Business Ethics Case Study: Coca-Cola Company

Name of the Student SHARDUL CHANDEL
Program MBA (M&S)

Class Roll Number
D-43
Enrollment Number A0102213215

Name of Faculty guide Dr. ASHOK SHARMA

Case study title IMPROVING BUSINESS AND RELATIONS DOESN’T AVERT TRAGEDY OF COMMONS

Student Declaration
I declare
(a)That the work presented for assessment is my own, that it has not previously been presented for another assessment and that my debts (for words, data, arguments and ideas) have been appropriately acknowledged
(b) That the work conforms to the guidelines for presentation and style set out in the relevant documentation.
(c) The Plagiarism as taken by Turnitin is ________ %.

Date:  Student Signature

Dr. ASHOK SHARMA

1. Introduction

The following

Coca-Cola has also embarked on very ambitious exercise public relations to counter growing opposition to his plan - the social responsibility programs of companies that claim to conserve water. Protests by local peoples against the Coca-Cola Company Mehdiganj continue to grow and agenda of the community is clear. The groundwater resource in Mehdiganj cannot meet the needs of both the community and the bottling plant of Coca-Cola. One has to go to meet the scarcity of water of that area.

Drop in Water level near Mehdiganj
Government data confirm the community claims that groundwater levels have dropped sharply ever since Coca-Cola began operations in Mehdiganj in 1999.

Farmers and local people residing in the region are well aware of groundwater conditions because their lives and livelihoods began to notice the groundwater levels decreased almost immediately after Coca-Cola began operations. Village wells began to run dry, manual water pumps stopped working and ponds in the region also dried up. Coca-Cola is the largest user of groundwater in the region, and that too by a considerable margin. No farmer even comes close to that use of the groundwater.

More and more stress and scarcity of water in seasonal

Initiatives taken to store rainwater by Coca-Cola do not work, and they also do not “compensate" use of groundwater for Coca-Cola production. Many of the initiatives taken by the company for rainwater collection of Coca-Cola, which in reality they outsource to others, simply do not work because they are not well built and they are poorly maintained. The Institute for Energy and Resources, in a 2008 study that focused on the activities of Coca-Cola in six areas, including Mehdiganj describes the rainwater collection system of Coca-Cola as structures of break down.
DEMANDS BY LOCAL COMMUNITY

The community which is affected and people around Mehdiganj having a negative impact by the Coca-Cola have organized to put pressure on the Coca-Cola and the Indian government state to close the bottling plant of Coca Cola in Mehdiganj. The people are demanding for the following:
• Mehdiganj plant should be shut down immediately.
• Coca-Cola should also pay for the harm made by them and clean-up of the groundwater and soil.
• Coca-Cola may be liable to compensate the famers and people who lost their means of living due to depleted groundwater and