Innovation

Overall, Beam Suntory practices many beneficial initiatives for our society, as shown in the UN’s SDGs. The company cares extensively about its carbon footprint, company culture, and impact on society - revealing extreme consideration of CSR. One thing my group uncovered throughout our interview was a brand called Reifel Rye, which is connected to the Canadian Beam business. Neale, our interviewee, told us that Reifel Rye was delayed for a year as the company wanted to wait until the distilleries producing it had received innovative upgrades to reduce the product's climate emissions. This notion reveals that the brand cares about our society and its climate emissions. While Beam would have profited for over a year by producing Reifel Rye, the company decided to delay the release to ensure sustainable practices through Canadian distilleries and brands. This aspect of the company reflects the UN’s SDG (#12: Responsible Consumption and Production, #13: Climate Action, 9: Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure). These goals reflect that Beam is not only a company in search of economic growth but also heavily invested in our society's goals for a more sustainable future.

The second innovation we will be touching on is Northern Keep Vodka. Northern Keep Vodka is a Canadian-made vodka located in Alberta. For every bottle sold, Beam Suntory donates $1 to the Nature Conservancy of Canada; the money is used to preserve natural land in Canada, such as protecting wildlife, national parks, and further uses, which will prevent industrial uses of land mass.

The company furthers this by using winter wheat, "Northern Keep Vodka is made from sustainable winter wheat, which is much easier on the environment from a production perspective." Winter Wheat is a sustainable crop that helps prevent erosion in soil runoff. The crop also supports nesting habitats and biodiversity for ducks and other birds. 30% of Northern Keep Vodka is produced through Winter Wheat. The product helps support critical habitats and environments for many of Canada’s widely recognized species. Northern Keep Vodka was also one of the first Canadian products named as a certified, habitat-friendly winter wheat product.

Additionally, the Canadian team of Beam Suntory played a central role in implementing Northern Keep Vodka. Neale Graham, the Chief of Commercial Excellence and former Managing Director of Beam Suntory’s Canadian and Mexican brands, helped facilitate Northern Keep Vodka. Northern Keep Vodka helps pay tribute to the Canadian Beam Suntory Business. From Beam Suntory’s Northern Keep Vodka page: “Our vodka celebrates our northern home, a land of abundance that enables us to craft the finest spirit from ingredients grown in our backyard, sourced from local Canadian farms and crafted by artisans of Alberta Distillers, an award-winning distillery recently named Distillery of the Decade at the Canadian Whisky Awards 2020.” (Beam Suntory, 2023).

Lastly, we rarely see firms partnering with other sustainability-oriented corporations in the Canadian economy due to the nature of our market. But Beam Suntory has proved many Canadian consumers wrong. Partnering with Nature Conservancy Canada, "For every bottle of Northern Keep Vodka sold, $1 is donated to Conservancy Canada to protect one square foot of ecologically significant land in Canada". The goal behind Northern Keep Vodka was to produce a highly detailed and nationally recognized Vodka while preserving Canada’s natural spaces to protect, preserve, and reclaim Canadian land. The initiatives behind Northern Keep Vodka show the firm's responsibility in taking after the environment in which it majorly produces products, reaffirming the company's environmental protection goals while maintaining a competitive business, evident through Northern Keep Vodka. Being a multinational corporation worth Billions, Beam Suntory reflects the idea that firms can provide sustainable and beneficial innovations and products to economies while caring for the areas where the firm operates on an environmental level.

Inspiration

What inspired Neale Graham not only to delay the launch of Reifel Rye but also to introduce Northern Keep Vodka were the firm's collective thoughts looking to impact climate action and care for society. "What we have in the Canadian team is an Incubator in the marketing team around innovation and sustainability. Those two ideas connected with our partnership with Conservancy Canada led to the creation of Northern Keep Vodka".

For Reifel Rye, Neale stated, "Our team had to delay the launch of Reifel Rye for over a year while we waited for distillery enhancements that would provide more sustainable water usage, solubility, and water capacity management." Neale says the choice to delay was because the team didn't want to launch a product when a more innovative and sustainable process could be made by waiting until distillery enhancements were finished.

Overall impact

In short-term effects, Beam Suntory may have lost profits for a year when they decided to delay Reifel Rye. Still, the long-term effects display care for society and the climate and do not reflect a firm seeking only economic growth. The Vodka has been recognized globally as a highly established Vodka for Northern Keep Vodka. The Vodka, a certified habitat-friendly winter-wheat product, displays the product's ability to be marketable while protecting the environment. Additionally, winter wheat is not commonly used for alcoholic beverages; Beam Suntory's innovative practices in Vodka may establish Winter Wheat as a more commonly used, sustainable item in alcohol production than wheat.

Business benefit

For Reifel Rye and Northern Keep Vodka, the two brands, Whiskeys and Vodkas, produced profits and were rated very highly in top work. Northern Keep Vodka has provided valuable land protection in Canada while generating economic growth because of its recognition worldwide. Consumers can also feel safe knowing that by purchasing Northern Keep Vodka, they are supporting the protection of ecologically significant land and sustainability.

We also want to touch on Beam Suntory’s business model and mentor practices, which we discussed with Neale Graham. For example, Neale discussed that during COVID-19, many people in other jobs were getting laid off. “How fragile our communities were from a workplace perspective,” but being the managing director, Neale made it his priority to keep his team close by “Holding weekly meetings of each of the business teams across the country to maintain a close-knit team and remove fears of being removed from the firm.” We can see through this that Beam Suntory, specifically Neale Graham, holds a high standard of diversity, equality, inclusion, and growth opportunities throughout the firm.

Being in a senior position, Neale gets to mentor three people for three years, with new people phasing in and out. These mentorship opportunities allow individuals to learn from Neale’s vast experience in the business while providing advice, leadership skills, and other principles that Neale holds closely in his operations at Beam Suntory. Neale’s Mentee does not report to him, “There is no influence over year results or year-end employee review. And so your role is to advise them as they develop their career in the organization. It’s a very confidential process; it doesn’t matter what happens in a conversation; it is not reported to the corporation.” (9.40). Through these mentor opportunities and principles that Neale Graham and Beam Suntory have shown, we can say that Beam Suntory impacts personal growth and workplace opportunities. In terms of Neale’s commitment to creating a safe space for the Canadian team during COVID-19’s peak, we can conclude that Neale impacted the firm's business and societal goals through these efforts. Keeping valuable members of the Canadian team closely knit with a feeling of family and unity helped ensure that there would be no layoffs. Through these practices, Neale helped the firm as a whole by maintaining team members and as a society by keeping careers stable and reducing fears of unemployment.

Social and environmental benefit

In today's current consumer climate, we hold firms at a higher pressure now more than ever. Firms can either choose to adapt to societal pressures and adopt CSR initiatives and care for society or not adapt. Firms that choose to adapt willingly without societal pressures can see extensive economic growth and profits. Regarding Northern Keep Vodka’s impact on the business, the Vodka has won best Canadian Vodka, as well as other international recognition for being a phenomenal Vodka. Northern Keep Vodka’s innovative practices reveal that a firm can create profitable products and that products can be sustainable and environmentally safe while maintaining marketability and economic growth in businesses.

Interview

Neale Graham, Officer of Commercial Excellence

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