John F. Brock
Chairman & CEO, Coca-Cola Enterprises, Inc.
Headquarters: Atlanta, Georgia
Education: BS and MS, chemical engineering, Georgia Tech
First Job: At age 18, spent the summer cleaning 10,000-gallon tanks at a paper mill in Moss Point, Missouri.
Best Advice: In life and in business, be clear about what you’re going to do… then do it… and every once in a while, give your audience a positive surprise.
Effecting positive change
At Coca-Cola Enterprises (CCE), we’ve seen the benefit that comes from engaging with a broad diversity of voices, experiences, and backgrounds. In today’s competitive market, a business that fully embraces diversity on all levels is a successful one, which is why attracting, developing, and retaining a diverse and talented workforce is one of our company’s three strategic priorities. We are pleased that our commitment to diversity, and specifically our efforts to promote the representation of women at all levels in our company, has been recognized. From the boardroom (where we have four female board members) to the front line, diversity is a priority for everyone at CCE.
Our efforts are guided by a Diversity & Inclusion (D&I) framework that clearly lays out our ambition and focus areas that are critical to achieving our goals. Each year, our leadership teams develop specific D&I plans to ensure we make progress against our goals. To drive accountability and action, these plans are reviewed quarterly by the company’s senior leadership, and we’ve seen strong results from this approach. Since putting these plans into place, female representation in our workforce has increased at all levels. In addition, our most recent employee engagement survey showed that our employees rated our D&I efforts as one of the top reasons for positive change in their connection to our company.
As we look to grow key talent across our organization, we’ve placed big bets on hiring and developing high-potential women across our organization. To help encourage women, further their development, and support them as they balance work with family and other priorities, we have a Women’s Network in each of our business units. Chaired by senior company leaders, these networks focus on providing support on gender-related issues in the workplace, and meet regularly to discuss challenging workplace topics and provide the resources needed to support our employees’ careers.
At CCE, our leaders are accountable for helping to broaden and develop our workforce, and for embracing diversity—not just because it leads to success, but because we all believe it’s the right thing to do. Having a diverse workforce allows us to generate creative ideas, and ensuring everyone feels valued and respected helps us better engage with and serve our customers, and strengthens our employer brand. These efforts are making Coca-Cola Enterprises a great place to work, and will continue our efforts to become a leader in diversity and inclusion.
