Boycotting Is a Slippery Slope

Indeed.

That was just the plan to which I was referencing with that particular comment.

 

Own it? They've already failed at that at least once (and arguably more than once) and I don't see the reasons for those failures going away soon.

However being a major player in flavorful beer and other beverages is a more realistic and achievable goal. Also from some of those acquisitions I'd say that they are taking quite seriously the idea of dealing with the loss of market share in general for beer when compared with wine and spirits. So it sounds to me like some of their goals in creating Zx Ventures are being achieved, and without most BAs even noticing.

BTW, thanks for sharing that list, there are several there I'd not heard about before.

 

In other words, they're trying to be the most successful business that they can. Perish the thought.

 

Oh Good Lord, this Zx stuff reads like a direct order from Lord Vader. "Mine the intelligence and bring it to me" followed by deep breathing sounds that I can't figure out how to spell.

 

In the information age and when pursuing or anticipating disruptive changes and/or technology, there are times when data mining and turning information into intelligence can be more valuable than simple possession of things (e.g., breweries).

 

My apologies in advance for being a nit-pick but I would phrase that as "turning data into information". There is a shit-ton of data being collected but transforming the data into information that can be understood and acted upon is a non-trivial effort.

Cheers!

 

Apologies for the confusion, but yours is a common nit-pick based on popular usage of ordinary language so no apologies on your part are needed.

My particular usage in this case is shaped by the usage of terms information and intelligence in the US Intelligence Community/Agencies. In their model of the world, data are simply one form of information but none of the various forms of information become intelligence until after analytic procedures are applied that lead to a conclusion.

For example the following number contains lots of information: 101

But it isn't really helpful and doesn't really become intelligence until you identify whether it is a binary or a decimal number. If it is decimal the number is One hundered and one. If it is a binary number it means something entirely different.

In ordinary usage information and intelligence are often conflated. Again, apologies for any confusion created by my earlier post.

 

This is very true, and it ties in with Tom's reply. My company's efforts at utilizing social media, the "big data", and disruptive innovation have been painful to say the least. We are simultaneously trying to maintain an existing business structure and go to market strategies that may be rapidly becoming irrelevant. We gather all sorts of information, but struggle to transform it into useful intelligence, to borrow that phrase from @drtth

Zx gives ABI an entire business unit or whatever you want to call it that is completely unencumbered by the tradtional business models and marketing strategies. And by what I have read about the talent they are collecting, they ain't hiring any B-list cast offs. If the list of endeavors that @Todd
listed is just a fraction of what they have their hands in, then Zx is indeed "up to something". And when all the dots get connected it might be pretty freakin' incredible. They have a mission, focus, finances, and direction to pull off something we are not able to piece together yet frm the bread crumbs. Taking just the classic definition of disruptive innovation, it is a process that starts in simple applications at the bottom of the market and moves up displacing previusly established businesses.

Whatever Zx is building may turn out to make High End look like chump change. Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain? Is High End misdirection? Or hedging the bet which is the Zx gamble? Food for thought, methinks.

 

Nice to know there is someone else who sees the creation of Zx in the same light.

 

I'm beginning to think of Independents as the Rebel Alliance.

 

If I was so disposed to be the king of beer and wanted world domination , I think I'd set my sights on the hop farms. I'd either buy them out at a handsome price or I'd offer 2-3X the going price once every contract legally signed expired. Pretty simple I'd just squeeze the hell out of the supply chain, no bother to buy up smaller breweries, or information sites, or internet sights. Way too much trouble. All the competition would either be turned upside down and out, or looking for extreme alternatives, none of which would be cheap, and in volume perhaps impossible for a good amount of time. Since ABI chooses not to do something along this line I can only assume the business is to make beer and enlarge their empire, capitalism at its best or worst. I have no allegiance to any one brand or another, I drink fairly what I choose, I don't check importers or check ownership stakes before I buy. Just a thought I had if one were hell bent or destroying the competition, and had the financial means to do so. And no pun intended on the King of beer thing.

 

Being mega sized has advantages but David killed Goliath with a rock and it wasn't a very big rock.

 

Yikes.

Had no idea that they purchased Northern Brewer.

I have been lucky enough to live in Southern California the past 5 years while I attended school, so homebrew shops have been easily accessible. Now that I am moving back to a semi-obscure area of TX, I will need to start getting my supplies shipped again. Used to buy everything from NB in the past.

 

Bud isn't good beer, but their money certainly is.

Take the investment, let them worry about the return.

 

AB/InBev has so much money they can certainly afford the many dalliances of ZX Ventures. Even those that don't pan out provide business intelligence. Perhaps at some point AB/InBev will buy a bourbon distillery (or maybe they already have), then would have the barrels to ramp up BCBS. And have robots deliver it to my door. ZX might get big for them if they find clever ways to combine their acquisitions.

 

Generally agreed, but more so if you change the word "dalliances" to something more serious or less suggesting of superficiality or casualness.

Zx may, and probably will, make mistakes or try things out that don't work, but the whole point of seeking disruptive innovation is to pursue what might be viable alternatives to the status quo or the future of the status quo. That involves explorations of possibilities, whether off the wall or not, and has the quite serious purpose of predicting the future in part by inventing or creating it.

Even misguided temporary relationships will have a quite serious purpose and there is nothing casual about them. If only because something that appears quite frivolous and irrelevant at first can turn out to be of unexpected value and relevance to creating the future.

 

I recommend MoreBeer.

https://www.morebeer.com/

Cheers!

 

"If you are the big tree,
We are the small axe
Ready to cut you down,
Sharpened to cut you down. "

 

For those of you that watch GoT, ZX is Littlefinger.