Change is Certain, Progress is Not

In a perpetually changing market, sameness can be the downfall of major corporations, said Bill Levisay, Senior Vice President of Customer Business Development with the Coca-Cola Company. Levisay is responsible for Coke’s food service field sales organization, comprised of approximately 500 associates. He shared a very important perspective about change, progress and brand differentiation.

“Your competition fundamentally is not the brand down the street,” noted Levisay. “Your real competition is sameness – your consumer’s perception that you are the same as your competition. You must differentiate your brand to fight sameness,” he cautioned.

Turning change into competitive advantage

The theme of Levisay’s keynote address was “Change is certain; Progress is not.” He argued that while change is inevitable, businesses must turn change into progress if they plan to continue to thrive. “You need to be looking for tomorrow’s idea – not focusing on yesterday’s idea, even though your success today is coming from yesterday’s idea,” he said.

He offered the example of Coca-Cola’s shift from Tab to Diet Coke. In 1980, Tab was a huge brand, but Coke was looking at the market coming at them. While many in upper management were skeptical, the company simultaneously launched Diet Coke. The rest is history. Today, Diet Coke is a thriving brand around the world.

That said, the company continued taking stock of the changing market. In 2000, Coke noticed a worrisome trend in its research: Teenagers, particularly boys, viewed Diet Coke as “Mom or Dad’s drink.” That indicated trouble down the road for Diet Coke – one of the company’s biggest successes. To attract the under-20 set, Coke developed a new brand, Coke Zero, to add to the brand portfolio.

In 1997, Levisay was part of the team that begged upper management to launch Dasani bottled water. This was a very hard road, he explained. The major stumbling block was this resounding question coming from the board: “Who in America is going to spend a buck on water in a bottle?” That was only 10 years ago. Fortunately, Levisay’s team made a convincing argument, and now Dasani is a huge brand. Today, the idea of not having Dasani in the company’s portfolio seems unthinkable.

Past success can be an obstacle to progress

He urged convention participants to keep in mind that the bigger the operation, and the better the brand, the more difficult it can be to turn change into progress. The mindset of “What got us here is working: why change?” can become a real obstacle to progress.

“Trying something new and having it fail is so much better than not trying at all. Standing still is a sure way to fail,” said Levisay.

To ensure it keeps marching on, Coke pursues multiple avenues for progress, including organic growth, buying smaller companies, and partnering and learning in areas where it lacks significant experience.

Great execution every time

“The consumer’s first brand experience needs to be great,” said Levisay. “At Coke, we sell 1.4 billion servings a day around the world. One million of those servings are the consumer’s first experience with the brand.” You don’t get a second chance at the first experience so it needs to be great every time.

As such, he urged BP jobbers to pursue top-notch execution. “The first experience your consumer has with a BP site has to be great no matter where it is – every time, every day, every site. Otherwise, it hurts all of you in this room.”

A learning organization

Create a learning organization that is able to look beyond the things that got you here, said Levisay. “You have to be looking ahead to see what’s coming and where you need to be going.” 

He pointed to Sony as an example of an organization that lost sight of the future. “I first experienced portable music on a Walkman. I took it everywhere I went. Then I had a Discman. Sony didn’t just make the devices. They also had the largest major record label,” said Levisay.  Not too long ago Sony was the clear market leader in music, but it failed to see what was ahead. In a few short years, Apple has fundamentally changed the music business model by its forward-looking strategy, cutting-edge technologies and
consumer focus.

To get and stay ahead, concluded Levisay, “We have to look at what is on the horizon and be ready for it.”