I'd Like the World to Buy a Coke

"Roberto Goizueta's Cuban upbringing became a useful tool that helped improve the trajectory of his career path."

"There was not a Coke person alive for whom the first encounter with The Boss was not a cherished and noted memory."

"Cast adrift from his homeland, Roberto Goizueta also was untethered from a world of smaller ambitions."

"The career paths of superachievers often are marked, at key points, by black flags denoting death or disaster that, unfortunate as the circumstances may be, create opportunities."

"Alone among Coke's top executives, Roberto Goizueta somehow found a way to stay neutral."

"Goizueta knew he had to please the bottlers, above all others, if he hoped to reach Coke's very top rung."

"As he poked around Coke's executive offices, turning over whatever rocks caught his eye, Roberto Goizueta began zeroing in on the areas where he saw weaknesses."

"Roberto Goizueta laid waste to Coke's self-image as he listed and then slayed the company's "sacred cows.""

"Goizueta could not stomach the fact that The Coca-Cola Company, despite the power of its global brand, had so little say about how its product was being bottled, shipped, and marketed around the globe."

"The Coke people thought they could bring new marketing techniques to film distribution, and the Columbia team liked the idea of tapping into Coke's cash hoard to fund film production."

"Advance buzz about Coke's new diet drink was so pervasive that by the time the product actually launched in New York in August 1982, it already had a name recognition on those streets of around 80 percent, without a dollar spent on advertising."

"Self-doubt was not a big part of Roberto Goizueta's makeup."

"The veil of secrecy thrown over the entire Coke empire had created a claustrophobic and otherworldly air inside fortress Coke."

"If Coke could own just 49 percent of its big bottling arm, it could exert virtual control. But by remaining just shy of a majority interest, Coke could still treat the bottling operations as an investment holding."

"In everything he did, Goizueta valued predictability and reliability. The movie business was proving a reliably unreliable income source."

"During busy periods, Roberto Goizueta spent more than a third of his time on the road, a kind of soft-drink missionary carrying the Coca-Cola product and way of life to the farthest reaches of the globe."

"The product Coca-Cola had been part of Warren Buffett's life since childhood, when in 1936 he bought six packs of Coke for 25 cents, divided them and sold the individual bottles for a nickel each, a 20 percent markup."

"The stock purchases had the effect of increasing Coke's earnings per share and return on equity, two key indicators Goizueta used when assessing his own performance as CEO, and two of the most important yardsticks measured by Wall Street analysts."

"The immediate plan was to try to make Madison Avenue and Hollywood coexist."

"At its core, The Coca-Cola Company really was just one thing: a trademark."

"Roberto Goizueta looked to the Atlanta games to mark the debut of a strategic shift in Coke's global marketing strategy."

"Any victory over Pepsi was sweet for Roberto Goizueta, but because of Roger Enrico's close ties with Oswaldo Cisneros, Venezuela was sweet revenge."