Brewing Worldwide: Global Strategy & Culture Alignment
Objectives:
Guinness Brewing had enjoyed nearly a decade of double-digit volume growth after rebranding themselves from an old-timers pub-only drink into a more modern, pub-and-take-home beverage appealing to a much broader audience. However, they were dealing with significant headwinds from an aging (mostly unionized and often afraid and/or uncooperative) workforce, increasing global competition, and the cruel realities of modernized production which is geographically agnostic. Especially in the home countries of Ireland and the U.K. (the U.K. – not Ireland – is in fact where Guinness was originally incorporated in 1759), relations were frayed and competition was relentless.
Our Role:
Over the course of two years, we worked with the senior executive team of the worldwide company to align on an overall strategic intent – “World’s Foremost Brewer” – along with specific measurable outcomes (strategic promises) that would define success. These included hard metrics around market share, revenue, profitability and quality standards, and also softer metrics around employee engagement and levels of collaboration within and between business units. In addition to working with business unit leadership teams in Malaysia, Cameroon, Nigeria, Spain, the U.K. and Ireland, we worked directly with the entire brewery and production staffs and hourly workers in many of those locales, in total more than 14,000 executives, managers and employees.
Outcomes:
Every engagement was aimed at helping employees and business unit leaders come together around a shared vision and common objectives; some units were more successful than others but overall performance improved within every division. Safety metrics improved, costs declined, engagement (or equivalent metrics) increased, and the overall mood of each operation noticeably improved. As a whole, the company increased market share, reduced costs and dramatically improved the levels of partnership and collaboration between business units. Said Finbarr Flood, then Managing Director of the Guinness Dublin brewery, “You very quickly managed to gain acceptance and trust, a major achievement in the negative climate prevailing in the organization at that time. Overall, we made significant progress, and I thank you for the contribution you made to that success.”