Page 22 - Why I Like Case Studies

How do you choose a case study company?

You can’t see the trees for the wood!

My latest case study is Kirin Holdings which stemmed from

watching an interview, on Direct Talk, with Yoshinori Isozaki

the President and CEO of the company.

Kirin Holdings

In 2015 Yoshinori Isozaki became President and CEO of Kirin

Holdings a major Japanese brewing company with a history
stretching back to 1885. His task was to oversee the

fulfilment of a vision, subsumed by Created Shared Value
(CSV) adopted by the company in 2012, but first, before he

could prosecute CSV, he had to address a number of issues.

He had to make the decision to write down the value of the

company’s Brazilian 2011acquisition, by ¥110bn, driving the

Kirin Group into the red for the first time in its history as the

subsidiary ran into trouble. This was to form part of a

strategy of creative destruction which would see an attempt

to rejuvenate the Kirin Group businesses. He introduced his

first three-year plan in 2016-2018 which saw all financial

targets set achieved by its end. The released cash flow from

the plan’s restructuring, revitalisation and capital efficiency

(¥1tn) provided the funds for the next MTBP 2019-2021and

then on to the lTBP of 2027. The success of this long-term

plan would depend on Kirin Holdings optimizing its business

portfolio and leveraging the Group’s management
resources, such as capital, human resources, and customer

base, whilst maximizing intra-business synergies all subject
to the CSV philosophy which underpinned the vision of the