Thing Bigger

THING BIGGER

LEARN FROM BIG COMPANIES

Thing Bigger

Copyright © 2023 by Patrick Hanna

All rights reserved.

Book 1 of series ‘Learn From Big Companies’

TABLE OF CONTENTS

COCA-COLA AND TALKING NUMBERS

RED OBSESSION

CHAPTER 1. STIRRING

CHAPTER 2. DOPE

CHAPTER 3. DOBBS

CHAPTER 4. CONTROLLING ANGER

COCA-COLA AND TALKING NUMBERS

About 98 percent of the world's population is familiar with the brand.

• Being at the top of the world's top brands for ten years in a row.

• If all of the Coca-Cola bottles ever made were piled one on top of the other in a straight column, it would stretch from the earth to the moon and back 1,323 times.

• If all of the Coca-Cola produced thus far is replaced with natural water flowing over Niagara Falls at the typical rate of 5,670,000 liters per second, the falls will flow for 38 hours 46 minutes before stopping.

• Approximately 10450 Coca-Cola soft drinks are drunk per second.

The data above demonstrate that the Coca-Cola brand has earned a respectable standing in the eyes of consumers. However, the achievement of that undulating brown water is the result of a protracted period of unwavering efforts. Frederick Allen's Secret Formula, a compilation of colorful and realistic video, may be regarded the most full and thorough film about Coca-Cola, with numerous events and individuals that make up the universe. Today, the Coca-Cola brand is valued in the tens of billions of dollars. Readers will be accompanied by pharmacist Pemberton groping in a dark room amidst strewn bottles of mixing brown water; with Asa Candler, we turned Coca-Cola from a drink to a famous soft drink; with Robert Woodruff, we take Coca-Cola beyond the United States' borders and begin building a global brand, and so on. We not only discover the secret recipe that creates a fresh new step by step in this quest. Not only did he uncover a top-secret formula for marketing and promoting goods to build a brand with lasting vitality that has become a symbol of American consumer culture, but he also found a top-secret recipe for marketing and promoting products to create a brand with enduring vitality. Coca-Cola is still the same, a basic drink composed of sugar and water, says author Frederick Allen in the book, but it's also a dominating brand in the market., has the potential to conjure memories, stir up the spirit, and impact people's emotions. Coca-Cola is no longer merely a brand name; it has evolved into something internal, spiritual, and has become a symbol of American civilisation. The top-secret formula will transport you back in time to uncover the source of that dominance.

RED OBSESSION

The renowned figure of the Coca-Cola Group in Paris, Alexander Makinsky, swiftly fell into decay.

The French government threatened to restrict the sale of Coca-Cola, America's top carbonated soft drink business, in the winter of 1950. Makinsky, a Russian nobleman renowned for his remarkable magnetism and devious schemes, is tasked with safeguarding the corporation. Makinsky was born in Persia in 1900 and grew up in the Caspian Sea city of Baku, Azacbaizan. He was reared by an elderly English nanny, and as a consequence, he spoke the language well. Makinsky received his education in Moscow and Paris. Alex Makinsky is a difficult individual to work with because of his upbringing. Prior to WWII, he served as a political spy for the Rockefeller Foundation in France, Portugal, and the United States, revealing his strong links to US intelligence. During WWII, he assisted scientists in escaping German control and fleeing to Europe through an underground tunnel via Lisbon, Portugal's capital.

Makinsky asked his guests at a dinner party in his Paris flat in 1946 whether they thought he was gay.

should accept an offer to become the Coca-Cola Group's top international lobbyist. I was the only one who said 'No,' he later laughs, so I accepted the job.

Makinsky started traveling with the Coca-Cola Company to hotspots in Europe, the Middle East, and South America. Makinsky is the epitome of an elegant, seasoned man, as acquainted with diplomatic procedure as a suit, with his well-manicured mustache, fitted clothes, and thick-rimmed spectacles. Makinsky takes pleasure in his intimate relationships with world leaders. Several of them are his acquaintances. Makinsky sat down to assess the charges in the luxurious bar behind the Ritz hotel across Rue Cambon from the Coca-Cola representative office in Paris, with a long cigar between his lips and a glass of champagne in his hand. The focus of attention is always on the intent.

