ANHEUSER-BUSCH: AN ORGANIZATIONAL SYSTEMS ANALYSIS

This is a systems analysis of the Anheuser-Busch corporation, the makers of Budweiser and other beers. This analysis calls on a variety of sources, including but not limited to the company's annual reports, various news articles and the corporate profiles available on Hoover's Online Capsule Business Reports. This paper will analyze the company's systems and subsystems.

A Systems Approach to Anheuser-Busch

Most experts follow Bertalanffy (1969) and define systems thinking as a "fifth discipline." The fifth discipline integrates four other disciplines - shared vision, personal mastery, mental models, team learning. All these disciplines are useful when planning and implementing change within a complex organization.

Systems thinking ties these disciplines together in a synergistic manner. Why should we use a systems thinking approach when analyzing one of the world's largest breweries, when everyone "knows" what it does?

The answer is that most organizations are complex and becoming more complex. Most of the problems of today's organizations do not exist in isolation; they interrelate to each other.

Anheuser-Busch's Goals and Objectives?

The organization was founded to brew and market various beers to a wide audience of beer drinkers. This goal suggests several systems that must have synergy: the brewing process, for instance, is dependent totally on the acquiring process in which the va

. . .
s compete for the same basic food source -- the customer -- and, just as in nature, adopt survival techniques. Some organisms, for instance Anheuser-Busch, are the elephants while other organisms -- Coors for instance -- could be called the tigers. Each organism has adopted particular life systems that enable it to survive. Competition is fierce, and one area in which these organisms compete vitally is in the choice of names they choose for identification of their clans. Our particular organization, for instance, Anheuser Busch is currently waging a battle in the macro eco system known as Europe. One of the beer organisms in Czechoslovakia is selling a beer known as "Budejovicky Budvar." Our organization is concerned because the beer is referred to as "Budweiser" in bars in England and throughout Europe. Budvar has been told that it can call itself "Budweiser" in 42 countries, in addition to the UK (which is in itself a kind of transformation process), while our organization is only allowed to call itself "Budweiser" in 11 European countries, and under the name Bud in a further nine. Anheuser-Busch began using the Budweiser brand name in 1876, some 19 years before the Budvar brewery was established (Lovitt, 1997, 28)
. . .

Some common words found in the essay are:
Busch III, Balancing System, System Inputs, Goals Objectives, Transforming Elements, Approach Anheuser-Busch, Europe Budvar, Profits Losses, Critical Subsystems, Dominant Coalition, systems theory, beer people, systems thinking, systems analysis, organisms compete, systems theory applied, hoover's online, mental models, 20 percent, sell beer, mastery mental models, critical subsystems,
Approximate Word count = 1833
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page)

More Essays on ANHEUSER-BUSCH: AN ORGANIZATIONAL SYSTEMS ANALYSIS