Honest Tea: Organizational Structure
Honest Tea (U.S.) is a bottled organic tea company based inBethesda, Maryland. It was founded in 1998 by Seth Goldman andBarry Nalebuff. The company is a wholly owned subsidiary of theCoca-Cola Company. Coca-Cola invested 40% in 2008 and bought therest of the company in 2011. Honest Tea is known for its organicand fair trade products and is one of the fastest growing privatecompanies.
Honest Tea started off with a handful of employees bringing outfive products, three of which are still in the market. As HonestTea began to grow, it became necessary to have workers specializedin different tasks so that they ultimately function as a singleunit. Today the company has over 35 package varieties of not onlytea but other beverages as well.
Honest Tea caters to a group of customers that prefer organic orlow calorie beverages over other types of beverages. The advantagehere is that Honest Tea is able to use skilled specialists to dealwith this unique customer base. Honest Tea came into this categoryof customers as a challenger. The whole process of sourcingmaterial, production, marketing, and sales was different since itcatered to a different group of customer.
Honest Tea finds that it must continually adapt to changingcircumstances and environments. Initially organic or low calorietea was the only product, but the firm has expanded to variousother beverages. Bringing out new and innovative beverages issomething that Honest Tea continues to do. Honest Tea follows avery transparent work culture which has helped them to avoid someof the problems that typical growing organizations face. Honest Teabelieves that growth is continuous; the firm should never considerthat they have finished achieving what they set out toaccomplish.
Describe the role of division of labor and hierarchy ay HonestTea.
In what ways has business strategy and organizational sizeimpacted Honest Tea. How might this change in the future?
Does Honest Tea have more of an organic or mechanisticstructure? How can you tell?
