Without an iota of doubt, Coca Cola and Pepsi are the two biggest makers of Cola drinks in the world and the competition between them has been very aggressive especially in the developed worlds where their advertisements seem to attack each other.
They have spent millions of dollars on endorsement alone by targeting superstars and one which really caught the world was when Michael Jackson was made a mega offer by Pepsi and they eventually had a deal with the King of Pop earning them Billions of dollars in sale.
Coca cola is definitely seen as the Zenith of the Cola Industry and that was why in 2006, an employee of Coca Cola, Joya Williams tried breaking business norms by selling trade secrets to Pepsi for 1.5 million dollars.
The secret ingredients of Coca Cola is highly classified and regarded as the most important knowledge in the Company and only known by few top executives in the company.
In 2006, an employee named Joya Williams alongside two others were arrested by the FBI as they tried selling highly classified secrets to Pepsi.
What was about to be sold wasn’t entirely an existing product but one yet to be introduced and that could have killed Coca Cola’s company or put them at a great loss.
Pepsi did an amazing thing by Contacting Coca Cola and letting them know of an their employee trying to sell trade secrets.
“Pepsi, to their great credit, turned the letter over to Coke, who brought the matter to us,” said David E. Nahmias, United States former attorney for the Northern District of Georgia. He is the current presiding Justice of the Supreme Court of Georgia.
After alerting the FBI, some of their agents posed as Pepsi staff and negotiations continued till the arrest of Williams and her co plotters which Coca Cola confirmed.
Mr. Nahmias, the then United States attorney, said PepsiCo had acted as a “good corporate citizen,” but that it could have been legally liable if it had tried to buy the trade secrets.”
Federal agents said they had videotaped Joya Williams going through files as she packed documents and stuffed them into bags. She was also filmed holding a glass vial which contained the sample she was about to sell to Pepsi.
One of her co-plotters, Dimson who posed as DIRK in the letter met with the undercover agents at the airport to make the exchange of the classified documents and drink sample for some fees.
It was definitely a good move by Pepsi as the corporate entity said those trade secrets are good for competition and the Cola industry at large. “Competition must be fierce, but it must also be fair and legal,” Pepsi said at some point.
Coca-Cola which is seen to be one of the biggest brands in the world will forever be grateful to her competitor, Pepsi for that act.
Remember the business world is a very competitive and dangerous terrain for the fittest and smartest. Do you think Pepsi acted based on its ethics of for fear of being caught on the long run?