Coca-Cola takes the client business and McDonald's system into two lines of reporting: the key to channel branding is not who's in charge, but how to divide decision-making.

01 Facts & context

Fact: a personnel handover covering two key client positions at a time

2026-9-28, Coca-Cola, issued an announcement announcing two leadership changes between the client business team and the McDonald's Department of Enterprise, with effect from 11 on 1. Roberto Mercadé, current Managing Director of McDonald ' s Business, will serve as Chief Client and Business Officer, reporting to Manolo Arroyo, Global Chief Marketing and Client Business Officer; He was replaced by Jorge Garduño, who had resigned on 8 on 31 and had served in the company in 34. The position of Managing Director of McDonald ' s Department was replaced by Pamela Stewart, who would report directly to the Chief Executive Officer, Henrique Braun.

Stewart had previously served as the retail chief customer of the Coca-Cola North American Operations Unit. The bulletin describes her leadership since 2023 of an organization that covers 110 clients, including 25 global clients, and states that during her tenure, the corporate brand maintained a leading position in the class of goods and increased more than twice as fast as the leading competitor. She joined the company in 2000 and has been involved in catering services, i.e. drinking channel and retail customer management, bottling system operation, franchising, financial and integrated management. Mercadé has been President of McDonald ' s Department of Enterprise since 2023, former President of the Mexican District, joined the company in 1992 as Puerto Rico ' s Production Services Manager, served in Venezuelan and Caribbean, South African, South Pacific and Central Latin American markets, and served as director of Coca Cola Andina. The bulletin states that the successor to Stewart's former post will be announced at a later date.

02 GSP analysis

Why separate global customer business from single strategic client management

What is most noteworthy about this adjustment is not the turnover itself, but the change in reporting relationships. The Chief Client and Business Officer reports to the Global Chief Marketing and Client Business Officer and is a professional line of competence within the marketing and business system; The Managing Director of McDonald ' s Business reports directly to the CEO and is a strategic client line. The deliberate separation of the two at the top means that companies do not wish to downgrade such large, cross-market, cross-bottle system cooperation as McDonald ' s to a customer account in the business function.

In terms of business logic, the global customer business function addresses replicable issues: the method of sedimentation of pricing structures, product class management, shelf and menu strategies, data and promotion tools, and their reuse among multiple markets and retail customers. Strategic customer relationships address non-rotability issues: long cooperation cycles, joint branding, menu innovation, supply chain synergies with bottling agents, market resource allocation, and, if mishandled, losses are not on single orders but in multi-year cooperation frameworks. Placing these two types of issues on the same reporting line makes it easier for day-to-day commercial efficiency to crowd out the negotiating space for strategic relationships.

Another consideration is the bandwidth of decision-making. Assuming that a market has a request for joint marketing resources that involves bottling-manufacturing capacity: the business line is usually an assessment of client coverage and profit structure, and the strategic customer line is an assessment of the demonstration effect of GCF. The separation of the two lines and their direct access to the corresponding decision-making levels is tantamount to the setting up of different decision portals for different types of conflict. The cost is an increase in the cost of synergy, and if there is no clear mechanism for upgrading, the friction between lines will consume time in the form of meetings and approvals.

03 GSP analysis

Value sources of customer relationships: from breadth of coverage to frame depth

The commercial value of Coca-Cola has long been based on a two-tiered structure: brands and liquids have access to formulations, trademarks and marketing assets, bottling partners have access to production, logistics and terminal enforcement, and companies align their incentives through franchising systems. In this structure, the role of customer commerce is to convert brand assets into the availability and turnover of retail and catering terminals; The role of strategic clients is to consolidate investment, innovation and data exchange on both sides into long-term agreements. Both are income-related, but value mechanisms differ: the former rely on coverage and implementation density, and the latter rely on relationship depth and joint investment.

The history of Mercadé has a direct bearing on this distinction. He is the Managing Director of various regions and has served for a further three years in the McDonald ' s Department of Enterprise, as well as as as a member of the board of bottling partners. Placing such a person who knows both the economics of the bottling system and the negotiation of large clients at the top of the customer ' s business suggests that companies want business methodology not to be summed up from retail shelves alone, but to include the full experience of catering channels, franchising and emerging markets. Accordingly, Stewart took over the McDonald ' s Department of Enterprise and reported directly to the CEO. Its value lies not in managing a client, but in maintaining a cross-country cooperation framework that includes elements that are difficult to measure by quarterly indicators, such as brand use, menu synergies, and the rhythm of market resources.

Example of scenarios: If a market wishes to promote a new low-sugar product at the same time as retail and catering channels, retail end is concerned with shelf displays and price belts, and catering end is concerned with the mix and efficiency of meals. If two lines are assessed by the same person, it is easy to choose more accessible channels and postpone another channel; Separate assessments and the setting of common new product penetration targets would make it possible to provide resources for the same product in both scenarios. This suggests that the source of value for the client structure is not single and that governance is designed to prevent the use of success criteria for one channel to compress the breeding space for the other.

