Coke and Pepsi Csr Analysis in India

Issue/Problem Identification This case study shows the difficulties multinational corporations face when doing business in developing countries. Although Coke and Pepsi were prompt at addressing the accusations brought against them, they overlooked multiple issues when starting business in India. When starting a business in a foreign country, the first priority a company should have is to learn the native culture. This was Coke and Pepsi’s biggest mistake and was most likely the reason why the Indian population responded so hostilely. Coke and Pepsi’s problems in India were complicated by the fact that water is sacred to the Indian people. Not only were the companies accused of polluting fresh water sources with toxic waste but they were also criticized for the amount of fresh water the bottling plants consumed. The Center for Science and Environment and India Resource Center special interest groups knew how to attack these MNCs. Even though India has some of the worst water in the world, these special interest groups got away with blaming Coke and Pepsi for the large amounts of pesticide found in the soda. The second issues that is evident in this case study is prejudice. It is obvious to me that Coke and Pepsi were singled out from other companies in India and targeted specifically. Why were no Indian soft drink companies targeted for pesticide testing? It would be easy to believe that the Indian owned beverages would contain even more pesticides due to inferior bottling and filtering techniques. There is also the issue of pesticide residue being present in most of India’s ground water, making it almost impossible to find completely clean water to use.

Analysis/Evaluation Unlike many of the other companies we’ve studied, Coke and Pepsi did well at responding to their accusations. The companies did not know what they had gotten into in 2003 when the first accusations came out regarding pesticide residue, water consumption, and waste. Initially the