An analysis of culture in The Kirin Group

Abstract

Today, a broad and deep understanding of the concept of "culture" is one of the keys to understanding and solving the challenges of managing complex organizations. The Kirin Group, too, has been working on changing its organization culture. Specifically, after Kirin began to implement its globalization strategy in 2006, the organization culture challenge became one of the keystones to executing the new strategy. The Japanese alcohol market is shrinking so rapidly that Kirin recognizes it must expand its business beyond its home market and into overseas markets. Kirin aims to achieve sustainable growth through this globalization. To execute the 2006 business strategy, Kirin engaged in a number of mergers and acquisitions that brought cultural diversity into the Kirin organization. This expansion requires Kirin to understand and embrace a range of different cultures. Historically, Kirin has pursued organic growth and maintained a mono-culture organization. Even though Kirin understands the necessity of this organization culture change in order to align with its new strategy, Kirin is still moving along the road to culture change. It is a challenge. In this thesis, I explore the question of how to build organization culture in a decentralized, global company. I define culture and the concepts of culture analysis, then analyze Kirin Group's organization culture from the perspective of these concepts. I focus specifically on how Kirin operates in two different cultures: Japan and Brazil. Through my analysis, I found that Kirin is altering its approach to culture change as it learns from its own experiences in past efforts. However, Kirin also postponed solving some fundamental culture change challenges in order to mitigate the impact of organization change. I recommend that Kirin fully embrace diverse cultures and include them in the overall Kirin Group culture as part of its strategy of becoming a global company.