Beam Suntory

As a world leader in premium spirits, Beam Suntory is about inspiring human connections. With a performance objective of being the world’s most admired and fastest growing premium spirits company, the company has been investing heavily in expanding business in Asia Pacific but always with a focus on quality of its people and its products. Beam Suntory’s rapid expansion into China and Korea became a success thanks to the efforts of the HR team, which played a pivotal role in its people transformation agenda.

A regional network of HR and talent leaders – spanning Singapore, Oceania and India – paved the way for their counterparts in the new markets to lay down the foundation of the business locally.

Unlike most multinational companies who employ local HR teams only after recruiting 50 to 100 employees, Beam Suntory set out to hire HR leaders in the new markets first before building a team from the ground up. These local leaders shared the company’s vision from the onset, working seamlessly with colleagues across Asia Pacific.

Project governance was spearheaded by HR directors in the regional office in Singapore, with HR consultant and transition support from the HR manager in Korea.

The Rewards team in Australia researched local HR practices and developed them from scratch into a policy that fit the new market and aligned with the company’s international standards.

The China HR team shared their experience of setting up a new route to market from one year earlier, while the HR operations team and HR business partners in Singapore worked together to set up the working model.

Another challenge of entering a new market is finding and developing the right talent. Beam Suntory’s assessment and selection process was designed in-house using business and HR resources. To maintain objectivity, quality and integrity, the process was complemented by third-party tools that gauged the candidate in a transparent way.

Beam Suntory is proof that modern HR practice is transformational – not transactional. No longer confined to their own silo, HR teams thrive as a strategic and collaborative business partner.

Company: Beam Suntory
Head office address: 222 W Merchandise Mart Plaza, Chicago, IL 60654, USA