{"id":5078,"date":"2018-10-16T06:00:36","date_gmt":"2018-10-16T11:00:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beerbusinessunplugged.com\/?p=5078"},"modified":"2018-10-14T14:32:10","modified_gmt":"2018-10-14T19:32:10","slug":"keeping-customers-is-about-the-experience-and-the-employees-control-the-culture-and-temperature-of-the-business-never-forget-that","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beerbusinessunplugged.com\/?p=5078","title":{"rendered":"Keeping customers is about the experience, and the employees control the culture and temperature of the business. Never forget that."},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Like many college students, I was uncertain about the direction of my professional career following graduation.\u00a0 During the summers I worked as an assistant on Coors beer trucks and it was at that time that I developed an interest in the beer industry as a potential career.\u00a0 It became clear to me that in the industry, one could work for either a brewery or a distributor.<\/p>\n

These two employment options remained static until the 90s when the beer industry digested the Bush administration\u2019s doubling of the federal excise taxes.\u00a0 \u00a0It took years for the industry to return to its annual growth rate and for companies to begin the hiring process following the legislative act.\u00a0 During this time the beer business experienced extremes in cultural differences within certain companies.<\/p>\n

Perhaps the most desirable beer importer to work for was Wisdom Imports.\u00a0 This company hosted a growing and fun portfolio along with an employee-centric culture.\u00a0 All that changed, however, when InBev bought Labatt\u2019s.\u00a0 Sound familiar?<\/p>\n

During the same time period, Modelo was imported by Gambrinus and Barton Beers.\u00a0 While both companies had similar portfolios, the cultures of the two distributors were polar opposites.\u00a0 Many previous AB, Miller, or Coors employees who transferred employment to Gambrinus had the perception that they could easily adapt to the Gambrinus culture.\u00a0 They soon discovered they were only kidding themselves.<\/p>\n

Perhaps the personification of a culture change was the dramatic shift instituted\u00a0by InBev during their take-over of AB.\u00a0 Most former AB employees lamented those changes as they moved on to other brewers and careers.<\/p>\n

Likewise, many of today’s successful crafts have also undergone cultural changes.\u00a0 When a start-up craft begins to find some traction in the market, the company\u2019s culture begins to shift.\u00a0 Over time, brewers like Sierra Nevada, New Belgium, and Founders have discovered that experienced\u00a0and professional beer executives are needed to continue the growth curve.<\/p>\n

With 7,000 breweries currently in the market and more to come, the talent pool is limited.\u00a0 A big challenge is for potential employees to decide with which brewery to hang their hat.\u00a0 Will the potential brewer meet the expectations of the employee?\u00a0 Because many small, start-up brewers work with an unstructured entrepreneurial culture, few provide much in the way of policies or procedures.<\/p>\n

Recently a young, highly qualified sales rep with a new brewer was concerned over the lack of structure in his company.\u00a0 Perhaps this individual would have preferred a more structured and formal company, though he may not have realized such a need for more structure without first experiencing work in a start-up brewery.\u00a0 This is especially true for those individuals who have high career aspirations.<\/p>\n

Many early employees of Sierra, New Belgium, and Founders have moved on as these breweries were no longer a fit.\u00a0 Finding the right culture is a challenge for both the brewery and for the individual. Perhaps this is the underlying reason that companies attest that they cannot find qualified employees and qualified employees say they cannot find top jobs.<\/p>\n

Keeping customers is about the experience, and frequently the employees control the culture and temperature of the business.\u00a0 Never forget that.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Like many college students, I was uncertain about the direction of my professional career following graduation.\u00a0 During the summers I worked as an assistant on Coors beer trucks and it was at that time that I developed an interest in the beer industry as a potential career.\u00a0 It became clear to me that in the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_s2mail":"yes","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2xRTi-1jU","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beerbusinessunplugged.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5078"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beerbusinessunplugged.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beerbusinessunplugged.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beerbusinessunplugged.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beerbusinessunplugged.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5078"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/www.beerbusinessunplugged.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5078\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5090,"href":"https:\/\/www.beerbusinessunplugged.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5078\/revisions\/5090"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beerbusinessunplugged.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5078"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beerbusinessunplugged.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5078"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beerbusinessunplugged.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5078"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}