Caught by the fizz

When soft drinks giant Coca-Cola was forced to look outside the organisation to recruit senior marketing professionals, it decided it was time to establish a programme to identify the talent it had internally. Although the company already had a reputation for growing talent from within, in 2005 only 67 per cent of senior roles were filled internally – a figure that had risen to 93 per cent by last year.

Group HR director Stevens J Sainte-Rose is certainly pleased the figure has grown, but he’s also keen that the doors be kept open for external appointments. “You always have to have a fresh perspective and fresh thinking,” he says. “I have already started working on how we start creating an external talent pipeline that will help us to manage both.”