When confronted with a certain regime, Makinsky is usually unafraid. But that's an other story. In order to drive Coca-Cola out of the French market, a peculiar coalition of communists, winemakers, and progressive intellectuals forms. Makinsky shuddered as a result of their onslaught. The issue isn't with the Coca-Cola beverage itself. Until far, the firm has only sold a few hundred cases each year across France. Even the ordinary Frenchman, who has grown up on Anisette, strong coffee, and Gitanes tobacco, has never had a cup of cola.

Coca-concept Cola's was at the root of the problem. Coke has been the focal point of a wave of anti-American rallies sweeping Europe, particularly France, because to its well-known red sign and patriotic image. Makinsky is worried that Coke poses a danger to not just our rivals, but also the great majority of people who do not want to be Americanized, as well as anybody who says that their advertising represents a Americanized Europe," according to Makinsky.

Five French government departments started examining the Coca-Cola Group in early February 1950. The situation got more severe when the customs officials chose to suspend Coca-import Cola's license, and the police prosecuted Coca-makers Cola's and bottlers in Paris and Algiers with fraud. Worse, the secret police started spying on Makinsy and his closest aides. The French Interior Ministry started a case to seek them down, and there is enough evidence to show that someone installed an eavesdropping device and intercepted the company's conversations. Pierre Gide, one of the company's Parisian attorneys, was so terrified that he assumed an alias whenever he phoned the business.

Alfredo Schvab, Makinsky's number two assistant, is particularly terrifying. He got a phone call from his wife one afternoon while working at the workplace. Someone posing as Schvab had already phoned the principal of the school where their 10-year-old daughter, Isabelle, attends and requested permission to pick her up after class. The headmistress was suspicious, so she directed Isabelle to lie behind a curtain near the window and watch the guy drive up. That's not my father! said the small girl. As a result, Schvab hurried to the school while the headmistress and another teacher sheltered Isabelle inside. When he arrived, he saw a sedan driving backwards. He took down the license plate number and reported it. He was informed by a police officer that it was a rioter's false number plate.

In the face of such circumstances, Makinsky, who was typically upbeat, had to notify Coca-high Cola's management that the business was in risk of losing. in France.

Pope Brock was analyzing more dismal news from overseas on the afternoon of Friday, October 2, 1950, in Atlanta, Georgia.

Brock, now 61 and with gray hair, was Coca-lead Cola's counsel and was tasked with selecting the company's next course of action. He realized that failing in France would jeopardize the company's plans to become a worldwide player. Coke extended its presence to 76 nations in the years after World War II, but its position in most of these markets is still precarious. The company's activities, in instance, are still in their infancy in several areas.

According to Brock, fewer than a quarter of the company's $230 million in sales came from outside the United States the previous year. In the foreign market, profits were barely $3 million. Coke was faced with furious hostility by makers of beer, wine, fruit juices, mineral waters, and other soft drinks all across the globe. Every area seems to have its own beverage industry, with affluent producers who are well-connected with the government and who often cause Coke problems in court and with other authorities. If the French privileged group succeeds in imposing an embargo on Coca-Cola, the company's domino board will come crashing down. For a whole generation, the European market might be gone.

The potential crisis in France alarmed the Coca-Cola Export Department's senior executives. When they made warning statements and suggested that continuing with the company's actions would be a severe error, Brock was enraged.

Brock's Export Department, like so many others on Atlanta's Plum Street (Coca-headquarters), Cola's was a stand-alone business. After relocating to the congested Manhattan region, the export employees started to modify their daily habits and bragged that they were more informed than the rural. Brock disliked bourgeois people since he was raised in poverty in the little Georgia hamlet of Avalon and had to labor to pay for his education. And he had a lot of contempt for his coworkers. Jim Curtis, the Head of Exports, was someone he despised. Curtis rapidly acclimated to the frenetic life of the upper class in Manhattan, despite the fact that he was a fellow countryman with Brock. Brock is aware of the worst-case situations that may occur in France, but now is not the time to worry or defend himself. It's time to make some big choices.

