SUBMITTED by :PURVA VERMA

CASE IN BRIEF Adolph Coors company was located in

the Rocky Mountain foothills in Golden, Colorado.

A $350 million company with a cult like following.

Faced major competitor challenges in 1970’s.

The owners considered the company as their platform to voice their political views.

It faced major labor problems in 1977 which led to the company’s boycott by the AFL-CIO.

The labourers wanted a better compensation plan and better employment conditions and treatment.

This boycott was also aided by the offensive social and political remarks made by the founders earlier.

It led to a drop in the in it’s market share from 40% to 14% in seven years.

This boycott lasted for 10 years.

SWOT

Strength Adolph Coors Company 350 million $ corporation Sales people had been with the company since

end of world war II Cult following

Weakness

Owners spent more time on political agendas rather than selling beers which offended a lot of people.

Labour issues Unions organized a boycott to punish Coors

for its labour practices Negotiations done were poorly executed Attempt to counter losses by expanding

nationwide created a shift in market share and no profits.

Opportunities

Agreement that the company would not orchestrate a campaign against the union and union would not attack any Coors future organizing attempt.

Being located in a place like Rocky Mountains in 1970’ s gave them the advantage of gaining community trust and loyalty by doing small things for them.

Company regaining thousands of accounts since the boycott.

Threats

Political intervention by the Coors and hence occasional public remarks lead to offending people.

Labor Problems

AFL-CIO boycott

Future organizing campaigns

TRENDS

Beer is a summer drink. People prefer beer due to a low

alcoholic content. Low calorie beers are also available. Appeals to younger generation.

THOMAS KILMAN CONFLICT MANAGEMENT MODEL

QUESTION NO. 1-Handling disagreements The company ‘s final offer was

unacceptable. The labour’s anger is understandable

and their planned strike in the busiest brewery season made the worst possible damage to the company.

This succeeded in getting Coors banned along with other political , social and competitive factors.

The way they handled this disagreement was by competing and controlling.

It is assertive and uncooperative – an individual pursues his or her own concerns at the other person’s expense.

This is a power-oriented mode, in which one uses whatever power seems appropriate to win one’s own position.

In this case, Coors used their assumed superiority and the labour used Coors weaknesses and political conditions to win and very nearly they did.

QUESTION NO. 2-Advice by the consultant1. To deal with competition, my advice would be

to: Increase the advertising budget New and dynamic employees as salespeople

as well as managers The owners needed to spend more time

running the company than political commentary.

2. My advice to maintain the company’s political position would be:

Stop using the company as a personal vehicle for social commentary.

Be a conservative or to stay neutral. Restrict their outspokenness about the

Black, Hispanic, Gay, and Feminist communities

3. The conflict with labor could have been avoided had they been given their rights and respect.

4. Despite their boycott, the company took 11 years to start negotiation which should have been avoided to avoid losing their market share as well as reputation.

5. The concept of organizational development should have been in cooperated in the company.

6. Various conflict management techniques could have been used like Collaboration which creates which creates a win - win situation. Or a compromise could have been made earlier than waiting 11 years.

7. Implementing all these changes would have solved the boycott issue.

QUESTION NO. 3

• A process that begins when one party perceives that another party has negatively affected, or is about to negatively affect, something that the first party cares about

– Encompasses a wide range of conflicts that people experience in organizations

• Incompatibility of goals• Differences over interpretations of facts• Disagreements based on behavioral

expectations

THE CONFLICT PROCESS

Distributive versus Integrative Bargaining

Bargaining Distributive IntegrativeCharacteristic Bargaining Bargaining

Goal Get as much of pie Expand the pie

as possible

Motivation Win-Lose Win-Win

Focus Positions Interests

Information Low HighSharing

Duration of Short term Long termrelationships

RECOMMENDATIONS• Conflict Resolution Techniques• Problem solving

• Expansion of resources

• Compromise

• Bringing in outsiders

• Restructuring the organization

• Appointing a devil’s advocate

• Offer the labor compensation plans like ESOP, subsidised loans, health plans like insurance.

Staking Out the Bargaining Zone

CONCLUSION

Coors maintained an authoritative outlook for near 11 years and resisted neutrality which cost their company a lot.

Their outspokenness and anti union attitude won them many enemies.

They resisted third party intervention. Only after an effort put in by the company to

treat their employees right did they win back their thousands of accounts.

THANK YOU