Coca-Cola – Client Interview
Global Director of Sustainability
Coca Cola’s Chief Sustainability Officer determines which programs are essential to the business, as it relates to sustainability and growth. Discover how program and portfolio management practices help Coca Cola make the right decisions at the right time to drive the business forward.
Using Stage-Gate and a Stage-Gate Approach to Operationalize and Execute Portfolio Management
Wendell Wilson, Global Director of Sustainability Coca-Cola Company interviewed by Stage-Gate International
Wendell Wilson joined the Coca Cola Company as CIO of the Africa Group in 2005. In this role, he developed and drove the Group IT strategy across the Continent. He also led IT Governance, managed data security, bridged business processes and technology and led change management. Currently, Wendell is the Global Director of Sustainability. He is responsible for embedding and integrating sustainability into core business processes and plans across the system. He is also responsible for the development and deployment of the Company’s Value Creation Model and Sustainability Scorecard with key stakeholders from Finance, Marketing, Technical, PAC, Commercial Leadership, Risk Management and other functional areas.
SGI: Let’s start by telling our readers a little about yourself and your company.
WW: My name is Wendell Wilson and I have been with the Coca-Cola company for nine years. I started out with a group based in Johannesburg as the CIO and in total spent four and a half years in Africa. I came back to North America and joined the Coca-Cola IT team that was outsourcing a data center before becoming involved with special projects. Later, I took on the role of Manager of Enterprise Risk Management. Most recently, I joined the Chief Stainability Office, to drive a key governance program that has led me to a role involved with developing a system and methodology to determine programs that are essential to the business, as it relates to sustainability and growth. For example, choosing the right initiatives, cost analysis and management, looking at productivity reinvestment, and ensuring at the end of the day we have the right programs to drive our business forward.
SGI: What is your favorite new product out right now and why?
WW: There are many, that is for sure, at present I really like the GenSight solution we reviewed to help us address program and portfolio management challenges being faced.
SGI: In your opinion, what is the single biggest portfolio management challenge that organizations face today?
WW: I think the biggest challenge is ensuring that decisions are made at the right time to choose the best vehicle to drive productivity. Most companies are looking at how to spend wisely, are questioning their innovation strategies and the projects they want to bring into their portfolios. Right now, given the speed of change and global realities, I think all companies want to feel more confident that the right decisions are being made at the right time. We know the competition is out there and are equally ambitious and hungry so we have to remain innovative, do things differently and be much more in tune with the market and the expectations of the market. The quality of our decisions will influence how successful we are at this.
SGI: What advice would you give to others on how to tackle this challenge?
WW: My advice would be to first identify and understand what your strategic objectives are and then agree on how you will get there. Challenge yourself to make decisions sooner rather than later and understand that at times you may make the wrong decision. You can always course-correct your decision to ensure that the company continues to achieve the desired productivity and profitability results wanted. We have found using scorecards a very effective tool and technique to measure and manage performance and regularly start reviews by saying “these are the things that you said that you were going to do and this is how you are doing against your goals”. Find opportunities to showcase and recognize success as well as identify areas for improvement and hopefully, people will see value and necessity in the process.
SGI: What do you think Summit attendees were the most interested to know/learn about in your presentation?
WW: I hope attendees were keen to learn more about our Stage-Gate approach to portfolio management to facilitate better information management and what was learned rolling this out across the firm. We are very pleased with the impact it has had on the organization.
SGI: Looking into your crystal ball what do you think will be the greatest challenge facing product portfolio managers 10 years down the road?
WW: Not much different than today and that concerns decision making and decision-making quality. Product Portfolio Managers can mitigate this if they and their firms invest in some of the different and positive tools that are now becoming available. At the end of the day, new product development and program success will be greatly influenced by the decisions that underpin the direction each takes. Failing to get on board by not adopting, adapting and applying these new tools and processes will in my mind be one of the worst decisions a firm can make.