In conversation: Nathan Kalumbu, Coke’s midfield marshal

However, Nathan Kalumbu is keen to stress that Coke’s interaction goes beyond selling the product. “We have to make sure that, as a business, we continue to enhance our social licence to operate in the communities that we do business in.

“As a company we are very, very focused on ensuring that we find that intersection point between commercial, profitable activities and sustainable initiatives. Our success and the success of communities go hand in hand.”

Making communities successful can mean taking a much wider perspective. For example, Coke was among the original sponsors of the World Economic Forum’s Global Shapers initiative that sets out to identify and support outstanding talents across the world.

A young Kenyan entrepreneur won the Coca-Cola ‘Shaping a Better Future Challenge’ by creating a light that can run without the use of batteries.

It has been a massive help to students struggling to work on their studies in remote areas of Africa. The award of $50,000 will help this and similar entrepreneurs further develop their products.

Another important programme is the Replenish Africa Initiative (RAIN). Coke and its partners have committed $70m and have already provided access to clean water to one million Africans

The Copa Coca-Cola football tournament now involves youth football teams from around the world: 21 African countries participated in the last event. The winning teams were given the treat of a lifetime when they were taken to watch the World Cup in Brazil. The best players are also given the opportunity to watch the world’s greats at World Cup events. This year, 35 out of the 116 teenagers were from Africa.

‘Me, We, World’ is the cornerstone of the company’s sustainability framework. “We focus on the three Ws,” says Kalumbu – “Water, Women and Well-being.” The objective is to empower five million women by 2020 and it has already supported 380,000 women across Africa.

The programme sets out to train women to become entrepreneurs. “Women are already an important part of our value chain,” says Kalumbu. “About 80% of our traditional stores in Africa are either manned or owned by women. Some of our largest distributors on the African continent are women. It is not simply a ‘nice to do’, it is good business.”

Another important programme is the Replenish Africa Initiative (RAIN). Coke and its partners have committed $70m and have already provided access to clean water to one million Africans and access to sanitation to 300,000 Africans.

Project Last Mile, which began in Tanzania when Kalumbu headed the East African operations, leverages the company’s distribution expertise to help get vital medication to far-flung and remote areas. It works in conjunction with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Access to medication through this system has improved by 20-30% and is being rolled out in Ghana as well.

USAID has now also joined in the programme and $21m has been committed to support the expansion over the next five years.

Another programme that was started when Kalumbu was running the regional operation from Nairobi is called ‘Project Nurture’. Again, it involved the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, TechnoServe (food farming specialists) and the Ministries of Agriculture of Kenya and Uganda.

The initiative provides funds and technical advice to small-scale farmers who grow fruits such as mango and passion fruit. Some 50,000 farmers have been able to bypass middlemen and sell directly to juice extractors linked to Coke, thereby earning considerably more for the products than previously.

As president of the Eurasia and Africa Group, Nathan Kalumbu constantly interacts with the regional headquarters, the bottlers under franchise, the distributors, retail outlets and customers.

He has to keep his finger on the pulse of all his markets. How does he manage with so many different languages, cultures?

“By sticking to my core values,” he responds. “Different languages are not a barrier – translations are easy but what resonates across my region are the values that the company stands for. Our success is directly linked to the success of the communities in which we operate. My job is to make sure that everyone associated with Coke lives out these values.”

What about business targets, especially in Africa? “We want to double the volume of sales in 10 years.

“In other words, we want to double the business that we created from 1928 to 2010 over a 10-year period.” If anyone can do it, Nathan Kalumbu can.