Muhtar Kent -Chairman & CEO, The Coca Cola Company

Wow, what an introduction. I certainly don't deserve all of that, for sure. And I also feel so humbled standing up here between these two incredibly beautifully crafted trophies here. And thanks to Waterford, they've done a wonderful job. Let's give Waterford a hand. What an incredible audience here, too. I've met ministers, ambassadors, presidents, governors, mayors, CEOs, and incredibly distinguished people. It's great to be here in Ireland with so many of my fellow CEOs and other leaders from business, from government everywhere. I'm honored on behalf of all of our 770,000 strong employees in 207 nations across the world to be part of this first overseas meeting of the Boston College CEO Club. But I'm not going to let that go to my head. After all, I know my role here is to serve as kind of pre-game entertainment, so to speak, for tomorrow. But even without cheerleaders, I'll try not to disappoint.

Firstly, Ireland holds a very special place in my life. Back in 1981, I came to Ireland. I was based in Amsterdam working for the Coca-Cola company. '81, that's a long time ago. And I came here for 2 days, and I stayed for 70 days. I had an accident and they saved my life at Trinity College Baggot Street Hospital. So I owe my life to that institution, so it holds a very special place in my heart, Baggot Street Hospital that is no longer there in that building. But every time I come to Dublin, I go past that building, and look at it, and cherish it. Secondly, one of the reasons I stand here before you today, and one of the reasons that I cherish my role so much is Don Keough, an incredible friend and mentor to me. And I know that I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for his friendship and mentorship over the many, many years, almost 40 years that that span my career. So Ireland—and of course, he had such deep Irish heritage. So for the record, as it was said a little before, I'm pulling for both teams tomorrow, as we'd like the chance to refresh all thirsty fans at the game.

The stories of Ireland and America are as richly connected as the stories of any two nations separated by an ocean. In fact, Ireland and America are not so much separated by the Atlantic as they are joined, actually, by that body of water. In the 19th century, men and women set out from Dublin, Cork, Galway, other towns and villages all across Ireland. They journeyed to Boston, they journeyed to New York, Chicago, and many other places, including Savannah, in our home state. Passage to America was, of course, difficult, of course, dangerous. But those were desperate days in Ireland, and America offered hope, opportunity. Reaching America, though, was not the end of a challenge, but it was the start of a new chapter, a new opportunity, for the Irish and for America, and for the story of connection, and partnership, and shared spirit that continues to this day. That dynamic shared story of this great nation, Ireland, and America has many facets. We're connected from America to Ireland and vice versa culturally, socially, spiritually, and politically. We're connected as free people, democratic people. More than half of America's presidents have had Irish roots, from Teddy Roosevelt, to Jack Kennedy, to Ronald Reagan, Barack Obama. Many great captains of American industry have roots here, from Henry Ford, to Bill Gates and beyond, and many here, of course. We're also linked by 30 million Americans connected to Ireland through their heritage. And that's not on St. Patrick's Day, when the number of Irish-Americans goes to 300 million on St. Patrick's Day. And we're connected, of course, by commerce. America's Ireland's number one destination for exports. And Ireland brings in more goods from America than any other country except Great Britain. There are hundreds of US firms like mine based in Ireland today employing about 175,000 people in a host of industries from manufacturing, to retail, to banking, innovation, and for good reason. Ireland is a great place to do business.

For our part, Coca-Cola has been refreshing Irish people since 1952, the year that I was born. We're a local business here. We hire locally. We produce locally. We distribute locally. We create value locally for local businesses, local communities. And our system, including our company and our bottling partners in Ireland, called Coca-Cola Hellenic, we employ about almost 1,800 people here in Ireland directly. And another 6,000 Irish jobs are supported by our business and our supply chains. We create value for more than 25,000 retail outlets here in Ireland, shops, restaurants, pubs, cafes, cinemas, a number of which I visited yesterday here in Dublin and also in other parts of the country. And since 2000, our system has invested nearly 1 billion euros in Ireland, and we keep on investing. Yesterday in Ballina, in the west of Ireland, we announced an incremental investment of 26 million euros in a new production line for Coca-Cola Freestyle. What is Coca-Cola Freestyle? It's the Coca-Cola of fountain of the 21st century, a high-tech dispenser that gives people the choice of more than 100, in some instances, depending on the model, 200 different delicious beverages. And that footprint only had before this innovation, six or eight different choices. So 6 or 8 different choices have gone to 100 or 200 choices.

