Beam Global Spirits & Wine Reviews

Pros

Compensation benefits are good relative to the industry standard. Secondary benefits of food & beverage compensation is a plus. The industry is fun as it revolves around a good product.

Cons

The product that you surround yourself with isn't good for long-term health as you will find yourself in bars and night clubs quite often. Although fun, it isn't good for a family life.

Advice to Senior Management

Be more mindful of who you promote and look at external promotions. Also, in layoffs don't be afraid to cut poor people in key positions and promote others into their position.

Pros

Long history, able to make decisions without a lot of politics,

Cons

constant change and reorganizations. Uncertainity

Pros

Great place to work in a truly global environment
Terrific Products / Brands
Solid, smart and capabile Sr. Leadership team
Good location in Chicago Suburbs
Growing company, solid earnings and real vision for its future

Cons

A bit chaotic at times
Sometimes priorities seem to be in competition with each other
Corporate Headquarters building is outdated if you are not on a renovated floor
If you are not agressive, you will go unnoticed which is developing into a culture of highly agressive individuals at all levels.
Not a lot of women in Sr. levels of the company

Advice to Senior Management

Keep the priorities focused and think about how the operations and commercial priorities impact the corporate headquaters support teams who need to manage multiple #1 priorities. Look for ways to promote / hire more senior visible women.

Pros

Let's face it, spirits is a fun business. Beam is entering into an age of innovation and it's was exciting to be a part of it. As a pure spirits company Wall Street will have it's eyes on Beam.

Cons

There is a great lack of work/life balance. Middle management is heavy handed with the pile-on of assignments without regard to current workload. This applies to both salaried and hourly employees. There is a lack of responsive HR support for employees having difficulty with this workload. This has caused an increasing number of employees to begin looking elsewhere for employment.

Pros

The products, the environment - some Sr. Leaders

Cons

Sometimes too much chaos - crazy with the pure play stuff currently!

Advice to Senior Management

If you ask for our perspective, try and listen to the answers!

Pros

-Fun industry, it's liquor so it's exciting
-Great coworkers, the people are what holds the company together
-Social environment
-Entrepreneurial

Cons

-Constant turnover; many rounds of layoffs and reorgs (too many to count)
-No communication from top down, and any communication that exists is usually unclear or misdirected
-Lack of direction and support
-Extremely Chaotic
-Zero accountability
-No opportunities to advance, those who do advance often seem unjustified
-Operate like a big company but no willingness to invest in employees
-Salary compensation among the lowest in the industry

Advice to Senior Management

Beam needs to have clearer lines of communication to their employees. There is no trust there and no sense of stability. Turnover/reorgs happen too frequently and they are constantly losing their most valuable employees. There needs to be accountability across all sector of the company and personal performance should drive personal advancement. The company needs to invest in their employees, doing so will make people want to work harder. There needs to be big changes in order for the company to succeed, opposed to crashing as it has been.

Pros

- Great people with a strong passion for the business
- Opportunity to lead and motivate others
- Great benefits
- Great brands

Cons

- Constant change is hard to manage
- Would like to see smaller levels of change vs. sweeping re-organizations
- Many layers with approvals needed; difficult to make decisions quickly

Advice to Senior Management

Listen to your employees and be ready for change. It is a good place to learn a business and build a career. Be as open as possible and reduce the structure and layers.

Pros

People, Brands, Ability to make an impact fast. New Leadership team is very strong and has gotten biz turned around so far.

Cons

Lots of change (for the better) going on so you have to be able to work in that environment.

Advice to Senior Management

Spend more time with the people and be visible.

Pros

High profile brand. Some good people to work with and can be a fun atmosphere at times. New CEO seems like he's on the right track.

Cons

Too many meetings without a clear focus. Not enough feedback and dialogue between management and staff. People don't communicate between departments.

Advice to Senior Management

Lack of quality leadership in key management roles. Need better communication between managers and employees. Seems like the company is going in too many directions, lack of focus.

Pros

-Education around products
-Free Products
-Retirement Package and 401(k) match
-Exposure to different parts of the company as well as international business

Cons

-No clear direction of the company
-Constant turnover (layoffs and people leaving on their own)
-Lack of team environment (management is only interested in their own careers)

Advice to Senior Management

The same issues are still there before all the changes started. Management should look at those core issues rather than just trying to put together cheap, quick fixes.