Generate creative business ideas

The Coca-Cola Company also staffs its employees in a manner that would allow me to grow in my profession. For example, it ensures that each department has professionals of different academic disciplines such as finance and technology (Coca-Cola Company 2015). Thus, it would be possible for me to learn various skills from such people. Besides, marketing requires market multiples analysis that ranges from customer requirements to financial capabilities of the company (Berthon et al. 2012). Finally, this company has training opportunities for graduates that would help me to gain more knowledge in my profession.

Looking at the organization’s goal and objectives, I should acknowledge that it portrays a high degree of compatibility with my career goals. A point to note is that I seek to make a positive impact on organizations by meeting the set expectations (Berthon et al. 2012). Moreover, the company would rely on a marketer's skills and values to reach its potential clients. Coca-Cola values its customers and focuses on the ways of capturing them (Berthon et al. 2012). Besides, the company nurtures values that include integrity and accountability that I also aim to attain. Therefore, it is an enterprise that fits my skills, values, and career aspirations.

Leader Profile

Anne Mulcahy is a great leader whose style I admire and hold in high regard. Her career began after she graduated with a BA in Journalism and English from Marymount College and joined Xerox Corp. in 1976 (Feng & Enomoto 2013). She started as a sales representative and rose through ranks. Between 1992 and 1995, she was the vice president of HR. In her position, she was in charge of compensation, formulation of HR strategies, labor relations, and employee training. She became the chief staff officer in 1997, and 1998 she was made a corporate senior vice president (Feng & Enomoto 2013). Additionally, she served as a staff operations officer where she was in charge of various regions in America, Asia, Europe, and Africa.

Later on in 2001, Mulcahy was appointed by the board of directors to be the CEO of Xerox Corp. Her leadership marked tremendous financial progress despite the company having difficult times. In fact, most corporate analysts expected the board to declare the company bankruptcy (Feng & Enomoto 2013). However, the performance improved, and the company was stable at the period of her retirement as the CEO in 2009. Currently, she serves as board member of Xerox and other corporate firms that include Catalyst, Citigroup, and Target Corp. Her high moment was when she successfully managed to reduce the expenses of Xerox by 50% and ensured that the company started to make profits (Feng & Enomoto 2013). However, her low moment was when she had to persuade the management and workers to embrace change but received only minimal support.

Mulcahy is a successful figure in the field of management because of her achievements and focused leadership style. Despite having no specialized training in financial management, she accepted the position of CEO and did better than her predecessors who had financial training (Ciulla 2005). Xerox was on the verge of collapsing, but she had hopes that motivated her to adopt the short-term healing policies. For example, she had to cut down on expenditures to generate more profits for the company. When she assumed the position, the organization had been making losses for the past six consecutive years (Xerox Company 2003). However, the trend changed as the business started to make profits and reduced the number of the long due debtors.

Mulcahy’s leadership style was also stunning. She advocated for supportive leadership from her executive managers whom she always sought ideas from for the improvement of the company’s performance. Besides, she encouraged innovation through constant research and development. Innovation was critical to her role as she believed that customers deserved improved services and products (Ciulla 2005). In fact, her leadership skills enabled her to be patient and show tranquility during financial difficulties. She also demonstrated confidence from the first day in the office as the CEO when the stock prices just dropped by 15% (Xerox Company 2003). But for her, it was only a motivator to work harder.

Mulcahy also influenced the entire community through inspirational leadership and confidence that showed her progress despite the limited management experience. She opted to undertake ongoing trainings given that she only had eight years’ experience in management and not in working as a CEO (Hitt, Ireland & Hoskisson 2011). Her progress also enabled the organization to take part in the corporate social activities such as the environmental care that was vital to the community’s wellbeing (McMurrian & Matulich 2011). She also had a right balance work-life; apart from being in the office, she created time to meet and share with other corporate leaders across various regions. She also found time to give public lectures on management to students.

Learning about Anne Mulcahy is essential to my future career planning in many ways. As a marketing professional, I would have to face situations where I will have to make decisions. They might relate to the methods on how to present my company’s products to ensure that the customers buy them (McMurrian & Matulich 2011). Therefore, I might employ some of the tactics that Mulcahy used to get Xerox’s customers back and win even more. I would use her leadership profile as a motivator to focus on my professional path and utilize every opportunity in providing quality leadership.

References

Berthon, PR, Pitt, LF, Plangger, K & Shapiro, D 2012, ‘Marketing meets Web 2.0, social media, and creative consumers: Implications for international marketing strategy’. Business Horizons, vol. 55, no. 3, pp. 261-271.

Ciulla, JB 2005, ‘Integrating leadership with ethics: Is good leadership contrary to human nature’. Handbook on Responsible Leadership and Governance in Global Business, pp. 159-179.

Coca-Cola Company 2015, Our company: Mission, vision & values. Available from: <http://www.coca-colacompany.com/our-company/mission-vision-values>. [29 June 2015].

Cox, V 2006, ‘Marketing education: Constructing the future’. Marketing Intelligence & Planning, vol. 24 no. 3, pp. 189-296.

Feng, Y & Enomoto, C 2013, ‘Did fortune 500 companies with female CEOs lay off fewer workers in the great recession?’ Leadership & Organizational Management Journal, vol. 2013, no. 2, pp. 1-17.

Goodman, J 2006, Vault career guide to marketing & brand management. Vault, Inc., New York.

Hitt, MA, Ireland, RD & Hoskisson, RE 2011, Strategic management: competitiveness & globalization, 10th edn. South-Western Cengage Learning, Mason.

McMurrian, RC & Matulich, E 2011, ‘Building customer value and profitability with business ethics’. Journal of Business & Economics Research (JBER). vol, 4, no. 11, pp. 11-18.

Weber, L & Henderson, LL 2014, The digital marketer ten new skills you must learn to stay relevant and customer-centric. Wiley, Hoboken.

Xerox Company 2003. Annual Report 2002. Available from: <http://www.xerox.com/downloads/usa/en/i/ir_annualreport2002.pdf>. [29 June 2015].