Winning Behaviour Strategy of Carlsberg: A Case Study Report

This report offers a comprehensive analysis of Carlsberg's 'Winning Behaviours' strategy, examining its strategic HR priorities, including attracting top talent, developing leaders, improving employee wellbeing, and encouraging teamwork. It delves into the rationale behind the strategy, its alignment with other HR practices such as equity and diversity, workforce planning, social responsibility, and work-life balance. The report also analyzes the difficulties Carlsberg faced while implementing the strategy in Malaysia, such as cultural diversity and advertising restrictions. Finally, it assesses the potential for implementing the strategy in Australia, offering recommendations for successful management in a multicultural context, emphasizing the importance of understanding local market dynamics and adapting the strategy accordingly.

Running Head: CARLSBERG 0
WINNING BEHAVIOUR STARTEGY OF CARLSBERG
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5/27/2019

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Executive summary
This report is study of a Carlsberg winning strategy. Carlsberg is a global brewer company
which was started in 1847 by Jacobsen. Firstly the HR priorities of Carlsberg are discussed.
Carlsberg have 4 HR priorities which are attracting the top talent in this the company tries to
attract the best employees for the company, developing leaders in this the company hires
employees and give them training so that they can become good and better future leaders,
improving the wellbeing of the employees in this the company focuses on the safety and the
wellbeing of the employees and lastly encouraging the collaboration of the teamwork in this
the company gives full support to the teamwork and collaboration policy and motivates
employees to work towards a common objective. In the report the next thing which is
discussed is the reason behind the implementation of winning behaviour strategies there are
three reasons which are to win the heart of the customers, to work for the society and to bring
new ideas in the environment and the society. The essay then has a very brief discussion on
the issues faced by Carlsberg while implementing the Winning Behaviour Strategy Malaysia.
there are various issues that are discussed in the report such the cultural diversity which was
one of the main issue, ban on beer advertisement and heavy tax on alcohol, lastly the essay
discusses the recommendations for Carlsberg to set up the winning strategy in Australia,
which can be possible as Australia has a multicultural society..

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Contents
Executive summary....................................................................................................................1
Introduction................................................................................................................................4
Strategic HR priorities of Carlsberg...........................................................................................4
1. Attracting top talent.........................................................................................................4
2. Developing leaders..........................................................................................................4
3. Improving the wellbeing of employees...........................................................................5
4. Encouraging the collaboration and teamwork.................................................................5
Rationale implementing “Winning Behaviour Strategy”...........................................................5
Carlsberg's 'Winning Behaviours' strategy and relation with HR practices such as:.................6
 Equity and diversity;...........................................................................................................6
 Workforce planning and development;...............................................................................6
 Social responsibility; and work-life balance.......................................................................6
Difficulties faced By the company while implementing the strategy in Malaysia....................7
'Winning Behaviours' strategy in Australian context.............................................................7
Recommendations for the implementation of “Winning Behaviour Strategy”:....................8
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................8
References................................................................................................................................10

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Introduction
Carlsberg is a global brewer which was founded in 1847 by Jacobsen. The company has
around 41000 employees and it is primarily located in the western side of Europe
(Gammelgaard, 2015). Carlsberg merged with Tuborg in the 1970; it is a beer brand which
has more than 500 brands (Hatch, Schultz, & Skov, 2015). It is a 5% adv. Pilsner beer with
around distribution to 140 markets. It is the fifth largest brewery in the world by volume, the
market share of the company is in multiple regions globally and it keeps on emerging in the
new markets as well. This report discusses about the HR Priorities of Carlsberg, the reason
behind implementing the winning behaviour strategy, relation of Carlsberg winning strategy
with the other HR practices, difficulties faced by Carlsberg while setting the strategy in
Malaysia and lastly the recommendations for setting winning behaviour strategy in Australia
for Carlsberg ( Goetsch, & Davis, 2014).
Strategic HR priorities of Carlsberg
1. Attracting top talent
Carlsberg top priority is to hire the right people for the right job as this is the most
important and one of the top priorities of any organization, talent attraction has
changed a lot over the previous years and there is a growth in the popularity of
recruitment softwares. Carlsberg likes to hire talented employees as they believe that
they can increase the productivity of the firm and can help the firm to grow (Guest,
2011).
2. Developing leaders
A good leadership is another top priority of Carlsberg, leadership is something which
is very important and it helps a company to reach the goals of the organization and it
helps the organization to keep the team together, inspire others and helps in building a
more effective workplace environment (Grann, 2017) Leadership is important to
various organizations as leadership is something which guides an organization to its
way; it helps the organization to take various decisions, Carlsberg also gives the
employees leadership training which helps them to learn different skills and they also
rewards them if they perform well which gives the employees motivation to work
hard (Daley, 2012).

