How Kirin can maximize the synergies of its group companies to attain sustainable growth

摘要

At the end of twentieth century, Kirin Brewery Co. began a strategic move to break out of the saturated domestic market by adopting an international orientation and diversification effort to become a leading company in the Asia and Oceania markets. Following consolidation of its distribution channels and plant networks in the target region through successful strategic alliances with Lion Nathan Ltd. and Sun Miguel Corporation, Kirin Group has now grown into a large corporate group. However, history is full of examples of food/beverage companies that encountered difficulties achieving sustainable growth after early experiences of rocketing sales at takeoff-even though many such companies know that the key to success is taking advantage of group synergies. This thesis identifies a corporate strategy for Kirin that can be realized by creating two kinds of synergies of resource sharing in various phases of the value chain in order to upgrade Kirin Group's set of resources, and a synergy in the company's strategic thrusts. My research found that sharing intangible resources could play an important role in attaining architectural innovation.