preview

Douglas Ivester Case Study Essay

Decent Essays

Case Study
Coca-Cola and CEO Douglas Ivester
And
BP and CEO Tony Hayward

1. If Douglas Ivester was so successful, for years, on the executive staff, why did he fail when he was given the CEO/president position? Give an overall impression, broad stroke explanation of why he failed. Ivester was a hardworking, diligent CEO, but he lost sight of the people side of Coca-Cola. In any business people are a very important aspect that needs to be nurtured because without them the business is nothing but a name. Ivester’s predecessor, Robert Goizueta, had a “management mantra -- this is a people-relations business” (Knoop, 11). Ivester seemed to forget that mantra and took over the company selfishly.

2. List the key situational …show more content…

From an emotional intelligence perspective I think Douglas Ivester had more failing then successes. Ivester had a high I.Q. but lacked emotional intelligence (E.I.). He failed by not have very good social skills. This was shown by how he dealt with the bottlers of Coca-Cola. He wanted power over them instead of building relationships. Also, he failed by not having empathy for others. His lack of empathy was shown by the contamination scare in Belgium. At the time of the scare many people were dealing with the past scare of Mad Cow Disease in 1994. The Coke contamination made everyone’s emotions heighten. Ivester should have responded more quickly to the situation and with more empathy for the people who were experiencing it first hand. His one success was motivation. Ivester was highly motivated and he seemed to push through all of his setbacks although it seemed he didn’t learn any lessons from his mistakes.
7. What type of leadership approach did Ivester take when he was part of Coke’s executive staff? During the year of being part of Coke’s executive staff Ivester was more of manager instead of a leader. Ivester was able to work up the corporate ladder at Coca-Cola. He became a finance wizard and for twenty-years he was proving himself to the company. He was very competitive at what he did and he was a genius at managing operations.
8. What type of leadership approach did he take once he became CEO? Ivester’s

Get Access