04 GSP analysis

User journeys: from retail shelves to decision touch points for the catering set

From a consumer ' s point of view, the effect of this adjustment is not an advertising slogan, but rather the probability and experience that they encounter products in different contexts. The decision-making point for the retail scene is the shelf, the freezer, the price label and the home-to-home page; The decision-making touch points for the catering scene are menu boards, package combinations, staff referrals and match options on the takeout platform. The two are on different procurement journeys, but share the same brand assets and product mix. The customer business function needs to ensure the availability and quality of the former, and strategic customer relations need to ensure that the latter is stabilized in menus and packages.

The independence of the McDonald ' s system to the CEO is tantamount to recognizing the unique pace of the journeys of the catering channels: menu renewal cycles, door training, supply chain readiness and joint marketing slots must be synchronized, and any lag in the delivery of the new product may lead to a loss of momentum at the end. Retail channels are more dependent on distribution coverage, promotional rhythms and data feedback, which can be tested more quickly. The two journeys have different organizational requirements: one requires long-term commitment and cross-functional synergy, and one requires high-frequency overlaps and replication on a scale.

Example of hypothesis: Consumers in a given city may buy their drinking products on commuting routes through retail freezers, choose a catering set at a fast-food restaurant at noon and buy home clothes at night on a power-market platform. The three contact points are served by retail customer teams, catering customer teams and electrician business teams. If each of these three lines sets prices and promotes, consumers may see conflicting price signals in different contexts. One of the uniform values of the customer business function is to maintain an accountable order between the prices and brands of different scenarios, rather than pursuing short-term figures from a single channel.

05 GSP analysis

Organizational division of labour: who is responsible for what results

The reporting structure given in the bulletin can be restored with a responsibility map. The global chief marketing and customer business officer is responsible for the overall output of marketing and customer business, under which the chief customer and business officer is responsible for the methods, tools and cross-market implementation of customer business; The CEO is directly responsible for the health of this global partnership with the McDonald ' s Department of Enterprise. The position of retail chief customer officer for the former North American Operations Unit in Stewart has not been announced for the time being, meaning that responsibility for retail customer management in North America will need to be supplemented by other mechanisms during the transition period.

When the boundaries of responsibility are clear, the real problem is the interface. Customer business functions have pricing structures and business tools, strategic customer lines have cooperation agreements and joint investments; The two converge in front of the same market, the same bottling partner and the same consumers. Who has the right to decide to adjust the price belt for a strategic customer in a given market? Who bears the difference in the calibre of profit arising from the adjustment? Such issues can become contentious at the end of the quarter if they merely act in good faith. It would be logical to write the interface into rules as to which matters are dominated by business functions, which are dominated by strategic client lines, which must be co-signed, and to which level disputes are elevated.

In terms of staffing, Stewart ' s successor has not been identified, indicating that the company prefers to set aside a vacancy and has no hurry to fill it, which usually means that the job area or reporting relationship may be adjusted together. For observers, the future weight of retail customer management in North America is better illustrated by the choice of a successor than by the appointment itself. The success or failure of any organizational adjustment is often not dependent on the authorization documents for new posts, but rather on the actual redistribution of responsibilities for older posts rather than their tacit retention.

06 GSP analysis

Inputs, trade-offs and alternative explanations

The direct cost of the adjustment was modest: two appointments, one to be determined and a number of transitional arrangements. The real costs are associated with synergy and speed of decision-making. A separate reporting line would mean more cross-line coordination, more meetings and clearer upgrade paths; If coordination mechanisms were inadequate, decision-making would be slower than before adjustment. Companies clearly judge that the strategic value of McDonald ' s cooperation and the reuse value of customer business methodology are higher than the resulting increased coordination costs. The validity of this trade-off depends on the ability of the two lines to complement rather than compete in key markets.

There are several alternative interpretations that need to be distinguished. First, it was only a routine shift, and personnel had been adjusted in accordance with the established practice and did not have to be over-read. Second, it is a promotion arrangement for a senior manager and structural change is a by-product of personnel. Third, this is a long-standing correction to the confusion between the business and strategic customer functions of the client, with structural changes being the main cause. The text of the bulletin supports some of the features of the third interpretation: the change of the reporting line of the Managing Director of McDonald ' s Department from a business line to a CEO, which does not seem to be a simple personnel incidental result; The bulletin, however, did not describe the drivers, targets or changes in the appraisal of the adjustment, and therefore it could not be asserted that the company had established clear indicators of synergy.

Another possible explanation is succession development. Mercadé and Stewart both grew up in the same system for many years, each with experience in regional operations and customer management, placing them on a broader range of responsibilities, possibly for higher-level job placements. This interpretation does not conflict with governance: structural changes tend to serve both organizational efficiency and talent access. Operations should be judged by observable mechanisms rather than by speculative motives.