From the start, the Irish have more than played their part in our history, in our story, in the Coca-Cola story. Asa Candler, a visionary brand builder, founded the Coca-Cola company in 1899. Mr. Candler called one of his Atlanta homes Callan Castle. Many decades later, my great friend, the late Don Keogh, my dear mentor helped make Coca-Cola the planet-spanning brand that it is today. Don was loved by many in this room here and far beyond, and for good reason. He never met a stranger. He was never too busy to care about people or share his love for life, and also for Coca-Cola. When tomorrow's game is over, the victors will hoist the Keough-Naughton trophy for the first time. And I want to thank Martin and Carmel Naughton, and also their family—and Neil is here, of course—for honoring our dear friend Don Keough and his legacy in this very special way. Thank you very much.

I'm later going to meet this afternoon with my good friend and predecessor Neville Isdell. As Coca-Cola's Indiana Jones, Neville left the good life of retirement to return to the company at a time of difficulty and doubt. Frankly at that time, the Coca-Cola company was struggling a little bit. And as chairman and CEO, this proud son of County Down made a real and lasting difference in boosting morale and getting our business back to the track of growth. And we continued to build on Neville's good work in the last eight, nine years. And today, Coca-Cola is led by people from every corner of the globe. But the Irish are well represented. Irial Finan, head of our global bottling investment group, Paul Mulligan, who runs our North America operations, John Murphy, who heads our entire Asian businesses, and Damian Gammell, I think who is here, who runs our largest global bottler based in London, Coca-Cola European Partners, and so many others. And of course the Irish aren't only making a difference at Coca-Cola. All around the world, Ireland continues to make an outsized impact, positive outsized impact. In 2015, WEF, the World Economic Forum—which I was the proud chair of its International Business Council for a number of years—again named Ireland our planet's most globalized nation based on economic globalization, based on social globalization, based on political globalization. Ireland's outsized impact on the world is now, and always will be shaped and fueled by the legacy, by the great legacy of her people, people here, people abroad. And again, I mention Neville Isdell, my predecessor, has invested a lot of passion, a lot of energy, a lot of money from his own pockets to create an amazing new interactive experience that shares exceptional stories of Ireland and the Irish diaspora and a museum that he has created appropriately named Epic Island. The museum recently opened here in Dublin, and it's not to be missed. Trust me.

Not everything has been sweetness. Not everything has been always shining and light. The global financial crisis brought some new and intense challenges back in 2008 and '09. America's mortgage crisis sent under-capitalization stocks across Europe and Ireland down. And there was also fallout from the housing bubble. The Celtic Tiger, so long the envy of Europe, was knocked down, but not out, not knocked out, not by a long shot. In time, Ireland would battle back with resilience and with determination. And now Ireland again is amongst the leaders in terms of economic competitiveness, back again in the top two dozen countries, according to the World Economic Forum, in the world. And ranks eighth on the innovation chart in the world. And this nation leads the EU in two key areas, depth of innovation, measurable gains in social goods, and economic returns from innovation investments, hugely important in the 21st century. These are both very important indicators. Yes, Brexit raises fresh concerns. Ireland does have a lot at stake given their extensive ties across the water with Great Britain. What will ultimately happen in Brexit is impossible to know, of course, at this point. But it's safe to say that the legacy of partnership between Ireland and America is not going to change. Whatever happens in the United States, we will continue to stand with Ireland in terms of trade with Ireland and investing Ireland. Last year, I chaired the B20 meeting at the G20 gathering of heads of State. B20 is the business side of the G20. And I asked Taoiseach Enda Kenny to help share the story of Ireland's economic recovery with this group. And Ann Nolan came from the Secretary of Finance and the Department of Finance, and gave a very powerful and well-received presentation about that whole story so everyone in the G20 nations could also learn and benefit from that.

