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Transforming into a more international and inclusive organisation and driving a goal-oriented and performance-driven mindset – find out more about the transformation journey of the beer Company.
This article is brought to you by Asahi Beer Asia
Established in 2020, Asahi Beer Asia (ABA) is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Asahi Europe & International (AEI). AEI is under Asahi Group Holdings, a global leader offering a diverse collection of brands centred on beer, alcohol, non-alcohol beverages, and food, and it is listed on Japan's Tokyo Stock Exchange.
Sharing the belief that togetherness is powerful and the aspiration to be the enablers of meaningful connection, Asahi has always been committed to creating a more meaningful, inclusive, and supportive experience for its employees.
With a key focus on five markets across Asia, namely Mainland China, Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea, and Taiwan, the Company understands that each market has its legacies and own ways of working with mixed employee dynamics and fragmented management programmes and systems.
To build an effective organisational culture that embraces diversity and inclusion, with a unified ‘One Asia' team concept around shared purpose and Company behaviours to bring out synergy, ABA has been set up as the Asia Hub to drive transformation and cultural change. Cultural transformation, however, cannot be achieved with a single day's work but with the step-by-step culmination of a journey with consistency. Thus, ABA has adopted a multi-pronged strategy.
The first is transforming from a 'local' structure into a 'more international and inclusive' organisation. This saw a full functional team including Marketing, Finance, HR, Supply Chain teams being onboarded, and all key and senior positions filled with market leadership teams. The exchanges among global and Asia leadership teams helped broaden the local leadership team's international exposure and deepen 'glocal' (Global + Local) understandings, supporting the change and transformation journey and driving consistency and best practices in ways of working.
Aligning with the organisational development, ABA has set up ‘Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DE&I) Committees’ on an Asia and local market level, as well as introduced 'Inclusive Leadership' training to key leaders to promote a respectful and more inclusive workplace. While being inclusive, ensuring cohesion in purpose, goals, values, and business directions is also crucial.
With the roll-out of 'Working@ABA' and 'Leading@ABA' training, the Company aims to facilitate cultural transformation and strengthen its 'One Asia' identity and culture through interactive and open discussions. Effective communications on the Company’s purpose have also been ensured through regular ‘Purpose’ surveys on top of its employee engagement surveys to minimise gaps in the change journey.
Furthering the aim of building a goal-oriented mindset and driving a high-performance culture, ABA has created a direct linkage between performance and total rewards strategies, elevated performance management mechanisms with transparent communication, ensured leadership buy-in and efforts, and implemented the 'Growth Development Leadership' programme to facilitate team integration during the change process.
To attract and retain employees with a strong growth mindset in a rapidly evolving industry, Asahi is also focusing on fostering a learning culture, providing meaningful growth opportunities, and placing greater emphasis on employer branding and its employee value proposition to demonstrate Asahi's dedication to becoming the preferred employer and providing an employee experience that resonates with targeted talents.
This is evidenced by the launch of its 'One Asia' learning and development programme under cultural transformation, regular CSR volunteer activities to create meaningful connections with the communities, and an emphasis on workplace well-being through mental health support.
The feedback on the Company’s cultural change and transformation has proved positive. Employees’ favourable acceptance and perception regarding the Company’s changes and transformation direction was supported by 90 points out of 100 on the Company's 'Strategy & Direction', with an 88% completion rate of Asia employees in the Global Engagement Survey.
The cultural transformation 'One Asia' identity programme has achieved an overall satisfaction rate of 97.6%, according to the post-workshop survey. Knowledge sharing, collaboration, and learning have also been facilitated with 18 workshops covering all key Asian markets in ways of working, leading, and performance management changes.
Evidently, connecting an organisation with its employees is crucial for fostering engagement, productivity, and positive working culture. In this area, HR has a pivotal role to play. “Our role as HR is to create an environment where employees thrive and feel connected to the organisation's vision and mission,” says Gray Zhang, Human Resources Director, Asia.
She further states: “I want to thank every employee and our leadership team for their unwavering support in driving cultural transformation and change management. The recognition speaks to our collaborative efforts, dedication, passion, and commitment to our ’Better Future 2030’ strategy.
“We will keep open channels of communication and feedback as we continue to push the boundaries of what we can accomplish. Together, embracing the spirit of meaningful connections, we can propel business growth and sustain an environment where all our people will thrive.”
Photo / Asahi Beer Asia
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