“winning behaviours” at Carlsberg group
The Carlsberg group is based in Copenhagen, Denmark, and was founded in 1847. Today, the company employs around 41,000 people, and manufactures and sells over 500 different beer brands. The company became international when it opened its first overseas brewery in Malawi in 1968. Although the firm enjoyed some success, it fell behind its competition in the early 19990s and merged with Norwegian brewery Orkla in 2001, making Carlsberg the leading brand in the Nordic area. This was followed by a further series of takeovers launched by the company, including Scottish and Newcastle Brewery in the UK, Baltic beverages holding in Russia, French market leader Kronenbourg, Greek brewery Mythos, and joint ventures and takeovers involving 40 breweries in china. Th company is now the world’s fourth largest brewery. 
In 2002, then CEO Nils Smedegard Andersen launched a new strategy development process based on the concept of Must-win Battles”, which included: developing a common group culture; growing the company brand; developing people capabilities and capacities; and driving profitability in key beer markets. The focus was on ‘taking the lead’ in the market. One of the major planks of this new initiative was the development of a ‘winning culture’ although some of the Danish participants in the workshops that were held to support the new strategy felt uncomfortable with the word ‘winning’, which they felt might not be compatible with the firm’s existing company culture. In 2009, senior staff from the newly acquired companies and existing subsidiaries were involved in developing these further through the ‘winning behaviours’ concept, which focused on five behaviours: ‘together we are stronger’, ‘we want to win’, ‘’our customers and consumers are at the heart of every decision we make’, ‘we are each empowered to make a difference’, and ‘we are engaged with society’. The intention was that these behaviours would align with carlsberg’s global business strategy and integrate its international approach to HRM. Yet still represent specific local needs, interests and constraints. The ‘winning Behaviours’ therefore encouraged a ‘global’ way of thinking, and were underpinned by various materials such as brochures, posters, and entries on the company’s website. Significant efforts were made to share these with senior management teams around the world in workshops and seminars, and through ‘ambassadors’ engaged in diffusing the ‘winning behaviours.
To embed the behaviours, a set of ten leadership competencies was identified and used in the performance management process and linked with the company’s engagement survey and business review, with individuals receiving rewards based on their enactment of the behaviours. They were also used to underpin the training provided in the Carlsberg leadership Academy and the company’s International Talent programme, which supports mobile managers in the early stages of a global career.At the country level, one example of a subsidiary in which the behaviours were adapted was in Malaysia, a multicultural country with three significant ethnic groups. Malay, Chinese, and Indian. Carlsberg Malaysia was one of the company’s oldest foreign subsidiaries and a well-established brand. From 2007, the subsidiary underwent a series of major changes in leadership, Organization, and production, with a focus on developing the company’s culture. Alongside the headquarters ‘winning behaviours’ strategy, the local firm had what it termed the FAST (‘fearless, ambitious, smart, team’) exercise, which was introduced to help people to work more closely and efficient together. The aim was to use the ‘winning behaviours’ to ensure that the local firm spoke the same cultural language as headquarters, but to align these with the locally relevant FAST programme. This meant, for instance, showing how the ‘winning behaviours’ reflected local cultural traditions; the managerial aspiration for employees to work more closely together in a team, for example, which reflects the Malaysia ideal of working in harmony.
Training workshops were introduced to help to embed the behaviours and they were also used as a competency measurement in the local performance management systems, together with the locally developed role model awards that showcased employees and teams who had demonstrated the ‘winning behaviours’ in their daily work. Some of the challenges included the cumbersome translation of ‘winning behaviours’ into the local languages, and the ongoing difficulties faced by the company in selling alcohol in a predominantly Muslim country in which beer advertising was banned and beer heavily taxed. The focus in ‘winning behaviours’ on corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives was welcomed by the subsidiary and fitted well with its existing emphasis on volunteering work, which helped to establish the credibility of the brand as a responsible alcohol producer.
Source: adopted from soderberg (2015)1. In your own words, outline the strategic HR priorities pursued by Carlsberg.
2. Discuss the rationale of implementing the ‘Winning Behaviours’ strategy
3. How does Carlsberg’s ‘Winning Behaviours’ strategy align with other HR practices such as: equity and diversity; workforce planning and development; social responsibility; and work-life balance.
4. Analyse the difficulties the company faced when implementing this strategy in Malaysia.
5. Provide an analysis of how well the ‘Winning Behaviours’ strategy would work in an Australian context, along with recommendations for how such an implementation could be successfully managed.
A minimum of 20 academic papers should be part of your literature review. Reference to any corporate information (including websites) will not be included as part of the required 20 academic papers. All the academic papers must be in APA referencing