The Coca-Cola Company’s creation of Red Garage Ventures to Drive Internal
Disruption
Franki Chamaki
Founding Director Red Garage Ventures & HIVERY
Classified – Confidential | Page 2
Going to cover…
1. Importance of clear innovation goal
2. Leverage internal assets to create a competitor advantage
3. Experiment (i.e. Learn by doing)
1. Incremental innovation:
Sometimes called continuous
improvement.
2. Radical
innovation: Sometimes called
revolutionary, typically leveraging the same
business model.
3. Transformational
innovation: Sometimes called
disruptive innovation -this changes strategy.
Creates a new business model.
Return
Risk
Existing Business
Model
(70%)
New Business
Model
(10%)
Leveraging existing
Business Model
(20%)
Classified – Confidential | Page 3
Where to play? Define your Innovation Agenda
Risk
Lean, Six Sigma, Continuous
improvement etc.
Partially known Unknown
Return
Known
Classified – Confidential | Page 4
Horizon 1
Defining your innovation agenda helps define your approach…
Pilots, Agile, Scrum etc.
Lean Start-up (a lot of experimentation)
This means different type of governance regimes, execution approaches and more importantly different kinds of KPIs/reporting and incentives
Cokes Assets + Start up thinking
=New business model
Managers not
Explorers
Version 1.0
Inside not
outside
Version 2.0
Connected not
depended
Version 3.0
Learning by Doing
Sydney was the first prototype
Coke invests in founders, helps set up a separate independent entity
provides seed funding, becomes the first customer, and then takes a minority share if and when the
business becomes viable.
Recruitment &induction
Senior levelSupport Independence
Internal Advisor
Buenos Aires
Rio de Janeiro
Mexico City
San FranciscoBerlin
Bangalore
Singapore
Sydney
Tel Aviv
London
Shanghai
Coca-Cola Entrepreneurial Program
“Founders program” was launched in 2013 to “co-create” with Coke solve big problems
Launch• Coke scouts and
selects 1-2 founders
• Funders contract / convertible note
• “Deep immersion” of challenges and assets
• Founders launch new company (startup)
• Startup begins searching for problem/solution fit
• Coke supports lean startup andtracks progress
• Develop commercial agreements to scale solution across Coke
• Startup scales the company—beyond Coke
• Coke converts or chooses to follow-on in additionalfunding rounds
• Collaborate with Coke to test assumptions
• Startup iterates on product, expands customers beyond Coke
• Coke helps connect relationships with external investors and media
Build Prove ScaleSet-up• Coke commits to
seed funding and
• Appoints a local Business Unit (BU) Advisor
Coca-Cola Entrepreneurial Program
Buenos Aires
Rio de Janeiro
Mexico City
San FranciscoBerlin
Bangalore
Singapore
Sydney
Tel Aviv
London
Shanghai
Coca-Cola Entrepreneurial Program
In December 2016 the program closed for new ventures. Re-focus back to the core business
Circular
Economy
Distribution
Big DataWelling
Hydration
Esens
Asset:
Expertise &
relationships
Asset:
Big dataAsset:
Waste
Circular
EconomyDistribution
Big DataWelling
Hydration
Esens
Innovation:
Design
Thinking
Innovation:
Hackathon
Innovation:
Trend &
collaboration
Circular
Economy
Distribution
Big DataWelling
Hydration
Esens
Focus:
Science
Focus: Scale Focus: Model
① Define the agenda
② Think assets as
platform
③ Learn by doing
④ Just on the edge⑤ Skin in the game
Franki Chamaki