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3. Improving the wellbeing of employees
Nowadays the employees are more concerned about their health and wellbeing and
thus this is the third most important priority for Carlsberg as it needs to focus on
giving a healthy and positive environment to the employees in order to keep the
employees happy and motivated in the workplace and it should also focus on the
needs and the wants of the employees (Black, Adger, Arnell, Dercon, Geddes, &
Thomas, 2011). Carlsberg gives employees rewards whenever they perform good as
this helps the employees to stay motivated and gives them a sense of importance in
the organization (Dul, Bruder, Buckle, Carayon, Falzon, Marras, & van der Doelen,
2012).
4. Encouraging the collaboration and teamwork
Collaboration is an important thing for any business and also for the success of any
business and if there are issues between the team of a company and the company
cannot communicate properly, this can cause issues to the goals of the organization,
hence this is also a top priority for Carlsberg and it is important for them to keep a
check on the activities of the team, they need develop certain ways in which they can
helps the employees to communicate well (Schneider, Mattos, Carvalho, & Cella,
2014). Ways such as cross culture training, these kinds of things helps the employees
to understand each other and remove differences and it also helps a team to work
towards a common goal of the organization (Wright, & McMahan, 2011). Team work
is highly recommended at Carlsberg as kit helps to reach the organizational goals on
time and it helps employees to understand and value people from different
background and cultures.
Rationale implementing “Winning Behaviour Strategy”
The reason behind winning behavior strategy was to win the customers and to engage the
employees to provide good and better services to the customers, this strategy mainly focus on
the customers and wants and needs of the customers and team work in the organization. It
mainly focus on 3 things (Gertsen & Søderberg, 2011).
 Together we are stronger ( which means employees should focus on team work)
 We want to win our customers ( which means a company focuses on winning the
customers)

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 We are empowered to make a difference ( which mean with every action that the
company will take it will try to make a difference in the society)
 We are engaged with the society ( which means we make decisions regarding
society)
Basically Winning behaviour strategy focus on reaching goals of the organization by
fulfilling the needs of the customers, by promoting teamwork in the organization, by making
decisions that makes a difference in a society and by taking decisions that helps and benefits
the society. All of these are the reasons behind the implementation of the “Winning
Behaviour Strategy” in an organization or a company (Kumar, 2010). In dynamic world like
today the old way of static plans and methods cannot work in business, it is important to build
new and winning strategies in order to stay in a competitive environment. Implementing the
winning strategy helps in using the practical tools in order to achieve the agility of
organization (Gertsen, & Søderberg, 2012). The program helps in learning about the strategic
learning process which is a 4 step model which is used by many global companies and also
various non- for profit organization in command to generate and contrivance the wining
strategies over the time (Bloom & Van Reenen,2011).
Carlsberg's 'Winning Behaviours' strategy and relation with HR
practices such as:
 Equity and diversity;
 Workforce planning and development;
 Social responsibility; and work-life balance.
Yes, Carlsberg Winning behavior strategy aligns with other HR practices such as the
workforce planning and development as it focuses on “together we are stronger” which
shows that the company focuses on teamwork and it helps the company to manage its
workforce and plan the activities of the organization accordingly, Carlsberg highly
encourages teamwork as it believes that teamwork can help in reaching the goals of the
organization on time (Alfes, Shantz, Truss & Soane, 2013). Secondly social responsibility is

