Making Your Business Sustainable with James Quincey - Ep5 | The Inflection Point | Salesforce

I'm a huge fan of Coca Cola.

Like most people, everyone knows Coca Cola.

In law school, I survived on tab from early in the morning until after midnight when Diet Coke was introduced. It changed my life and became my drink of choice.

Coke's purpose is very simple. It's to refresh the world and make a difference.

But I promise the reason I invited today's guest is not because I'm a Coca Cola fan. It's because he is such an inspiring leader.

You can't have a healthy, a prosperous business if the society that you're operating in is not also healthy and prosperous.

He believes in empowering people, acting with purpose and taking care of the planet.

We need to collect back a bottle or can for every bottle or can we sell.

Today, we're bringing James Quincy to the inflection point. Hello, James. It's so great to have you here as the CEO of one of my very favorite brands of all time. Welcome to the inflection point.

Nice to be here.

And I notice you have lots of Coke memorabilia behind you. So you've got to tell me a little bit about that before we get started.

Well, you know, the great thing about the Coke business is not just the drinks, but there's lots of memorabilia, collects. So you see bottles from all around the world mixed in amongst all the books and things. So I have a lot of Coke countries under my belt.

Tell me, is there one or two behind you that are. That means a lot to you that you got in a particular country? Because I know you've been all over the world for Coca Cola.

Yeah, I'm getting up towards 100 countries having visited and each one's special for different reasons. They're all done with love in the countries and sometimes put a lot of effort into coming up with a unique design. And they're all unique and I love them all.

You can't pick one. It's like your children. You can't say one is your favorite. Okay, got it. Now, the name of this show is the Inflection Point. And the reason for that is because I think in all of our lives there's been some moment when everything changed for us and that has affected us for the rest of our lives. Can you tell us, James, when was that moment for you?

You know, I think there have been some big inflection me, whether it was personal things when my dad died when I was very young, I'm still in my 20s, or you have career inflection points. But in a way, I was thinking about this question that you Posed. What's the big inflection point? And actually, I think for me it's really life is about a series of choices and having to make those decisions on imperfect information or imperfect feelings about an uncertain future. And we all face inflection points as we go along of bigger or smaller nature. Sometimes they're existential, but for many of us, every year we face important decisions. And really being able to ground and think through what you do in an inflection point is very important for everyone.

And I know the death of your father was a big one because at that point you said you were more like all focused on yourself, which I know kids are. I have a 22 year old daughter. But as you talk about these inflection points are really more frequent for us with you. How do you face those?

What I think is becoming increasingly clear to me is the importance of the fundamentals, whether they be the values. It would be more of a personal question or the fundamentals of economics if it's more of a kind of a financial business question. The thing that becomes clear in the inflection point is the core question, the core issue, the core solution. Our lives are filled with so much clutter. The thing that most characterizes the inflection point is an importance of getting to the core.

That's really profound. I think I need to take your advice. Let's start about your growing up. Okay, so you grew up in New Hampshire and also in England. And then you studied engineering. But along the way you decided, I don't want to be an engineer, I'm going to go in another direction.

Yeah, I mean, wind the clock back. I went to study electronic engineering at the beginning of the 80s and I think rightly I had the feeling that electronics was the future. And so it has been. Unfortunately, I discovered that there were other people, many other people that were much better at it and much more interested in the nuts and bolts of making stuff than I was. I discovered a passion in the biggest strategic issues in business. I very much pivoted away from electronics and went into a different career because in the end, you know, it's very difficult to get out of bed every day if you don't love what you're doing. Of course there are consequences of monetary and time and all those things with the choices you make. But doing something you really find a passion with I think is very important.

I agree. You don't want to feel like it's work every day. You really want to love what you do. I agree with that now. And speaking of Your work, you've been at Coca Cola for more than two decades and you were out in the field a lot. You were in Latin America. You ran operations in Europe and Mexico. How has that shaped you as a leader, as a CEO?

You know, I think anyone who's going to be the CEO really benefits from knowing how an operation works at the front end. And so, you know, in my case, at Coke, really understanding what happened on the front line in many countries around the world was invaluable to be able to form a view of what did we need to do as a corporation and made it much easier to come in and have a clear agenda as CEO and hit the ground running.

Well, one of the things I think I've read that you've said about your leadership style is you really want to listen to your consumers. And you also have said you want to take risk. The mentality of, let's not be too cautious, you know, so are those some hallmarks of your leadership style?

You know, one of the reasons I said that is the more you come in and lead a long running, long standing, successful enterprise, the more the risk around you is that, you know, people say, well, this is how we do it here, because this is what's worked in the past. And the reality is it may well be those are the reasons it worked in the past. We have to reinvent ourselves each generation to make ourselves relevant for the next generation. And the more successful you are, the more you've been successful for a long time, the greater the risk of the organization erring towards the status quo. And that's why we have to push not just risk for real estate, but risk so that we remain relevant for the next generation and relevant for the future.

It must be a huge responsibility being a global brand that, that everyone on the planet practically has heard of and that almost as many people have tasted the product. Is that awe inspiring to you? Is it a burden? How do you feel about that?

