For years, the Coca Cola corporation has encouraged us all to share a Coke and a smile. With their leaders working as strong role models, the sweet corporate giant is now coaxing others to share a lot more. Leading the way in a greater campaign to Live Positively, Senior Vice President, Bill O’Brien, and President of the North American Business Unit, Steve Cahillane, joined a team to run the ING New York Marathon this past November 1st raising money ($2.5 million) for Memorial Sloan-Kettering (MSK) Cancer Center, where more children are treated for cancer than anywhere else on the globe.
In a new America where corporations are vilified on a regular basis, Coca Cola is spearheading the way towards a time when tree huggers and health care officials alike will be placing giants like these on pedestals as symbols of righteousness. In a conversation with Bill O’Brien recently, he told me that his efforts on the roads were not only geared towards the fundraising, but were based on Coke’s bigger effort called “Live Positively” which encourages employees to bring their whole self to work. Bill says “it’s an effort to have employees round out their lives and with permission, they can do things that help make them a more complete person. It might be giving back to the community, doing things to become more healthy or any number of other things. But what it isn’t about is making their entire life about work!”
Even with a corporate push to Live Positively, 26.2 miles is no simple feat. With two previous marathons under his belt, Bill was easily inspired to take part as cancer has had a lasting effect on his family; his mother lost her battle with cancer, his brother fought cancer of the jaw and he even has a neice who successfully battled the vicious disease at the young age of 11. With all details presented, the opportunity for Bill to do good was just too great to pass up. Three weeks post-race he’s still sore, but says it was all worth it.
Great efforts like these are strong predictors of spectacular things to come from Coca-Cola. With the mass amount of people employed by this behemoth, and all of them given both the bright green light and a kick in the pants to go do positive things … it will be difficult to keep up with the mass impact taking place. Moreso, I see this program having even greater potential. A storied organization like Coke stands as a tremendous role model. It won’t be long before endless amounts of large and small companies are following in it’s footsteps and giving their employees a big boost to live better and do better. When employees feel good, they’re happier to be at work and do great work; this in turn, becomes a win, win, win for everyone!
For more info on the Coca-Cola Live Positively program, click here.
