Asahi Brewerie Case

Asahi Breweries Ltd.

Willem Van Noten

Northwood University

MBA DeVos

Problem Statement

Asahi Breweries came up with a new type of beer that has increased their market share. Hirotaro Higuchi, President of Asahi Breweries, has to decide if they should invest in expanding their brewing and packaging capacity. Higuchi is concerned if the expansion ties in with their current corporate strategy and management, in order to increase profitability and sustainability.

Analysis

Art of Persuasion

Since the government licensed the distributors and retailers, new licenses were strictly limited. The distribution system tended to work as a barrier for players with a major share increase. This is why forming a good relationship with the government would be beneficial for Asahi if they want to be able to sustain their growth that comes with expanding their brewing and packaging capacity. Asahi has to follow the necessary steps of persuasion, which are establishing credibility, create a frame for common ground, provide evidence and connect emotionally, in order to from their close personalized relationship with the distributors.

Leading change,

Higuchi had to create a sense of urgency. The troubled Asahi was in need of change in order to be able to compete against their competitors and stay in the game. Through the customer preference research Asahi can show their employees that there is a demand for a new sharper tasting beer and that Asahi can meet this demand with their new dry beer. A way of leading change and successfully implementing it is by creating a task force. Create a group with shared commitment and enough power to lead the change. After getting the report from McKinsey, which explained the problems that Asahi was having, Murai created two cross-functional task forces, The Corporate Identity Introduction Team and the Total Quality Control Introduction team.

Leadership style

Higuchi has the ability to change his leadership style and use a style that best addresses the demands of a particular situation. Higuchi originally uses more of the coercive leadership style. This style has more of a "Do what I say" approach. A downfall to this approach was that it did not promote innovation, it inhibited the organizations flexibility and it dampened the employee's motivation. Under the new management, the new product developers were motivated more because of the willingness of top managers to market the products they developed. Higuchi started using ideas and proposals that originated in the lower levels of the organization. Initially, Higuchi rejected the launch of Super Dry because he thought it was released to soon after Asahi released its other new draft and would eventually cannibalize it. Because of the persistence of the Super Dry development team