Page 1 2
Corporate Involvement
 Whether they accomplish that goal remains to be
seen. But for companies like Atlanta’s Coca-Cola,
which has an 80-year relationship with the Olympics,
and UPS, the issues surrounding this or any other
Olympic Games are not the focus. Said Scott McCune,
vice president, Worldwide Sports, Entertainment,
and Licensing for Coca-Cola, “It is not for us to
determine the Chinese political agenda. It is our
policy not to involve the company in internal politics
but to follow international business norms. This is
the position we take throughout the world.”
UPS has a similar stance. Peter Tan, director,
UPS Beijing Olympic Project, remarked,
“Our relationship with the Olympics is based
on the belief that the Games are the ultimate
international sporting event and an opportunity
to focus on our collective humanity.”
While staying away from politics, both
companies see and have seen the Olympics
as a major opportunity to, as Tan says, “fully
engage our customers and employees. The
two groups have opportunities to be part
of UPS Olympic programs leading up to
and during the Games – the experience
that UPS offers to these two very important
groups of stakeholders is priceless.”
In Beijing, UPS will offer logistics consultation
to the Beijing Organizing Committee for
the Olympic Games (BOCOG) and take a
proactive role in development and operation
for the Olympic Games and the Beijing 2008
Paralympic Games. UPS will also provide
express delivery to all competition and
non-competition venues nominated by
BOCOG for the duration of the Games.
 Coca-Cola sees the Olympics as providing
“a global platform that not only allows us
to market our portfolio of brands,” said
McCune, “it allows us to build special
relationships with our partners, support
our efforts to improve the planet (Coke’s
worldwide Olympic Torch Relay is based
on an environmental platform), and motivate
our people.”
From a legacy standpoint, Tan of UPS says
that “we will constantly engage ourselves
in community services work in China and
around the world.” As for Coca-Cola, Beijing
is its fourth largest market in terms of total
volume of sales. With that in mind, McCune
said, “Our goal in China is to continue to
build our brand portfolio and contribute to
the long-term sustainability of every community
we serve.”
On 8/08/08 at 8 p.m. (the number 8 connotes
good fortune to the Chinese), the Olympics
comes to China. But for the companies
involved, who wins gold is of far less interest
than how much goodwill is generated and
brand recognition achieved. Similarly for
China, the medal count will be secondary
to whether or not the world perceives that
this ancient land has truly arrived as a
progressive, open country.
 Previous Page | Top
|
