The Coca-Cola Company Financial Results Analysis Essay

The Coca-Cola Company Financial Results Analysis - Essay Example The first one being sales volume growth, structural changes, positive price/mix approximated at 3 percent and most important acquisition of the Great Plains Coca-Cola Bottling Company (â€Å"The Coca-Cola Company†, 2012). North American segment is a very sensitive market taking into consideration that the consumers have become highly health conscious owing to the escalating cases of obesity and other lifestyle diseases associated with high sugar and calories diet and beverages. This claim can be justified that â€Å"still beverages† recorded a 7 percent volume gain in North America segment while traditional sodas volume was flat as from the previous year (Choi Ap, 2012). This means that most Americans have found a new and better taste in less sugary beverages such as Powerade sports drinks and Fuze teas. North America is an important growth segment for Coca Cola Company and this explain the reasons why the company has become more innovative to find better ratio and alte rnatives to consumers who are health conscious (â€Å"Emerging markets†, 2012). For instance, Coca Cola Company came up with a mini-cans targeting consumers watching their diet. Coke Zero is another example of an initiative by the company to tap into the highly health sensitive north America segment as the drink stands out to the best alternative to traditional soda brands provided by the company. It is noteworthy that Coke Zero recorded a 9 percent volume gain in the North America segment. 2. The drivers of profitability Notable drivers for profitability during the third quarter were the global volume gain in developed and emerging market. According to Ziobro (2012), the coca cola company recorded volume boom in almost all its segments with significant volume growth in emerging markets such as India and Thailand. The company recorded a global volume gain of 4 percent in its third quarter earnings(Zacks Equity Research, 2012). Similar characteristics marked by growth in sales volume was evident in geographical operating segments considering that the developed and the emerging markets recorded a 2 percent and 7 percent growth respectively. Data from each geographical operating segment were as follows; Eurasia and Africa Group +11%, Europe Group +1, Latin America Group +5, North America Group +2, and finally Pacific Group +3 (â€Å"The Coca-Cola Company†, 2012). It is believed that the strong volume growth in different markets segments will play an important role in boosting coca cola company earnings in future despite the growing competition from key competitors such as PepsiCo. 3. Earnings per Share results Coca Cola Company reported $0.50 Earnings Per Share (EPS) in its third quarter report while the Earnings Per Share (EPS) of the previous financial year was $0.48 which demonstrates a growth in EPS though the company claims that it met the analyst expectation of$0.51 (Zacks Equity Research, 2012). The comparable EPS for the current third quarte r was $0.51 meaning that it fell short by $0.01. The increase in EPS in the current financial year (third quarter) is attributable to increase

Information Technology Outsourcing in Airlines Essay

Information Technology Outsourcing in Airlines - Essay Example The changing IT environment at overseas branches and operations of firms has such a big impact on the IT related decision making process. Airlines have increasingly been attracted to IT outsourcing companies mostly based in India. Airlines can be regarded as institutions that strive to provide their customers with safety and service quality by making use of certain kinds of IT in their activities. While big airlines have been making use of IT as the main investment related strategic policy alternative, smaller airlines like budget airlines too have been making use of it in order to achieve positive synergies in IT. However while the former have been able to increase their net investment expenditure on IT on a larger scale, the latter have only been able to increase IT related investment on a smaller scale. As a result a clear dichotomy between the two entities can be noticed. Larger airlines have adopted growth oriented information and communication technology (ICT) policy measures primarily with the intention of enhancing growth drivers such as merger and acquisition (M&A) related synergies while smaller organizations have basically relied on capturing niche market segments. IT outsourcing theories are many in number though very few of them successfully capture the essence of the growth pattern of this industry. The impact of IT outsourcing on global airlines has attracted the attention of many researchers and analysts. Particularly in modern industry situations such strategies have become more relevant against the backdrop of rapid competitive and changing environment. The available literature on the impact of IT outsourcing on airlines' corporate strategies suggests different analytical and conceptual frameworks based on modern IT investment programs that are already being put into practice at some big airlines across the world. As the available literature on the subject suggests there is a substantial amount of empirical evidence to support the ICT related operations and their positive impact on growth drivers such as revenues, profits, market share, share price and integration across a number of market segments without truncation at airlines (Glaser, 2002). Independent analysts have identified three forces that determine the ultimate growth prospects of companies. (a). Differences in the local business environmentThe application of processes and procedures in identifying differences in the local business environment is connected with the overall global business strategy of the firm. ICT is a single aspect of this global strategy. If the firm were unable to identify and isolate the important elements in the global operational environment, there would be much less of an opportunity for the