Coca-Cola: Goizueta’s Changes

By the time the Cuban expatriate Roberto Goizueta took over as chief executive officer in 1981, Coca-Cola was widely perceived as a sleeping giant, a conservative company living largely on its past accomplishments. Pepsi was making inroads. Goizueta announced that there would be no sacred cows, no sacred formulas. For the first time, the company took on debt. Goizueta violated tradition by having the company assume equity positions in bottlers around the world; approving the introduction of Diet Coke, with its previously forbidden use of the main drink’s name; and, finally, in 1985, daring to change the formula of Coca-Cola itself. New Coke turned out to be a disaster, but even that blunder worked out well in the end, when the market share of the reintroduced Coca-Cola Classic increased.