team is not a simple sum of individual outputs, and second, the specific contribution of team members to team output is difficult to accurately measure. In essence, people pursue the maximization of personal interests, which can be manifested in both income and leisure; Expressed in both material and spiritual aspects. In short, the less you pay, the more you gain and the more you gain. These two characteristics of team production, combined with human nature, will inevitably lead to a big problem: how to ensure that team members are not lazy, or how to motivate employees to work hard in the team? There are many ways. The easiest way to think of is to strengthen supervision and punish whoever is lazy. However, supervision has a cost, and no matter how strong it is, it can't completely solve the problem of laziness. So we should consider other ways, among which culture is undoubtedly very good. A good corporate culture can be taught without words, done without orders, and endured, so as to achieve "the upper and lower people want the same thing" and "can live with it, die with it, and not be afraid of difficulties."

Emphasizing the intangible trading tool of corporate culture does not mean that we can ignore or despise tangible trading tools, such as salary and benefits, development opportunities and so on. On the contrary, we must attach great importance to tangible trading tools. Because the two are interactive and complementary, ignoring either side will have disastrous consequences in practice, which has been and will continue to be proved by many cases. This requires us to make overall consideration in enterprise management, "both hands should be hard", so that the two can promote each other and complement each other, thus making the enterprise healthier and live longer.