And at a fundamental level, Ireland understands what we call at Coca-Cola the power of partnerships. In an increasingly complex and interconnected world, that's the way that you can actually get things done on a sustainable basis, partnerships. By partnering with others, other nations, other businesses, other organizations across what we call again at Coca-Cola, the golden triangle of business, government, and civil society. Why? Because each sector brings to the table unique strengths in that golden triangle. We at Coca-Cola, we were built on the power of partnerships. 250 bottling partners around the globe, some of which are here. John Brock is here, who's the president and CEO of Coca-Cola European Partners, he's here, and many others in the room. We will depend on the power of partnerships to refresh the world. Partnerships with our bottlers, as I said, who make more than 3,000 products and 500 brands that we own as the Coca-Cola company. Partnerships with our wonderful consumers who invite our products into their lives 1.9 billion times every single day. Partnerships with our share-owners, who believe in our vision to create even longer-term sustainable value. Partnerships with our suppliers, ad agencies, valued business partners. Partnerships with our customer partners, retail, and shops, supermarkets, restaurants. And partnerships with other vital stakeholders like governments, and like the great partnership we have here with IDA and the government of Ireland. And I want to again mention what a great novel idea it was when it was first put into place, the IDA, and spurring investment, inviting companies like ours to unpack our bags and stay in Ireland forever. And that's what we have done as all the other companies that are here represented that are investing in Ireland.

But in today's world, businesses must create more shared value for countries and communities. Some call this inclusive capitalism. Some call this connected capitalism. In our world of Coca-Cola, we focus on the three W's—water, women, and well-being. That's what guides us as a sort of corridor of shared value creation. And in terms of women, we have been the first commercial enterprise to set a goal to create economic empowerment for 5 million women by 2020 outside of our 4 walls. And we are headed—we have achieved our objectives so far in the first 5 years, and we are going to get to 5 million women entrepreneurs by 2020. And when we first announced the goal in 2010, people thought we were out of our minds. How can you get that done? And we would go out into countries. We identify the women entrepreneurs with our partner NGOs. We are connected to the IFC, International Finance Corporation, who has put on the table $100 million microcredit facility. We train the women entrepreneur candidates in basic accounting, stock rotation, retailing, distribution, logistics, and launch them as either distributors—and they can distribute not just Coca-Cola products, any other products in the consumer world—and they become women retailers. And we have now achieved 1.3 million women entrepreneurs as countered by PWC, and we're on our target by the end of this decade to get to 5 million.

On water, we were again the first enterprise in the world that had put a goal together, a goal forward in 2010 to become water neutral by 2020. Water neutral means for every liter of water we take to make our beverages, we give back that liter. And we have been declared water neutral as the first Fortune 50 corporation in the world to have achieved water neutrality in 2015. And there was a big event organized by the Nobel people in Stockholm just a few days ago talking about that, and giving us the honor of having achieved that goal five years ahead of our objective. And then on well-being, we know that we have to play an important role in being part of the solution for non-communicable diseases like obesity. And that's why we have set a goal to have a well-being program in every market where we operate, in partnership with governments, and cities, and states. And that program is well underway, again. And we're doing that through multiple different channels around the world. Coca-Cola also has been a longstanding partner of RED. And we're working with the RED and the Global Fund to end mother-to-child transmission of AIDS by 2020. That's a goal. As you may know, RED is the brainchild of two great Irish partners, Bono and Bobby Shriver. My friend Bono is, well, Bono an Irish force for nature and an international force for good. As for the Shrivers, I've worked with both Maria, Tim, and Bobby for many years at Special Olympics, which we at Coca-Cola have been proud to be a partner of, founding partner of since it was created by Eunice Kennedy Shriver in 1968. And Loretta—I don't know if Loretta is in the room. Is she in the room, Loretta? Yeah, Loretta is in the room. She was a close personal friend and confidant, of course, of Eunice. She's completed 26 marathons in her athletics career. She's been awarded two honorary doctorate degrees. And I personally on the board of Special Olympics value Loretta's fierce and ongoing commitment to the ideals and the values of Special Olympics, dignity, and fair play, and inclusiveness. So would you stand up, Loretta, so we can recognize you?

