Coca-Cola

"Moutai wine uses only three ingredients: sorghum, wheat, and water. So why has wine brewed from these ingredients become a legend in contemporary product history? This question has three keywords. Complex and rich: Without Moutai, the world would lack a flavor known as “sauce aroma.” From the birth of the first bottle to its finalized form, it took 147 years, a result of continuous relay by several generations. This was not an inevitable process but one filled with all the twists and drama of product creation. Super single product: Moutai is in the first tier of Chinese baijiu, and its single product’s annual revenue exceeds 100 billion yuan. Globally, there are three similar “super single products”: Coca-Cola, Pepsi, and iPhones, but Moutai is very different in product characteristics. Highest market value: This is a company with a product gross margin of 93%, whose market value surpasses all factories, banks, and energy companies in China, making it a maverick in the capital market. Even today, some see it as a “disgrace,” while others consider it a glory."

"What should they name the new company? Charles and Sterling had successfully fused the many companies Fred Koch ran into one firm, but now they needed to name it. Why not call the company Koch Industries? The name would honor Charles’s late father, and it was an easy enough catchall title for a group of businesses that were already very diverse. Charles Koch wasn’t wild about the idea. He seemed embarrassed by the thought of having his last name stamped on the entire company. His name would be embossed on the letterhead, emblazoned on the sign outside the company headquarters, spoken on the lips of everyone who worked for him. There was a vanity about this that seemed at odds with Charles Koch’s nature. But Williams argued in favor of naming the company Koch. In his mind, the benefit of the name was that it was neutral, in the way Exxon was neutral. For many industries, neutrality was the enemy. Companies like Coca-Cola spent millions to ensure that their names weren’t neutral and forgettable. But the oil industry was different because Big Oil was cast as the villain in so many economic stories. For this reason, “Koch” was the perfect moniker for the firm. It was slippery, hard to grasp. Everybody mispronounced it when they read the name, and when they heard the name, they confused it with the much better known soft-drink maker. Koch was the perfect flag to fly for a firm that sought to grow, and grow exponentially, while simultaneously remaining invisible."

"What should they name the new company? Charles and Sterling had successfully fused the many companies Fred Koch ran into one firm, but now they needed to name it. Why not call the company Koch Industries? The name would honor Charles’s late father, and it was an easy enough catchall title for a group of businesses that were already very diverse. Charles Koch wasn’t wild about the idea. He seemed embarrassed by the thought of having his last name stamped on the entire company. His name would be embossed on the letterhead, emblazoned on the sign outside the company headquarters, spoken on the lips of everyone who worked for him. There was a vanity about this that seemed at odds with Charles Koch’s nature. But Williams argued in favor of naming the company Koch. In his mind, the benefit of the name was that it was neutral, in the way Exxon was neutral. For many industries, neutrality was the enemy. Companies like Coca-Cola spent millions to ensure that their names weren’t neutral and forgettable. But the oil industry was different because Big Oil was cast as the villain in so many economic stories. For this reason, “Koch” was the perfect moniker for the firm. It was slippery, hard to grasp. Everybody mispronounced it when they read the name, and when they heard the name, they confused it with the much better known soft-drink maker. Koch was the perfect flag to fly for a firm that sought to grow, and grow exponentially, while simultaneously remaining invisible."

"Tim Cook had once described inventory as “fundamentally evil,” likening electronics to dairy products that might spoil. Another time he said, “I’d prefer to be able to talk inventories in terms of hours, not days.” The results showed this was not a mere aspiration. Apple had 2.5 times better inventory turns than Nokia or Tesco, a grocer lauded for its efficiency, and it was 12 times better than Coca-Cola."

"Coca-Cola was the first one to sign on with us. They liked the idea of having an alternative to the big-three networks, and they liked our spunk. It was their initial order that got other advertisers to give us a shot long before we started airing anything. Don Keough, president of Coca-Cola, called me up a few months after we went on the air and said, “Look, I’m your biggest supporter and we’ll stay with you until you figure things out, but you’ve got to stop running our spots. Because of your low ratings, it’s embarrassing to see so many of them. So forget the guarantees—just stop running our spots so often.”"

"Looking back on those golden years at Paramount, when practically everything we touched succeeded, I wasn’t able to enjoy it as a whole, to live in it rather than just plow through it. Living in the moment, whether high or low, has always been hard for me. I didn’t comprehend how we’d changed the entire movie business, or our effect on the culture of the mid-1970s through the mid-1980s. In each of those seven years where we were number one in both movies and television, I was constantly worrying, never fully appreciating just how remarkable an organization we’d become. Robert Woodruff, who controlled Coca-Cola during its great post–World War II growth, said “the world belongs to the discontented.” To me that’s the greatest single explanation for those who succeed greatly, but it isn’t exactly the definition of a happily contented human."

"after we’d become a big success and were overdelivering everywhere, I called Keough to say that another company had made a commitment for the next season and would replace Coca-Cola as our biggest advertiser, and I just thought he should know. In an instant he responded, “Let’s be clear: We *are* your biggest advertiser and will remain so. Just tell us the number that gets us there and that’ll be that.” This became a rule of the house between Coca-Cola and Fox, lasting for the next six years. Some ten years later, I joined the board of directors of Coca-Cola, and I’ve been serving now for twenty-three years"

"First, he invented in the sixties a new mode of economic development by doing exactly the opposite of all other member countries, like Singapore, of the non-aligned movement. These countries were taking protective measures against multinationals, considered as “supporters of Western imperialism.” For example, India not only shut the door to Coca-Cola but also to IBM, which delayed the development of the Indian software industry."

"annual reports for his major holdings, including Coca-Cola, Capital Cities/ABC, American Express, and Gillette."

"Jonathan Brandt when I noticed that Don Keough was standing nearby. Keough is a renowned business leader who has served on the boards of companies like Berkshire, Coca-Cola, and McDonald’s."