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Building up skills base the key
THABO KOBOKOANE speaks to the president of Coca-Cola Southern Africa about the company's expansion plans
With the global and local competitive environment changing rapidly, South African companies have constantly been found wanting in terms of a skilled workforce - the country's Achilles heel. In response, the Department of Labour's skills development programme has proposed that a training levy of between 1% and 1.5% be imposed on companies. The government is hoping the move will result in improved productivity, efficiency, technological diffusion and employability of the workforce. In line with Coca-Cola's expansion programme, soft-drinks company is gearing itself for a massive marketing drive to increase demand and double its turnover within five years. "South Africa has tremendous growth opportunities and we hope to double Coca-Cola's volume within a five- to seven-year time frame," says Charlie Frenette, the president of Coca-Cola Southern Africa. "We recognise that to double the business, we need to double people's skills and capability, as well as the capacity of the organisation." Frenette says his company will start an ambitious, two-pronged skills development strategy, which aims to position it to take advantage of opportunities. The company plans to recruit, train and place 100 people from SA technikons and universities annually for the next five years as part of its Project Kusile. The second leg of the strategy involves recruiting South Africans with some skills and matching them with "imported experts" in an effort to develop local talent. So far a total of 85 new people have been recruited, 25 of them foreigners. Frenette says there is a "clear understanding" between the organisation and the foreigners that, according to their contracts, they are in the country to train people who will eventually replace them. However, given the potential for these newly trained South Africans to be poached by other companies, talent, is Coca-Cola shooting itself in the foot? "We expect to lose some people," says Frenette. "People are mobile. But we are hoping to create an environment and a culture that allows us to keep the majority of the people we develop." The skills development programmes are intended to form the backbone of Coca-Cola's expansion plan. Coca-Cola, like its competitor Pepsi, has identified the emerging consumer market as presenting big growth opportunities. "This market is set to represent about two-thirds of the country's spending power at the turn of the century - about 21-million new consumers," says Frenette. No efforts have been made in the past to target these consumers because "we didn't have the skills or people who understood that market". Coca-Cola has now realised that to compete in this sector it needed to develop the skills of people who "understand" the emerging market. Frenette says his company will have to change the way it has traditionally marketed its brands "if we are going to grow this business". He will not reveal the exact costs of the programme, saying the company does not view the project as a cost, but as an investment to "unlock available opportunities in the market".
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