Power of partnerships is not the only thing the world can learn from Ireland, though. And I basically have five related ideas that I'd like to finish with. Number one is dynamism. Countries, communities, companies have to keep moving. Ireland has a way of importing and exporting great ideas and great people. Ireland's wanderlust keeps people moving out while Ireland's hospitality, warm hospitality, keeps people moving in. And that kind of dynamism is so healthy. Diversity is so healthy. Diverse ideas, and diverse people, and diverse cultures. John Kennedy put it this way. "Immigration," he said, quote, "is not just compatible with, but is a necessary component of economic growth," unquote. I wish we could remember that more often these days. Number two is cultural pride. When you have a culture as old, and as varied, and as rich as Ireland, it tends to keep people healthy and grounded. Culture and enduring values also create and strengthen connections between people. And they've helped preserve the dignity of the Irish people even in the toughest of times. Millions in today's world would benefit immensely if they enjoyed even a fraction of the noble and cultural pride of the Irish. Number three is innovation. I mentioned it earlier, but innovation is, in a way, the coin of the 21st century. Ireland has become a bustling hub of innovation, and not by accident. This nation was the first to create a public agency devoted to attracting investment. I mentioned the IDA. Martin Shannon is here. And what a great partner you've been to us, Martin. Number four is resilience. When they knock you down, you get back up here with humor, you get up with pride, you get up with courage, and you get up with innovation. Resilience actually flourishes when people respect history and traditions while remaining also open to change. Today's world, I humbly say, needs more resilience, needs more Irish-minded people and Irish-minded institutions. Number five, and last but not least, collaboration always trumps conflict. History rarely moves in a linear fashion. Even so, Ireland's journey from conflict and strife to partnership and collaboration is one of the most remarkable and instructive of the past quarter of a century. Ireland is peaceful today, while too much of the world beyond is not. For those places, Ireland has marked at least one way forward with political, and cultural, and religious leadership, and of course, with courage.

In the greatest tradition of Irish storytelling, I want to share one last story. How many here remember the 1970s Coca-Cola TV spot that showed young people from different lands on a hilltop singing, I'd Like to Buy the World a Coke? That commercial was not dreamt by Don Draper, as you may have seen in last years in the final moments of TV'S Mad Men. In truth, the song was written by a legendary but very, very, very real man named Bill Backer, who passed away earlier this year. He was flying to London when his plane was diverted to Shannon due to fog. The passengers spent the night in Shannon, and some were, of course, not too happy with that diversion. The next morning, however, with London still fogged in, he, Mr. Backer, noticed that some of the previously more unhappy travelers were sitting around laughing, exchanging jokes, stories over ice-cold bottles of Coca-Cola. Inspired, he found a napkin and scribbled down these words. "I'd like to buy the world a Coke and keep it company." The song was on the radio less than a month later, and the rest is, of course, history. 45 years later, people are still talking about Bill Backer's song. But we can all agree that the world could use more love. That is something that we can all agree. More understanding, more acceptance, more collaboration, more cooperation, more partnership, like we see here, right here in Ireland, like we see between Ireland and America. We at Coca-Cola like to say that Coca-Cola provides people with simple moments of pleasure and refreshment. And that is true. As we do, we also want to make sure that we do our part to help make the world a better place. And not by ourselves, but through the power of partnerships, known by, exemplified by Irish people in this great country and in all Irish people all around the world. Thank you for listening to me. I appreciate the hospitality, and thank you for inviting me here. Thank you.

Thank you very much. And we'll now take a few questions, if we have time for them. I'm looking to Warren. Do we? We're OK? Good. So any questions the audience may have about what I said, about anything you want to ask me, I'm happy to take any questions. And there's microphones. Just raise your hand and we'll get a microphone to you. No questions? No. Well—yes, there is a question right here in the front. Can we have a microphone table three? Hello? Hi. Oh, hi. Where are you? Two o'clock. Sorry. Hi. We'll come back to you.

