Publications

July 2022 (Revised August 2022)
Case

Athletic Brewing Company: Crafting the U.S. Non-Alcoholic Beer Category

By: Ayelet Israeli and Anne V. Wilson

Athletic Brewing Company (“Athletic,” for short) was founded by Bill Shufelt and John Walker in 2017. In creating Athletic, Shufelt and Walker opened the first U.S. brewery and taproom fully devoted to the production of non-alcoholic (NA) craft beer. By 2021, Athletic... View Details

Keywords: Advertising; Brands and Branding; Product Development; Product Marketing; Product Positioning; Product Launch; Product Design; Product; Competition; Marketing; Entrepreneurship; Growth Management; Cultural Entrepreneurship; Culture; Food and Beverage Industry; United States

10 Apr 2015
News

Former Harpoon CEO Launches New Craft Beer Venture

Keywords: Beverage and Tobacco Product Manufacturing; Manufacturing

February 2023
Teaching Note

Athletic Brewing Company: Crafting the U.S Non-Alcoholic Beer Category

By: Ayelet Israeli and Anne V. Wilson

Teaching Note for HBS Case No. 523-021. View Details

March 2020
Teaching Note

Forbidden City: Launching a Craft Beer in China (Brief Case)

By: Christopher A. Bartlett and Carole Carlson

Teaching Note for HBS No. 920-559. View Details

October 2018 (Revised July 2023)
Case

The Boston Beer Company (A): New CEO

By: Christina R. Wing and Marco Iansiti

In 1984, when the Boston Beer Company’s Samuel Adams Boston Lager was first sold, founder Jim Koch had helped ignite a craft beer movement by making small-batch premium beers in an era of industry consolidation. By 2018, Boston Beer was a publicly traded company that... View Details

Keywords: Beer/brewing Industry; Succession; Leadership; Change; Supply Chain; Change Management; Entrepreneurship; Supply Chain Management; Management Succession; Food and Beverage Industry; United States; Boston

April 1996 (Revised June 2000)
Case

Boston Beer Company, Inc., The

Capital markets may have overcapitalized the craft brewing industry during a flurry of new IPOs. In the context of this "hot" IPO market each individual company's valuation may seem reasonable. However, after careful analysis of each company's financial statement and... View Details

Keywords: Initial Public Offering; Analysis; Valuation; Industry Growth; Food and Beverage Industry; Boston

19 Sep 2016
News

Crafting Success

Like so many entrepreneurs before him, Karan Bilimoria (PPL 2011) started Cobra Beer to fill a need: “I hated fizzy lagers,” he told The Daily Telegraph. “Some ales were quite pleasant, but far too heavy and bitter to enjoy with a meal. I... View Details

01 Dec 2019
News

Action Plan: Tapping into a Legacy

As the new managing director of Hall & Woodhouse, one of England’s leading regional breweries, Matt Kearsey (AMP 193, 2017) knows that the best-tasting beer requires more than premium hops and pure spring water. “We give the process the... View Details

Keywords: Leah Flickinger; manufacturing; craft beer; leadership; management; Beverage and Tobacco Product Manufacturing; Manufacturing

01 Apr 2020
Blog Post

How Scott Linzmeyer Crafted a Business He Loves at Reveler Beverage

If you ask Scott Linzmeyer (MBA 2012) about how he founded Reveler Beverage, he will take you back to 2008 when he kick started his career in corporate finance at General Electric. While that seems like a far cry from a craft View Details

09 Feb 2004
Research & Ideas

Got a New Strategy? Now Make it Happen

It does so by fitting the organization to the strategy and increasing fitness, the capacity of the organization to learn and change. Since then, this process has been used in more than 150 businesses in the retail, hospitality, high technology, banking, and... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Beer & Russell A. Eisenstat

01 Jun 2012
News

IPA Meets IPO

KOCH: Putting shares of the company in the hands of the people who really believe in its product. Lots of business executives tout the importance of focusing on the customer. But craft brewmeister Jim Koch (MBA 1974), founder and chairman... View Details

Keywords: beer; Beverage and Tobacco Product Manufacturing; Manufacturing; Merchant Wholesalers, Nondurable Goods; Wholesale Trade

April 2024 (Revised October 2024)
Case

New Belgium Brewing and Climate Change

By: Michael W. Toffel, Kenneth P. Pucker and Michael Norris

In 2023, Colorado-based craft brewery New Belgium Brewing was considering how best to meet its emissions reduction targets. After decades of growth, the beermaker had grown to become one of the largest craft brewers in the U.S., and was purchased in 2019 by Japanese... View Details

Keywords: Beer; Carbon Accounting; Carbon Credits; Operation Management; Renewable Energy; Supply Chain; Environmental Sustainability; Climate Change; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Food and Beverage Industry; United States; Colorado