In 2013, Coca-Cola Refreshments (CCR) – the North American bottling arm of The Coca-Cola Company – embarked on a large-scale systems rollout requiring the shift of more than 60,000 users to a common enterprise solution called Coke One North America (CONA), while also refranchising the North American Coca-Cola bottling network and establishing new, independent bottlers. The end-user audience included every type of end user imaginable, from warehouse and production center workers, to forecast and demand planners, to a large mobile sales and delivery workforce. Along the way, a number of challenges and opportunities were identified, including:
- Aggressive timelines
- Continual last-minute system changes
- A lack of standardized toolsets for training development and a dedicated training environment
- A geographically dispersed audience
- No preexisting models for cross-bottler learning collaboration
- Varied business models and organizational structures across bottling entities
- Translation requirements
Restructuring the North American business model required a common platform to share information across bottlers, to have not only a consistent product when it went to market but also a harmonious way of doing business. Following the successful transition of territories to existing independent bottlers and the establishment of two new independent bottlers in 2015, the efforts were deemed so seamless by Coca-Cola leadership that the timeline was accelerated by three years. Tasked with transitioning $15 billion of business, the CONA solution covered every area of the bottling business, from sales and operations to reporting and enabling functions such as procurement, HR and finance.
With very limited experience and no infrastructure to build and deploy the needed learning and performance support across bottling organizations, a monumental opportunity presented itself. The enterprise needed a collaborative, long-term partnership between The Coca-Cola Company and its bottling partners to deliver a system-wide, scalable and reliable learning and performance support model for the new CONA platform.
With very little information on the scope, scale and ever-changing deployment timelines that lay ahead, in 2012, Doug Teachey was tasked with creating the CONA Learning and Development (L&D) strategy, which leveraged four key tactics to accomplish this mission:
1. Establish a “Common Core” L&D Team.
The organization estimated that approximately 80 percent of the system would be common across bottlers, while 20 percent would be local. Accordingly, the CONA L&D team was established to develop the “common core” – the 80 percent – while each bottler owned the remaining 20 percent – the localized training development.
2. Build a Lean, Scalable Training Delivery Model.
The end-user audience required face-to-face, hands-on training, so the team decided that a “Super User” model was critical for success, saving the company more than $20 million over using contract trainers. Super Users were selected from among available field resources based on their strong grasp of the current processes and systems as well as their strong rapport with the target audience. The Super Users attended the CONA Super User Academy prior to participating in user acceptance testing and dry runs to build their confidence and prepare for end-user training. Super Users were also the first line of support for end users and served as the ongoing trainers for remedial training and onboarding. This model was the only feasible way to accomplish the goal of training as many as 8,000 users at a time.
3. Achieve Alignment on a Universal Training Development and Performance Support Toolset.
Prior to CONA, most systems projects were smaller in scale and did not necessitate a large-scale, standardized solution. Therefore, earlier tools were not scalable and did not enable rapid, large-scale systems training development and performance support. The CONA L&D team embarked on a six-month effort to select a strategic solution that would meet the demands of the North American bottling network, ultimately selecting Assima as its solution provider. Alignment on a common toolset was critical to ensure a strong partnership among peers across the system.
4. Develop a Shared Curriculum.
The entrepreneurial, customer-focused culture of the North American bottling business meant that each bottler had its own business model and organizational structure. Therefore, the CONA L&D team implemented an activity-/process-based curriculum to address the needs of a varied and broad audience.
Part Two of this series expands on this initiative and discusses its results.
Doug Teachey is the CONA director of learning, development and deployment. He has a bachelor’s degree in communication studies with a minor in business administration from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro and an MBA from the University of Georgia’s Terry College of Business. He has served across multiple industries with a focus on large scale change management and training initiatives for more than 18 years.
Jay Kuhlman is the executive vice president and chief operating officer of Assima, Inc., also serving on the company’s Board of Directors. He leads the Americas’ day-to-day operations, including its rapidly growing sales and services business, partner alliances and channels, marketing and technical operations. Jay is a Summa Cum Laude graduate and holds a B.B.A. with a concentration in business management. He also served in the United States Marine Corps.