Yeah. I mean, I was with Taoiseach Enda Kenny yesterday inaugurating a new investment. We're very comfortable with Ireland. As I said, we have unpacked our bags and we're here to stay. We're not tourists. And we're very happy to be here in that mode. And I understand that Minister Mitchell O'Connor's going to be here after me talking about this matter, so I'll leave those words to her. But from the side of business as I see it, as the CEO and chairman of the Coca-Cola company, as one of the largest investors in Ireland, one of the first investors in Ireland 63 years ago—I know that date because it was in 1952, the year I was born—we're very happy. And I am sure that many of my successors when they come to Ireland, and they come and speak here, when that investment has doubled, tripled $2 billion, $3 billion in the future, they will also be very happy.

Yeah. In just the minutes proceeding lunch, I was talking to a couple of people about China. You know, China is a long-term story. It's a huge market. It's done something the world has never done before, which is bring 300 million people into the middle class in a two-decade period. It's never been done in the world before ever in the history of the world. So let's recognize what has been done. Anything like that also has its own—the best dog in the world has fleas. And all of that that has taken place, all that positive, there is some issues with that because of the speed with which it happened, because of the reliance on the export market, and not reliance only on internal consumption. And they're trying to balance that. You have to give China an incredible amount of credit for what they have done. It's the first in the history of the world. And will it be replicated in the continent of Africa, the youngest continent in the world? Will it be replicated in India? Will it be replicated in Indonesia, 350 million people in a Muslim country? Time will tell. We don't know. It's been done once. Pendulum has swung. In its fever against corruption, I salute Xi Jinping for what he's doing in terms of trying to bring all of that to a balance, to an equilibrium. And now there is a little bit of a stalemate with governors, with mayors who don't like to move as fast as before. But that's all going to come—the pendulum's going to come back towards the middle, as it always does, as it always does. And that's how I see it. The growth in China has slowed down. Some of the statistics do not relate to everyday life in China. Disposable income, which is something that we track, is much lower than the published GDP numbers. That's a reality, and we all have to live with that. And we go forward continuing to invest for the future in China, because the future in China is going to be a very bright and very great future for all companies there because of the dynamism of the people of China and that economy, too. Do we have time for another question? One more.

Thank you for asking me that question, Mayor Reed. And Mayor Reed was part of a group of subnational leaders and business leaders that we convened together in the World Economic Forum two years ago now talking about this issue of youth unemployment, and talking about this issue of growth with no employment, and what we all have to do as leaders in the world. And the reason we invited only subnational leaders to that meeting was because we felt that in the world today, subnational leaders, which is mayors and governors in the world act like CEOs. They make decisions, as opposed to national leaders in the world, that unfortunately do not make decisions in today's world. And so we had a great meeting. And that work is continuing now in terms of aligning education more to the needs of business, in terms of making sure that vocational degrees. Two-year vocational degrees are as important as four-year degrees and universities, as important as the country of Switzerland. 40% of the CEOs in Switzerland don't have a four-year degree. They only have two-year degrees. And then if they want to, they can get a four-year degree as they work at night in addition to their normal jobs. And there's a huge mismatch in the world, which we have uncovered in that meeting, and we keep on working at it at WEF. And I just came from another WEF summer meeting, Mayor Reed, where that issue was again put on the table with Christine Lagarde, the head of the IMF, talking about how we are all going to crumble underneath this cracked social mosaic if we don't do something about this, that our lives as we know it, our children will not be able to have and enjoy if this social mosaic cracks in front of our eyes. Because today in the world, there's about 300 million unemployed. 200 million of that is youth. And the youth is adding, because you have the youngest continent in Africa, you've got the youngest geography in the world, the Middle East, when all of these unemployed are being recruited for bad things. And therefore, we just have to all in business and in civil society universities, like the great ones that are here, Boston College, and also our hometown university, we all have to do something about this together with mayors. And I say mayors and governors are the ones that are going to help us, because those are the people who think of jobs just like we think of jobs. And here, your prime minister, your Taoiseach is an exception, I tell you, is an exception. We need more recognition of this in the world. And unfortunately because of the bickering that's going on in national government, that's not taking place. And so we need to convene more groups of CEOs, business leaders, investors, and mayors, and governors in the world where we will find solutions to these issues, I believe. Thank you for asking the question, and thank you again for listening to me today.