Transforming Carlsberg into a Cosmopolitan Firm: The Post-Merger Cultural Integration Challenge

The Carlsberg “B case” (the second in a series of three cases on Carlsberg’s transformation journey) provides answers to the “what happened” in the years following the 2008 acquisition of Baltika. One the one hand, the Danish beer brewer implemented major changes in its strategic vision, mission and communication systems to support the socio-cultural cross-border integration of the enlarged company network. On the other hand, Carlsberg had to learn that its 2008 strategic masterpiece of acquiring S&N’s stakes in Baltika had turned into a strategic headache due to regulatory changes and intensifying competition in Russia. The “B case” can be taught independently of the “A case”, which focuses on the industry’s consolidation dynamics and Carlsberg’s M&A strategy. The starting point for this case is Carlsberg’s 2011 full-year announcement, which surprised outsiders as Carlsberg had decided to further increase its stakes in Russia – despite the very challenging industry environment and Carlsberg’s declining market share. The case describes how Anne-Marie Skov (then Head of Group Communications) and Tayfun Uner (then Head of Group Strategy) embraced the challenge of post-merger cultural integration after the acquisition in 2008. A large internal project was initiated to push the socio-cultural post-merger integration forward that led to the development and introduction of a new “value system” (the Winning Behaviours), a new vision/mission and corporate identity (The Stand). The case ends with the questions of whether things would look different today had Carlsberg decided for a more radical integration earlier and what the level of integration needs to be in order to get the desired business results.