Advanced Search

The story appears on

Page A11

March 17, 2014

GET this page in PDF

Free for subscribers

View shopping cart

Related News

Home » Business » Biz Special

Coca-Cola recruits ‘talent with global mindset’

March 17, 2014, Monday | Print Edition

March and April are typically the busiest job-hopping season in China, and with many businesses predicting higher sales this year, opportunities are rife.

A survey by 51job.com found that 85 percent of more than 25,000 business respondents said they are expanding recruitment in the first quarter, a 5 percentage-point increase from the fourth quarter of 2013.

Shanghai Daily sat down to discuss recruitment and talent issues with Ceree Eberly, Chief People Officer of The Coca-Cola Company.

“You can call me a steward of the people,” she said of herself.

Eberly joined Coca-Cola in 1990 and took up her present post in 2009. She is responsible for the development of 700,000 Coca-Cola employees across more than 200 countries.

What do you value the most of your employees?

A: People who come in and give their best. Passion is probably what I value most because we want people who are passionate about making a difference.

What recruitment plans do you have in China?

A: We have been expanding in China. We opened an on-campus research and development center about three or four years ago, serving not just China, but also the Asia-Pacific team, including Asean and India. More resources and investments are coming to China.

We have various different functions of marketing, communications, technical aspects and production. It’s healthy growth for the company in terms of people.

What are the basic qualities you seek?

A: You have to be smart, you need to have a global mindset, you need to know how to work in a team and communicate.

You need the ability to be innovative and come up with great ideas for the workplace. These are the soft skills that people should possess.

How do you motivate your staff? Salary? Greater responsibilities?

A: Inspiring others is what we expect leaders to do. It is actually the most important aspect of helping people come to work feeling the best that they are.

You are there because you choose to be there and are helping them achieve their goals by growing, by trying new things, by learning. Our role as leaders is to help pave that road for them, to inspire them and let them experience making decisions, sometimes even making mistakes. It’s about being inspirational, being a great role model, getting out of the way and letting people do the work.

What qualifications are you seeking for senior managers?

A: We have a long-term, multi-year roadmap for how we develop leadership. We look for people who are considered local talent and also people who have global experience. We develop our leaders across cultures, across countries and across different business challenges around the world. Our approach is one that requires discipline, planning and thought.

Last year, we have developed more than 60 senior leaders who were moved into key positions worldwide. And all of those moves were internal.

Do you have special programs specifically designed to nurture Chinese talent?

A: There is a program we have locally called Himalaya. It is designed for growing more senior leaders. It’s a program that doesn’t simply involves mentoring and coaching. They are given the opportunity to solve business problems or challenges in their marketplace, but they also have exposure outside their market where they get to see the challenges and growth in other countries.

We developed that program because we recognized that Asian, or Chinese, talent needs some special help, especially related to speaking up, expressing opinions, and networking. We recognize that talent needs additional help and development, especially to get them to develop a more global mindset.

We are sending our Chinese talent overseas. As part of Himalaya, we did job rotation. We realized that helps them develop skills before they actually move into international assignments.

A personal question: How do you balance family life and career?

A: I have a son who is 19, and I have been a single parent since he was 18 months old. I have lived on three continents, and I have worked for Coca-Cola for 24 years.

I think it’s about making choices about what you can do. Is it easy? No. I don’t think anything is easy. But having been a wife and a mother, I have had to balance work and home responsibilities. I have taken care of sick parents and a sick brother. I had to learn to be good at home and good at work. I think I have learned to work smartly. Do I worry about things, like if my house is very clean? No. But I focus on the things that really matter in my life and I let the rest go.

Biz Special


 

Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.

沪公网安备 31010602000204号

Email this to your friend