上周日，可口可樂公司宣布，在執掌這家全球飲料巨頭8年之后，董事長兼首席執行官穆康泰（Muhtar Kent）于明年5月離職，由總裁兼首席運營官詹姆斯·昆西（James Quincy）接任。這個消息并不讓人感到特別意外。昆西被認為是穆康泰的繼承人已經有一段時間了，華爾街對他也很敬重。

但這次人事更迭也有其他的含義：穆康泰代表著一種幾乎所有全球性品牌都曾效仿的戰略，他的離去意味著這一戰略已經過時了。在他看來，讓某個品牌得到認同，就意味著帶給世界各地的人相同的體驗，大型消費者品公司必須做的最重要的一件事，就是不斷提升一個品牌的銷售規模和影響力。

不僅是穆康泰和可口可樂，幾乎所有食品和飲料行業的大公司都面臨相同的問題。在這個性化的時代，無論是應用軟件，還是床墊，甚至包括可樂飲料，都可以進行定制，規模最大和效率最高的企業不一定是贏家。個性化的趨勢，再加上消費者越來越不愿飲用含糖飲料，有助于我們理解，可口可樂為何會陷入困境：在過去三年里，它的年銷售收入下滑了40億美元。寶潔公司前營銷主管吉姆·斯藤格爾（Jim Stengel）說：“我認為，這是全球性包裝類消費品公司面臨的最大問題。在一個后規模經濟里如何競爭？回答這個問題并不容易，因為它在挑戰這些大公司商業模式的根基。”

不換思路就得換人。全球性消費者品公司的主管們必須找到一個神奇的辦法，既要給消費者提供更多選擇，同時在生產上還要做到多快好省。可口可樂近年來已在嘗試，比如讓顧客在飲料機上自制飲料。寶潔和麥當勞都面臨著與可口可樂類似的壓力。應當祝賀穆康泰和可口可樂實現了職務的平穩交接，但不管誰上任，挑戰總是擺在那里。 （財富中文網）

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作者：Jennifer Reigold

譯者：Mushroom

Today’s announcement that Coca-Cola CEO and chairman Muhtar Kent will step down in Mayafter eight years at the helm of the giant beverage company was not a big surprise. Nor was the news that Coke president and COO James Quincey will replace him; he has been the expected successor for some time and is well regarded by Wall Street.

But the changeover also represents something else; the departure of a man who exemplified a strategy that almost every global brand followed, but that may no longer be relevant today. It was the notion that one brand identity could mean the same thing to people all over the world—and that increasing the scale and power of that brand was the single most important thing that a big consumer products company should do.

It’s a problem faced not only by Kent and Coke but also by virtually every single major company in the food and drink category. (Technology, where Apple and others have achieved brand ubiquity for now, is an exception to this trend). In this era of personalization, where your apps, your mattress and, yes, your cola choices are customized, being the biggest and most efficient doesn’t necessarily win. This—plus the increasing desire to avoid sugary drinks—helps explain whyCoca-Cola has struggled, with annual revenues falling by $4 billion in the past three years. Says Jim Stengel, head of branding consultancy the Jim Stengel Co. and former global marketing head at Procter & Gamble: “This is in my mind the biggest issue for global, scale-oriented CPG [consumer packaged-goods] brands: How to compete in a post-scale economy? The answer is not obvious or easy as it challenges the foundation of their business model.”

This new world also requires new leadership. Heads of global consumer brands will need to figure out the magic link between giving customers choice—Coke has tried to do this in recent years by, among other things, offering customizable soda fountains—and making such options cost-effective to produce. P&G is one company facing similar pressures–as isMcDonald’s. Coke and Kent are to be congratulated for pulling off a (so far) seamless CEO succession. But whoever the CEO is, the big brand challenge isn’t going away.