​Coca Cola axes CMO role in global restructure

The Coca-Cola Company has axed its CMO role and announced a number of senior leadership appointments as part of a new restructure it says will help drive ongoing transformation.

Global marketing, customer and commercial leadership and strategy roles will now be combined as one function under the leadership of a new chief growth officer to drive growth across five strategic beverage categories.

Francisco Crespo, who currently serves as president of the Mexico business unit, is set to fill the newly created role. A 28-year company veteran, Crespo will lead the company’s global marketing, corporate strategy, and customer and commercial leadership teams to create a consolidated team with a clear mandate for driving global growth.

The company said role will lead the evolving category cluster model focused around five beverage categories: Sparkling, juice, dair, /plant-based, tea and coffee, water and enhanced waters and energy.

Meanwhile Julie Hamilton, chief customer and commercial leadership officer, along with the corporate strategy and planning and global marketing leadership teams, will report to the chief growth officer.

In an effort to drive innovation. Coca Cola has also appointed a new chief innovation officer to elevate global R&D into a standalone innovation function reporting directly to the CEO.

The company stated this move is indicative of an increased focus on accelerating the growth of its consumer-centric brand portfolio, with hundreds of new products and continued innovation in beverages, packaging, ingredients and other areas of the business around the world.

As part of the company’s digitisation strategy as a growth enabler, IT will also be repositioned as a direct report to the CEO. Current Senior VP and CIO, Barry Simpson, will remain in his role but be elevated as a direct report to the CEO to increase visibility and focus on efforts to digitise all aspects of the company’s business. Simpson became CIO last year and oversees all of the company’s global information technology strategy, services and operations.

According to president and COO, James Quincey, the changes support work already under way to create a leaner, more agile corporate organisation focused on innovation and portfolio growth through leading brands and categories. They also follow changes made by Quincey to the company’s international operations leadership team last year.

“Today’s organisational announcement is another building block in our company’s transformational journey,” he said. “We are moving quickly to structure our organisation for faster growth and to ensure we can respond to the fast-changing needs of our consumers, customers, system and associates around the world. Each of the leaders named today is highly capable and understands our clear mandate for change, and I look forward to partnering with them as we transform our business for the future.”

Key changes, which will be effective when Quincey becomes CEO on in May this year.

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