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also something that Carlsberg follows as mentioned in the case study, Carlsberg has a
strategy of “we are engaged with the society” under their winning behaviour strategy, this
states that all the decisions and activities done by Carlsberg are done by keeping the societies
perspective in mind and each thing they do makes a difference in the society or the
environment around them which is good as if they will think about the society then customers
will feel more connected go the company. Apart from this Carlsberg provides training to the
employees for their performance management and also reward them for their performance
which helps the company to promote equity and diversity in the organization which means
that Carlsberg gives high importance to the employees of the company as they want the
employees to be happy and motivated so that they can work in effectively and efficiently in a
positive environment (Choi, 2011)
Difficulties faced By the company while implementing the strategy in
Malaysia.
Carlsberg faced various issues when it entered the Malaysian market. The main people in the
Malaysian market were the Malay, Chinese and the Indians (Soderberg, 2015). After the
winning behaviour strategy was established by Carlsberg the company underwent various
changes which affected its, leadership, organization, production and the strategy focused on
developing the culture of the company (RATH, 2013). Apart from the winning strategy the
company also focused on the FAST strategy which meant (fearless, ambitious, smart and
team) it focused on team work and effectiveness of working with people closely
(Brusendorff, 2014). The main aim was to make sure that the Malaysian firm had the same
culture as the local firm has but Carlsberg faced various issues in making this thing possible
as the people could not work as a team due to their cultural differences and also
communication was difficult which one of the main issues was because of which teamwork
was not able work in Carlsberg (Hatch, Schultz, & Skov, 2015). Other issues included the
ban on advertising of beer in Muslim countries and heavy tax on alcohol. All these things
were major issues for the company when it implements the strategy in Malaysia (Barber, &
Odean, 2013).
'Winning Behaviours' strategy in Australian context
Winning behaviour strategy can work in Australia, it focuses on working in team and the
main issue with Carlsberg in Malaysia was cultural diversity of people and the people of

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Malaysia could not cope up with the difference in culture and hence it was difficult for them
to reach the organizational goals (Renwick, Redman, & Maguire, 2013). It is easy to
implement the strategy in Australia as Australia is one of the most popular destinations when
it comes to the migrants and the migrants almost contribute 60% to the population and that is
the reason behind the multicultural society of Australia. Apart from this Australia also have a
diverse labour force; winning behaviour strategy will be perfectly implemented in a society
which already has cultural diversity as people will know how to communicate well with each
other, people would know to respect the different cultures and etc. all these things will help
the employees in the organization to work towards the common goal as there would be
understanding between them and less conflict (De Groot, Alkemade, Braat, Hein &
Willemen, 2010; O'Cass & Ngo, 2011).
Recommendations for the implementation of “Winning Behaviour
Strategy”:
Learn: the first and the most important thing is the company or the organization needs to
learn its inside and outside environment thoroughly only then it can build strategies in real
situations.
Focus: The next and important step is to make choice and knowing the place where the
strategy is going to be used. It is always important for the company to focus on the winning
strategies (Powell, Lovallo & Fox, 2011).
Align: Next thing is to know the people the organization is working with and knowing the
system of the business as all these things helps in building the strategies of the business.
Execute: the last and the final step is to execution of final plan in fast and a better way which
can help them to be different from the competitors.
Conclusion
Through this report it can be concluded that there 4 HR priorities of Carlsberg which are
attracting the top talent, developing leaders, improving the wellbeing of the employees and
encouraging the team work. Apart from this reason or the rationale behind the
implementation of the winning behaviour strategy is that it encourages team work in the
organization, it helps in the organization to work towards the society and it also encourages
the organization to work according to needs and the want of the customers. Next the essay

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discusses the relation between the Carlsberg winning behaviour strategy and the other HR
practices which showed that both had a link. The essay then discussed the issues faced by
Carlsberg while implementing the Winning Behaviour Strategy Malaysia, various issues were
discussed such the cultural diversity which was one of the main issue, ban on beer
advertisement and heavy tax on alcohol, lastly the essay discusses the recommendations for
Carlsberg to set up the winning strategy in Australia, which can be possible as Australia has a
multicultural society.

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