Roberto Crispulo Goizueta was born November 18, 1931, in Havanna, Cuba. He was the only son of Crispulo and Aida Cantera Goizueta. His grandfather owned a sugar refinery and a large piece of land.

Roberto Goizueta studied at a Jesuit secondary school in Havanna. After that he went over to the U.S.A. to study for one year at Cheshire Academy, Connecticut, a preparatory school.

In 1948 he began to study at Yale University. He earned a Bachelor's degree in Chemical Engineering.

Roberto Crispulo Goizueta died of lung cancer at the age of 65 on October 18, 1997. He was still chairman and president of The Coca-Cola Company when he died.

The career at The Coca-Cola Company

Roberto Goizueta's career at The Coca-Cola Company began when he answered an anonymous advertisement in a Cuban newspaper seeking a Chemical Engineer. Later he found out that the ad had been placed in the newspaper by The Coca-Cola Company. On July 4, 1954, he joined The Coca-Cola Company in Havanna. After a few years he became chief technical director for  five Cuban bottling plants.

After Fidel Castro's rise to power in Cuba, Roberto Goizueta and his wife chosed to defect to the U.S.A. during a vacation in Miami in 1960. Their children were already in the U.S.A. since they had been sent to live with relatives a couple of months earlier. The only things they had with them were $40 and 100 shares of Coca-Cola Company stock.

Coca-Cola Company gave him an office in Miami and after that he was sent to Nassau, Bahamas, to become an area chemist for the Caribbean.

In 1964 he was placed in Atlanta where he two years later were promoted to vice president of technical research and development. He was only 35 years old, the youngest person ever to achieve that position at The Coca-Cola Company.

In 1975 he was choosen to be responsible for Legal and External Affairs at The Coca-Cola Company.

In 1979 the President of The Coca-Cola Company J. Lucian Smith resigned. In May 1980 Roberto Goizueta was chosen President. This was a big surprise to many people since he had a technical background.

In August, 1980,Roberto Goizueta was chosen to take over after the outgoing chairman Paul Austin who was to retire in Mars 1981. He became chairman on Mars 1, 1981.

The big decisions

Sugar usage: Roberto Goizueta made a big strategic decision when he had become chairman. He allowed usage of high-fructose corn syrup instead of sugar. The high-fructose corn syrup   was 40 percent cheaper than ordinary sugar.

Slogans: When Roberto Goizueta became chairman he once again made a big decision. This time he replaced the old slogan "Have a Coke and a smile" with the new slogan "Coke Is It!". (The slogan that plays in the background on this page)

Diet Coke: After that he introduced the new Diet Coke (also known as Coca-Cola light in some parts of the world including Sweden). This was the first time ever the trademark Coca-Cola was used with a product other than the original Coca-Cola.

Diet Coke became the most successful new product during the whole 1980s. In a few years Diet Coke had a market share of almost 10 percent of the market in U.S.A. The launch made The Coca-Cola Company take over the lead from Pepsi for the first time since the 1970s (Hurrah!).

New Coke: After mostly good decisions the big mistake was to be made. It was time for the launch of the new Coke. The Coca-Cola Company decided in April, 1985, that the 99-year-old formula for Coca-Cola should be changed (how on earth can you even think a thought like that?).

The decision to change the formula was received very negatively by Coca-Cola lovers around the world and particularly in the U.S.A. When the new Coke was available in the stores, some Coke lovers poured out the new Coke down the drain because they wanted their Coke as it always had been. The Coca-Cola Company got 1500 letters a day for a couple of weeks with complaints. The enormous amount of complaints forced the Coca-Cola Company to admit that they had made a mistake, and the old Coca-Cola was reintruduced  in July, 1985, with the old formula under the name of Coca-Cola Classic and the new Coke was named Coke 2.

The whole project with Coke 2 began when they developed Diet Coke. The company testers thought that they had found a new, sweeter and smoother taste that could replace the original formula without any problems. Roberto Goizueta said after the fiasko that they had had two possible alternatives: They could have done nothing, just forget that they had found a new taste that they thought was better than the original or to give the world a new Coke. It turned out that the world wanted their good old Coke.

Some people thought that the Coca-Cola Company had made up the hole incident just to create some attention around the Coca-Cola Company. They claimed that all publicity would be good for the Coca-Cola Company. Roberto Goizueta's answer to this accusation was: "We are not that smart, and we're not that dumb".

The market share

The Coca-Cola Company's sale grew dramatically under the leadership of Roberto Goizueta. The amount of sold drinks increased from 5.4 billion in 1981 to nearly 14 billion sold drinks in 1996. Today  almost half of the sold soft drinks in the world are made by the Coca-Cola Company.

Valuation of the Coca-Cola Company / the stock

 Under Roberto Goizueta's leadership for the Coca-Cola Company an investment of $1000 in the company has increased to $65000 (including reinvested dividends)! The market value of the Coca-Cola Company has increased from $4 billion in 1981 to $150 billion today. Today the Coca-Cola Company is the fourth most valued company in the U.S.A.

Conclusion

Roberto Goizueta contributed strongly to the Coca-Cola Company's rapid growth during his 16 years as the leader. The market share has constantly increased and so has the company's value.

He also made the Coca-Cola Company the most admired company in the U.S.A.

Reference:

Dagens Industri (di.se)

Access Atlanta

The Coca-Cola Company

http://hem.passagen.se/cokeisit/index.html

Copyright © 1996 - 2003 John Wagner