Beverage giant Coca-Cola Amatil cannot be held "hostage" to its history as it targets more choice for health-conscious consumers the head of the company has told a QUT Business Leaders' Forum.
Group Managing Director Alison Watkins warned the business was facing "challenging times" and would have to "continue evolving and adapting" to keep its fizz into the future.
Ms Watkins, who joined CCA in March 2014, is overseeing major changes in the company that employees 13,500 and says it has 15 million Australians consuming its products daily.
She said there was a strong focus on giving health-conscious customers greater choice, for example through lower calorie cokes and other drinks from CCA's range including water, energy drinks, alcohol and coffee.
"As consumers we are more concerned about health, we have this obesity sort of megatrend which is affecting many adults and societies, so tastes are changing a lot," Ms Watkins told the Forum.
"Our success is our ability to give consumers what they want. We think a lot about choice and making sure we are giving our consumers as much as we can."
Ms Watkins, who has held senior roles including Head of ANZ Regional Banking and CEO of major agribusiness GrainCorp Limited, said Coca-Cola Life was meeting expectations at between 1 and 2 per cent of Coke sales following its launch earlier this year.
"Consumers are continuing to think more actively about the choices they want to make, they love the great taste of regular coke and like to have a version that's a few less calories," she said.
"We would rather have more people drinking just a little bit of coke more often, than just relying on a smaller number of people drinking larger volumes."
CCA, which has operated in Australia for more than 100 years, faced "challenging times" and could not settle for "business as usual", Ms Watkins said.
"Organisations are constantly evolving - or they should be. And as leaders we must respect the organisation's history, its traditions and its story, and reach for its future. We must respect the organisation's past but not hold it, or ourselves, hostage to it."
Ms Watkins said the company had to find a sustainable plan for the future to ensure its products were "relevant for the consumer of tomorrow", but denied increasing other beverage offerings would see Coke overtaken as its best seller.
"Coke is such a must have brand for all of our customers ... and I believe that will always be the case," she said.
Reflecting on a career that saw her go from a "tomboy" growing up on a Tasmanian farm to one of Australia's leading business leaders, Ms Watkins nominated "respect" as a fundamental attribute.
"What is top of my leadership list? Respect. Respect for the role that they hold. Respect for the people they lead. Respect for the organisation they are part of, and respect for themselves," she said.
"I believe one or more of these dimensions of respect is usually missing when we see poor leadership and is usually absent when poor decisions are made."
Ms Watkins said it was important to be surrounded by supportive people "both at home and work" and that leaders could learn valuable lessons from failing.
"We learn more than we'd like to admit from these experiences and importantly we learn there's a choice in how to respond," she said.
"We also learn how it feels for those on whom we, as leaders, impose judgment."
Global Retail Advisor and Former CEO and Managing Director of David Jones Limited Paul Zahra will address the next Business Leaders' Forum on Wednesday, October 21.
For more information, go to: www.qut.edu.au/business/about/events/qut-business-leaders-forum
Media contact:
Rob Kidd, QUT Media, 07 3138 1841, rj.kidd@qut.edu.au
After hours, Rose Trapnell, 0407 585 901
