Darko Milosevic, Università Lum Jean Monnet, Bari, Italy (Dr.rer.nat./Dr.oec.): Coca-Cola Global Diversity Mission

The Coca-Cola Company's global diversity mission is to mirror the rich diversity of the marketplace we serve and be recognized for our leadership in Diversity, Inclusion and Fairness in all aspects of our business, including Workplace, Marketplace, Supplier and Community, enhancing the Company’s social license to operate.

Diversity is at the heart of our business. We strive to create a work environment that provides all our associates equal access to information, development and opportunity. By building an inclusive workplace environment, we seek to leverage our global team of associates, which is rich in diverse people, talent and ideas. We see diversity as more than just policies and practices. It is an integral part of who we are as a company, how we operate and how we see our future.

As a global business, our ability to understand, embrace and operate in a multicultural world -- both in the marketplace and in the workplace -- is critical to our long-term sustainability and, specifically, impacts our ability to meet our 2020 Vision People goals. Many people across the company continue to work diligently to help us advance in our diversity journey and build our practices on diversity, inclusion and fairness. We also include our associates in the process. We garner their feedback through formal surveys and informally through their participation in our business resource groups, various diversity education programs and our Resolution Resources Program, where associates can work to resolve issues they face in our Company.

Our Workforce

The Coca-Cola Company and our largest U.S. bottler, Coca-Cola Enterprises (CCE), took actions to strategically advance our partnership in October 2010 when The Coca-ColaCompany acquired CCE‘s entire North American business.

Subsequently, the sales and operational elements of CCE’s North American businesses and the vast majority of The Coca-Cola Company’s U.S. and Canada businesses were folded into our North America Group, which is responsible for manufacturing, selling and distributing our products.

As a result, the data shown here reflects the combined Corporate/NAG view (U.S. total workforce), our U.S. Corporate structure, and the new North America Group (NAG) structure.