07 Suggested actions

Implementation order: from interface rules to market pilot

The transition period took effect from the announcement of 9 of 28 to 11 of 1, for only about one month. This window is too short to complete process re-engineering, but enough to complete three things. First, a clear list of interfaces between the two lines in the main markets is identified: which client matters are subject to a unified voice of customer business functions, which are independently decided by the strategic customer line and which need to be co-signed. Secondly, to determine the path of escalation of disputes and to designate who to adjudicate at the regional and global levels, respectively. Thirdly, to identify the most intensive markets where three to five lines converge, as the first coordinated pilot, and to avoid a complete opening leading to a breakdown in coordination.

In the first 90 days after the entry into force, the focus should be on protecting the established rhythm of cooperation. The McDonald ' s system involves menu slots and joint marketing schedules, and any delays in approval directly affect terminal execution; Retail clients, for their part, are involved in promotion lead times and shelf resources, with the same time windows. The most dangerous part of the transition period was not the wrong direction, but the decision-making was temporarily undecided. As a result, temporary authorization and the successor mechanism are more urgent than the long-term system design: who has the right to approve regular matters and who has the right to overstep decisions in emergencies should be stated in advance prior to the arrival of newcomers.

The second batch of work is the method of sedimentation. The customer business function can integrate cross-market business tools and data standards into replicable modules, while the strategic customer line can shape the governance experience of global cooperation into principles for other strategic clients. The two processes need not be launched simultaneously, otherwise they will divert management attention during the transition period. Stabilizing the pace before talking about capacity-building is a more sound order.

08 Suggested actions

Indicators and experiments: how to determine the effectiveness of the adjustment

Such organizational adjustments cannot be measured by a single income indicator. Three tiers of indicators are proposed. The first tier is decision-making efficiency: the average length of time from the submission to the adjudication of key client matters, the frequency of cross-line upgrades and the number of incidents that have missed the slotting period during the transition period owing to delays in approval. The second layer is the quality of synergies: the number of projects that are jointly promoted by the two lines in the pilot market, the completeness of the data shared, and the parties ' evaluation of the clarity of the interface rules. The third tier consists of operational results: the stability of strategic clients ' cooperation frameworks, the distribution and turnover performance of retail customers, and whether the growth in the respective product categories of the two lines of responsibility is offset.

Several low-cost experiments could be designed. Example of assumptions: Pilot client business functions in three markets jointly develop quarterly business calendars with strategic customer lines, comparing slotting rates and conflicts in the other three non-pilot markets. Alternatively, for the same group of matters requiring cross-line approval, one group would follow a joint signature process, one group would take a quick decision by a single head, comparing the length of decision-making with the rate of subsequent controversy. These experiments do not require additional systems, but rather pre-arranged records of calibres.

The test failure criteria also need to be written in advance: if decision-making in the pilot market has increased significantly over time, the number of conflicts has not decreased, and the operational results have not improved, this means that the cost of synergy exceeds the governance benefits, and consideration should be given to narrow independent reporting or to the re-introduction of some client matters into a single line. Conversely, the pilot rules could be extended if decisions were time-bound and the cooperative stability of strategic clients increased. Without a predetermined standard of failure, organizational restructuring can easily be neither validated nor corrected in inertia.

09 Suggested actions

Applicable conditions, boundary and adjustment judgement

This structure is not universally applicable. It was established on the premise that there is a strategic customer of sufficient size, sufficiently high cross-market level, requiring a long-term framework rather than single transaction management; At the same time, there is a pool of retail and catering customers who can be standardized for reuse and require uniform methodologies and tools. A separate reporting line to the CEO may be excessive if the strategic clients have substantive operations in only one or two markets; Independence is an empty shell if the customer ' s business functions are not yet reusable. For most enterprises, a more realistic starting point is to separate strategic clients from ordinary customers ' management rules before considering whether reporting lines should be separated.

The border is still under authorization. Strategic client lines go straight to CEOs and are easily prioritized within the organization, but may also allow other clients to feel that resources are squeezed. Therefore, there is a need to place a shield on resource allocation rules: joint investment, data-sharing and customized services for strategic clients should have a clear price and assessment cycle and should not lead to the default of unlimited resources due to high reporting levels. Similarly, the imposition of standardized tools on inappropriate channels by customer business functions can lead to implementation failures.

An observation window, such as six months to one year, could be set up to adjust the judgement. The structure should be re-examined if there are signs that cross-line conflicts continue to escalate and decisions are time-consuming; Strategic client cooperation is stable but commercial support for other clients is significantly weakened; The price of the two lines was inexplicably contradictory to the promotion at the end. Contrary signals, such as on-time delivery of cross-line synergistic projects, efficiency gains in the implementation of pilot markets and a decrease in client loss rates, suggest that structures are working. The structure is not a conclusion, but a set of business assumptions that need to be validated; The criteria should be agreed upon in advance and not interpreted ex post facto.