Environmental Scanning

Boston Beer Company

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Introduction

Boston Beer Company Values and Strategy Paper

Jim Koch and his two classmates from Harvard Business School established the company in 1984. The recipe, which was taken for making the beer, belonged to his great-great-grandfather. In 1980, he became assured of the fact that he can come up with competitive and tastier product in his well-known niche market. It is one of the largest craft brewers in the United States of America. For raising the bar standard of his beer he traveled the world and researched about the best quality ingredient that can be employed in the recipe for making it impossible to be copied by his competitors.

In 1995, the firm became public and released its first initial public offering (IPO). Today, the firm holds 1400 employees working under the same name and having the passion like Jim has for his firm. The company is not only an owner of a great establishment but has managed to introduce 21 styles of beer, which have received world appreciation in the form of 18 international awards. From its proprietary product, the company successfully sold out 4.0 million barrels in the fiscal year of 2016 (Cable News Network, 2017; The Boston Beer Company, 2017).

This process includes the major choices that a firm makes and synchronizes all its activities and goals as per the selection of options it makes for its business conduct. This process means emphasizing on the organization's strategy, and this can be defined as the set of strategy firm cultivate in order to lead the better performance. Following are the four steps, which are major parts of this process:

Environmental Scanning

This means collecting and scrutinizing the information for utilizing it in strategic purpose. All those factors that bear the influence of affecting the firm internally or externally are evaluated. In fact, if the firm desires to accomplish improving then it keeps on evaluating its external and internal factors.

Strategy Formulation

For accomplishing the business objective the best course of actions are developed under this step. Corporate, business, and functional strategies are formed after evaluating the environmental scanning.

Strategy Implementation

This simply implies making the strategy work as per the set of actions designed for organization. The strategy can only be applied at the firm if its whole structure is modified as per the strategy selected; if not, then it will not implement properly also will not result as per the expectations.

Strategy Evaluation

This step is as important as other three steps of the process. Its key functions include an appraisal of internal and external factors for matching its performance targets in order to derive conclusions for further actions so that desired objectives can be accomplished (Strategic Management Process - Meaning, its Steps and Components, 2017).

“To seek long-term gainful enlargement through offering supreme quality products to the US beer drinker” (The Boston Beer Company Investor Relations Center - Overview, 2017).

“Make Sam Adam’s beer as the largest and most respected beer in the US.” (The Boston Beer Company Investor Relations Center - Overview, 2017)

The firm has always tried to come up with something new all the time. There is a variety of product introduced by the firm. The company has invested much in research and is still looking forward to introducing something new to the same market. There has been such a strong rivalry between the competitors if a firm does not introduce something new or innovative within the course of time then falls behind in the competition. For evaluation of drinker interest, the firm occasionally sells them under various brand labels so that it can maintain its commitment to being a leading innovator.

People Strategy

The firm believes in providing the legal rights to its employees because of which it has covered its 99 employees under collective bargaining among 1, 505 at the Cincinnati Brewery. The company now holds three labor unions due to which it believes that it has sustained the successful relationship with its employee. In the whole experience of working till now, the firm has never come across any stoppage of work or any not valid demand from the employees working under them (The Boston Beer Company Investor Relations Center - Overview, 2017).

This strategy is observed when management is working effectively in accomplishing its goals along with keeping its employee morale at the optimum level. In order to motivate the workers, the firm has to make their job challenging enough, provide attractive incentives, empower steady work decision and of course flexible working environment. All these have been partially managed by the firm because the collective bargaining agreement cannot bear all the terms favoring employees. Here in the Boston Beer Inc., the less turnover ratio defines the satisfaction from the firm (Millette, & Gagné, 2008).

Strategic planning requires reviewing mission and vision, which is derived from the corporate philosophy, and philosophy means the core existence of the firm. The set of ethics determines the classification of firm among good or bad decision. All strategic decisions are only ethically considered right when they follow the firm designed ethical standard. Everything that management follows in the organization is per the ethics designed by the firm.

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is important while planning because the company exists within the society and produces products or services that are aimed at making local people lives even more comfortable or better. If something produced beyond the favor of social welfares then that may produce the harsh image of the firm, which ultimately destroys the consumer trust (McWilliams, & Siegel, 2000).

Every firm follows a proper structure. The job description and job specification of the single employee are linked with the firm objective, which is further linked with vision and mission. Therefore me, as an employee, and my values are linked with the company's mission and vision because if my value does not match with job description I’m currently working on then I may not be able to perform as per the objectives are given to me.

Every organization can effectively meet its short-term goals when there is uniformity of objectives spoken at the every level of the management. For accomplishing the strategic objective all employees are required to understand the clarity of the firm objectives and their role in accomplishing the same.

References

McWilliams, A., & Siegel, D. (2000). Corporate social responsibility and financial performance: correlation or misspecification?. Strategic Management Journal, 21(5), 603-609. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/(sici)1097-0266(200005)21:5<603::aid-smj101>3.3.co;2-v

Millette, V., & Gagné, M. (2008). Designing volunteers’ tasks to maximize motivation, satisfaction and performance: The impact of job characteristics on volunteer engagement. Motivation And Emotion, 32(1), 11-22. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11031-007-9079-4

Russell 2000 Index - CNNMoney.com. (2017). Money.cnn.com. Retrieved 30 April 2017, from http://money.cnn.com/data/markets/russell/?page=13

Strategic Management Process - Meaning, its Steps and Components. (2017). Managementstudyguide.com. Retrieved 30 April 2017, from http://www.managementstudyguide.com/strategic-management-process.htm

The Boston Beer Company Investor Relations Center - About Us. (2017). Bostonbeer.com. Retrieved 30 April 2017, from http://www.bostonbeer.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=69432&p=irol-homeprofile

The Boston Beer Company Investor Relations Center - Overview. (2017). Bostonbeer.com. Retrieved 30 April 2017, from http://www.bostonbeer.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=69432&p=irol-overview