Of course, like many things in life, it's an advantage and a disadvantage. Everyone knows Coca Cola. There's no mystery as to what business you're in and your brand. And everyone has a point of view, but all the disadvantages. Perhaps they think they know everything about the company and its brands. And it's very difficult even for the CEO to have all that information. And so it is a great responsibility leading such a storied enterprise into the future. But I wouldn't have taken it if I didn't want to embark on that journey of leaving it better for the next generation. I think that's what every CEO ultimately aspires to, which is taking hold of a company and leaving it in better shape with better managers and better leaders for the next generation.

Well, and you specifically are focused on leading better for the next generation, because we're talking about all these beverages around the world, and most of them are served in plastic bottles or aluminum cans. Tell me what Coca Cola is doing, focusing on this issue about packaging, because this goes to the heart of what you're talking about, leading better for the next generation.

Business and sustainability are not two different things and two parallel tracks. Sustainability needs to be intimately integrated into the business strategy. And so as we try and engage consumers to sell more beverages, how are we going to make sure that the footprint that we leave as we provide those drinks is as small as it can be? And so one of the programs we have, particularly for bottles and cans, is what we call a world without waste. And really, it's about creating a circular economy for the plastic bottles and the aluminium cans, because those packages, unlike many other forms of waste, actually have inherent value. The premise of the circular economy ultimately is we need to collect back a bottle or can for every bottle or can we sell. It needs to be made in such a way that it can be introduced into the recycling system, and then we need to use that recyclable material, whether it be the plastic or the aluminum, to remake a new bottle or can. But it's worth noting that there are already some countries in the world where 100% of the bottles we sell are made from 100% recycled plastic. So this idea of a fully circular economy is not some utopian idea into the future. It's something that's already true, and it's about expanding it and driving it to cover the entire world.

It's clear you are motivated with a big sense of purpose. And I went on your website, which I love your website, and your sense of purpose is right there. What is Coke's purpose and what does it mean to you as its leader?

Coke's purpose is very simple. It's to refresh the world and make a difference. It both. It both talks about the business value that we aim to create, but how that is really a part of a greater shared value and societal value that we create through the Coca Cola business. And so it is a way of describing where we've come from and the heritage and success and what will propel us into the future by refreshing consumers with ever beverage or product they want, but also integrating many other factors and why we call it making a difference.

You say, you know, we want to refresh embody and spirit. And at first I'm like, really embodying spirit. But then I'm like, you know, when I was in law school and it was one o' clock in the morning in the law library, I would go get my tab because I'm that old, I would drink the tab. Diet Coke had come out and it didn't make me feel so much better in spirit that I could study one more hour. So I think you do refresh in body and spirit. Thank you for that. Now, continuing on your purpose, you have also had a mandate at Coke. You say business leaders should shape an economy that works for everyone. And it's a social contract. What do you mean by that? What is your social contract?

The social contract in its simplest sense is that is the idea that you can't have a healthy and prosperous business if the society that you're operating in is not also healthy and prosperous. And so we have to stand back as an enterprise and say, okay, what does that mean for us? And very clearly you start with the things that are most central to your business, the very business we're in. So what's our role in making sure that we replenish all water we use? What's our role in making sure consumers can enjoy our products without there being the external cost to the environment? All the way over to other things like female empowerment. You know, we have a great role in many developing markets.

One of your initiatives is the 5 by 20, which is about female entrepreneurs around the world. Tell us a tad about that because that is really interesting because it goes to your whole supply chain.

The 5 by 20 program, it started back in 2010. The idea was to empower or help empower 5 million female entrepreneurs in our global value chain by 2020. And it started from the very simple idea that empowering women has a big economic ripple effect. As women take greater roles in the economy and society, those countries also tend to be less, less violent and less volatile. With 5x20, we've managed to reach 6 million women empowered in over 90 countries. Helping them set up their businesses, whether that be by providing business skills training, access to financial services and assets, connection with peers and marketplaces, or business opportunities in our supply chain. And it help bring economic life to societies.

That's a really great program because it can have such a huge impact on the women and the society. Where do you think, James, you could do a better job? I mean, you've got so many big plans here and you are also succeeding with many of those plans. We where could you do a better job?

Even one can always do better. One of the things I often say to people is it's not a perfect world and it's not full of perfect people. And we should always aspire to continue to improve, whether it's individuals or as a corporation.

When you became CEO and now that you've been CEO for several years, are there some things that now you wish you could have done differently or more quickly? Yeah.

You know, when you become CEO, people have a deep library of truisms that they share with you. And what's amazing is, of course, how true they are. And it's those decisions you knew in your gut, you had the intuition, oh, no, this we've got to get on. And yet things happen. The slings and arrows of fortune came in and you have to solve other things and put attention in other places. And it took time to come back to the issue. Whether it's launching a product and it's a year later or two years later than when you realize it was needed, there are always these loans. And so we've got to keep pushing for speed.

