Coca-Cola boss says reaching the top is like Round 6: “a matter of survival”
The path to the C-suite can seem long, uncertain — and, at times, brutally competitive. Just ask Coca-Cola CEO James Quincey, who says his rise to the top had less to do with careful planning and more to do with resilience.
“In the end, how did I get to where I am?” Quincey said in a recent interview at London Business School. “You could argue it’s a matter of survival. I just flipped heads every time the coin was flipped over 20 rounds of jobs, and so I’m the only one left. “It’s kind of like Round 6.”
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The comparison with the popular dystopian Netflix series, in which participants survive round after round of high-stakes knockout games, can be made in jest. But Quincey’s point is serious: success often comes down to meeting the challenge in front of you, over and over again, until others get in the way.
Born in the United Kingdom, Quincey joined Coca-Cola in 1996 without a strict plan to become CEO. Instead, he sought roles that challenged him — rising to leadership roles in Latin America, including president of the company’s South American and Mexican divisions, before taking the helm as CEO in 2017 and chairman of the executive board in 2019.
At the end of last month, he stepped down as CEO to focus solely on chairing the board.
Executive says work-life balance is a “strange” idea
Ultimately, Quincey said, the secret to any success isn’t perfection — it’s persistence.
“Nobody gets there by just being an extra. You’ll need to be known for something in each role,” said Quincey, emphasizing that standing out requires taking risks — and accepting that not every bet will work out.
This mentality also extends beyond the workplace. Quincey is skeptical of the idea of work-life balance, calling it a misleading way to think about careers.
“This work-life balance thing is kind of weird if you ask me, because last time I checked, work is part of life, it’s not separate,” he said. “You need to choose how you want to invest your life… and that combination may change over time. But the choice is always yours.”
These decisions, he added, accumulate. How you use your time today can shape the opportunities available decades ahead.
His vision comes at a time when workers, faced with a volatile professional market, are rethinking career priorities.
Work-life balance is now the top factor for talent when considering jobs, according to a 2025 Workmonitor report from Randstad.
Some 83% of respondents name this as the most important consideration, marking the first time that work-life balance has trumped salary in the survey’s 22-year history.
Gen Z, in particular, whose entry-level positions are shrinking, has felt the pressure for better working conditions most acutely.
A recent KPMG survey of interns found that Gen Z workers would give up, on average, $5,000 in annual salary for a better work-life balance.
Fortune reached out to Coca-Cola for further comment.
Quincey starts his mornings calmly to focus better
Even at the top of your career, being strategic in setting priorities becomes more important than ever, said the 61-year-old executive — and his own approach is notably unconventional.
“Choosing what to focus on and keeping your priorities low becomes even more valuable,” he told the London Business School students. “I ramble.”
“I wake up very slowly in the morning, I drink a lot of coffee, I eat breakfast and I don’t fill my day with meetings,” he added.
While this level of flexibility may not be realistic for everyone, her advice for young people looking to boost their careers is straightforward: “Do something that gets you out of bed in the morning. There’s no job harder than the one you don’t want to do.”