Brock's disheveled look, spectacles, and loud voice belied a powerful, confrontational mentality that had reached its pinnacle by this point. He determined that now was the moment to flip the game on its head, to remove the protective clothing, and to put this matter to a conclusion: take it all or lose it.

Brock made many phone calls to Coke officials in New York and Paris on that Friday afternoon and the next Saturday morning. Brock explained how he persuaded Curtis and Roy Jones, the Export Department's two chiefs, in a statement: (I) highlighted to each of them how vital it is to provide your best effort. win the current struggle in France. The smartest thing to do in a conflict, Brock told them, is to employ all available resources."

Brock's new plan includes more than just rough words. He sent a group of colleagues to Paris with Stephen Ladas, a Greek-born lawyer who had attended Harvard and now worked for Coke's Export Department. Makinsky's old diplomatic approaches are no longer effective. Perhaps now is the time to take more straightforward and straightforward acts. Brock gave Ladas specific written instructions, allowing him to spend as much money as he wished to recruit as many arms as he needed to reverse the tide. Ladas gets a week to arrange his journey and decide on his objectives. We'll probably have to employ 10 or more important scientists, Brock wrote to Ladas, and maybe (one of our attorneys) will have to work with one or three other lawyers. Or maybe we need to hire one – or more – political figures to assist the corporation with legal matters." Brock also presented numerous additional choices in phone talks with Ladas; unfortunately, these options are highly sensitive and cannot be articulated on paper. Brock makes it plain that the number of blank checks supplied to Ladas is unlimited.

This is not a game of poker, Brock said, this is our European struggle.

Steve Ladas seems to be an odd pick for this assignment in France at first impression. Ladas has a shy demeanor and a scholarly appearance; he studied international trademark law and was not cut out for hidden work. Some of his coworkers thought he was naive. His practice of properly announcing his entire name – Stephen P. Ladas made his name seem like Peladas, equivalent to a word – made Coca-Cola staff in South America laugh a lot. Naked is a slang term in Spanish.

Brock informs Ladas that he picked her because she is capable of improvising in a variety of settings. However, it's possible that the major reason was that Ladas was the only person in the Export Department with whom Brock could trust and entrust the company's money.

On the morning of February 20, 1950, Ladas landed in Paris. Despite having to put up with the engine's loudness and the propellers' incessant shaking for several hours, Ladas got right to work with his fightful battling spirit (his words). with a hectic schedule Ladas worked alone since Makinsky was in Algiers at the time, attempting to postpone a Coca-Cola manufacturer's trial.

Ladas' initial task was to meet with executives from other beverage firms. Coke does not impact sales of other beverages, notably alcohol, according to experience in the United States and other nations. It's amusing to think that an 8-cent 6-ounce bottle (approximately 200ml) of American soft drink could push French people away from their beloved red wine, which costs $15. cents per liter. The persuasion arguments, on the other hand, have failed to make an effect. Coca-Cola is interested in making a deal.

Ladas characterized one of his trips as follows: I went to the Radical Socialist Party's headquarters. A guy called Rolland greeted him when he arrived. Despite its name, the Radical Society was a right-wing political group that represented some of France's wine entrepreneurs. The typical reassurances were repeated by Ladas, and as usual, these words were like the wind passing past their ears. Ladas then inquired whether the Coca-Cola Company could do anything to reassure wine merchants. Rolland thought for a time before responding, Perhaps there is a way. The tariff on French wines in the United States is much too high. It would be simpler if this tax were halved. Furthermore, the US Food and Drug Administration's administrative processes are quite complex. Winemakers in France want to make it easier for them to sell their products in the United States.

Ladas said, Very nice. If the wine capitalists give up, the Coca-Cola Corporation is ready to spend $50,000 on a lobbying firm in the United States to carry out these objectives. With a firm shake of his head, Rolland expressed his dissatisfaction with the situation. His demeanor was courteous, yet he was firm. Of course, he was grateful for Coca-generosity, Cola's but he wanted to wait and see what the outcomes would be before making any promises. The wine sector had no option but to stay antagonistic to Coca-Cola until specific objectives were accomplished.

Other trips, Ladas discovered, had yielded equally unsatisfactory outcomes. He warned Atlanta that the juice union's