Okay, now let's talk about the world post Covid, which we hope now with the vaccines, we can start being optimistic and go there. Whether companies want to work from anywhere, whether they all want to rush back to the offices or they do some kind of hybrid, businesses clearly are saying they want to return to growth because last year was a tough year. What is your mentality for growth? Because I have seen you talk about a growth mindset. What is that?

Yeah, clearly everyone wants to get back to growth post Covid, and I think a growth mindset is very much about, you know, being attuned to the possibilities of growth, because there are always possibilities for growth, even in the most complicated times. And in a way, it's another way of saying consumer centricity, which is to say we've got to stay curious about the outside world. The market is not internal. The market is outside. Consumers are outside. Curiosity is not enough. That's an intellectual exercise. That's a discovery exercise. You then got to feel empowered to actually do something about it. You've got to make sure they can learn from what we've done before, whether they be successes or failures, and they can include other people. It's very rare that one person wakes up in the morning with a perfect idea. They need to bring in the thinking and skills and capabilities of people, and then it's be agile. There's no point Perfecting the perfect plan and then the moment has passed and someone else succeeds the day. The world is moving at a faster pace than it did 10 or 20 years ago.

So those are four components that you look for. Curious, empowered, inclusive, agile. That's your growth mindset.

Correct.

Now, having the CEO of Coca Cola here today, I have to ask, which of your 3800 beverages is your favorite?

Well, I'm an Omni consumer and my favorite drink is entirely occasion dependent depending on where I am in the world. It's a chill juice. So it's, you know, it's in the uk, it's innocent. If it's in the us it's simply then I'm consuming Diet Cokes and Coke Zeros and Cokes and Smart waters, which is actually what consumers do. They drink a portfolio of drinks, even if they have one that they love. It's typically they love it for that occasion and then they round out the day with other drinks.

That's really true, isn't it? So it's a good thing you're trying all your drinks because all the consumers are doing that.

Yeah, in the end I always go back to Coke, but that's what I grew up with.

Same. Now, do you empower your teams to make the final decisions on a product or do you have the last word? I must taste this product before it goes to market and make sure I love it.

I empower my team. I mean, who is going to let the colorblind guy make the final decision on the graphics for a product?

No one.

So no, you have to choose the best people. Whether it's graphics, ads, product taste, product design, choose the best people. If the number of decisions in the company is just limited to the ones I make, even If I work 24 hours a day, seven days a week, there's only so many decisions I can make. Like if I can get thousands or tens of thousands of people to make decisions, think how much more gets done. Empowerment to me is a self evident necessity.

One thing that I watched of you is on your commencement speech that you gave at Georgia Tech and you spoke to engineering PhDs, so I expected you to be talking extolling the virtues of getting an engineering degree. And what did you talk about, James? Love that, like hit me like a ton of bricks. So briefly, can you tell us the three parts of love that you talked about which was really instructive to all those engineering students there?

Yeah, I think you might be one of the few people who wasn't there that's actually gone and looked at it. You gotta, in a way, love yourself. Not the naive, narcissistic version, but the self awareness of who you are and what you want to be. And that's super important. And then you've got to really think about what you want to do. What is it that you love, what is it that you want to go and be? And then the people around you, the love for people around you. And if you can really understand yourself, understand where you want to get to, and really understand the people around you, you can create tremendous things.

I just thought that was amazing. To hear the CEO of Coca Cola tell a bunch of engineers, think about three areas of love, love of yourself, of your vocation, and of others.

I'm not sure I just did justice to, to the speech.

It was really great. It was at Georgia Tech. It was wonderful. The rambling wreck of Georgia Tech. Okay, now let's conclude on this. Coca Cola is about to celebrate its 135th year. So this is a major milestone. You've been around forever. What lessons can Coca Cola teach us from your 135 years?

You know, in a way, people see Coke as this authentic brand that has always, always been there. And yet actually, Coke reinvents itself as a brand for each generation. Because most brands get trapped in the kind of the business school idea of a lifestyle of product. You start, you grow, you plateau, and you die. And yet here is Coke still going 135 years later. And so one of the important lessons is the necessity to keep being relevant, not just for the consumers from yesterday, but the consumers of tomorrow. All these components of the business vision, the purpose, the strategies, the culture, values, they all have to work in coherence to drive the business into the future and into an enduring connection with each generation of consumers.

Well, we know that as CEO, you're gonna continue giving a bright future for Coca Cola. Thank you so much for sharing it with us today.

You're welcome. It was a pleasure. Thank you. Great to meet you, if only virtually. Good luck with the series.

Thank you so much. Next time on the Inflection Point, I'll talk with Anil Boucherie, CEO of Workday. Was the hostile takeover really hostile?

I would say it was hostile with.

A capital H. How can you be both an introvert and an optimist? In Silicon Valley, there's no way to.

Start a company without optimism. And Winston Churchill had a great quote. I choose to be an optimist because the other choice is not very good.

You have said a corporation should have a soul.

The world's going through a really challenging time with COVID with layoffs, with social and racial justice issues. And so corporations need to have a soul.