Beyond Performance 2.0, 2nd Edition

Chapter 1Performance and Health

When Neville Isdell took over as CEO of the Coca-Cola Company (TCCC), it was during troubled times. In his words, “These were dark days. Coke was losing market share. Nothing, it seemed—even thousands of layoffs—had been enough to get the company back on track.”¹ TCCC’s total return to shareholders stood at negative 26 percent, while its great rival PepsiCo delivered a handsome 46 percent return.

Isdell was the former vice chairman of the Coca-Cola Hellenic Bottling Company, then the world’s second-largest bottler, and had enjoyed a long and successful career in the industry. Since retiring from that role, he had been living in Barbados, doing consulting work, and heading his own investment company. However, the opportunity to lead the transformation of one of the world’s most iconic companies was a powerful lure. Isdell was clear-eyed about the challenge ahead as he recognized, “There were so many problems at Coke, a turnaround was risky, at best.”² For the former rugby player, however, the game was on. He was soon installed in the executive suite at headquarters in Atlanta.

Isdell had a clear sense of what needed to be done. The company had to capture the full potential of the trademark Coca-Cola brand, grow other core brands in the noncarbonated soft drinks market, develop wellness platforms, and create adjacent businesses. These weren’t particularly new ideas, however, and each of his predecessors had failed to make change happen at scale. ...