In vino veritas, in Bero, opportunitas. Perhaps. Outside the keynote venue at Oracle NetSuite's SuiteWorld conference taking place in Las Vegas is a small-ish pop-up offering tastings of that most perennially popular beverage, beer. It's also serving up an example of why technology foresight makes a difference for ambitious companies.
Bero has two points of difference: it's alcohol-free. And it's a side quest for British actor Tom Holland. Despite the carnage unfolding in the craft beer market, Holland's Bero is boldly going where many have before, looking to take advantage of an apparently expanding appetite for beers without the fun factor. It also stands out as an example of laying solid foundations for growth by starting with a proper ERP system from day one. With its LinkedIn page showing between 2 and 10 employees, the brewery – or, it is probably far more accurate to say, the brand – kicked off with NetSuite behind it.
Let's look at some market intel. Craft breweries are under the whip as demand wanes, both locally and internationally. It's a tough market out there. Combine a contention that every beer probably started out as a craft brew, with the ones in demand (that is, good ones) going on to become the standard lagers we knew and enjoyed before growing moustaches and purchasing leather satchels, with the reality of a shell-shocked economy, and one might understand the decline.
Be that as it may, the alcohol-free sector is, perhaps perplexingly, emerging strongly from the carnage. The global market size was estimated at $20 billion in 2023 and is projected by Future Market Insights to grow to $40 billion by 2035. Apparently, the expansion is driven by health-conscious consumers, improved flavour and quality, and increased availability in social and retail settings.
Now, New Zealand is a nation of small businesses. A look at the top companies provides a further insight into why productivity is low, as the biggest employers by far are government entities. It also confirms that 20 to 30 deep is well into Medium sized territory. Apart from a few well-worn names, in other words, there isn't really any need for a Tier 1 ERP solution. NetSuite and its many competitors are a better proposition.
Anyone who has spent any reasonable amount of time with NZ small business owners will appreciate that there is a general lack of technological maturity and sophistication. This is in spite of our excellent internet infrastructure which is among the key enabling foundations for the use of cloud software and services.
The reality for most small businesses, inasmuch as systems and technology are concerned, is that this is among the last items on the agenda. That's as valid at the point of startup, all the way through to growth to medium-size or more.
One recent example is a recently insolvent North Island boat dealer; among the contributory issues cited in the receiver's report was the absence of a consolidated business system necessary to gather information from multiple locations.
This business had grown rapidly without growing its backend technology. While there were other almost certainly more serious issues, the debacle nevertheless highlights a key and recurring issue faced by ambitious companies: if your systems and processes aren't geared for growth, expansion could be a death knell.
For Bero's bit, it is doing things right which presumably on the back of Tom Holland's lucrative acting career includes sufficient capitalisation (another chronically Kiwi problem) and extends to extensible systems. It's a micro-enterprise, but an enterprise nonetheless, and so it is equipped with enterprise technology in the form of NetSuite.
That Holland clout has cut through: with the expertise of beverage industry veteran John Herman Bero has grown rapidly across the US and UK and now brews (or labels?) four beers, sells direct-to-consumers online, and can be found at major retailers.
The foresight was starting with NetSuite's before launch, providing a platform for growth plans and managing international sales. "From day one, we knew we needed a flexible system that could grow with our business and immediately enable efficiency," said Herman.
"Our SVP of Operations guided us to onboarding NetSuite early, as she knew it would allow us to maintain real-time insight across financial and operational layers that were integral to our business. In addition, NetSuite has helped us automate administrative processes, which allows our team to focus on more strategic value and growth priorities."
There's a powerful lesson here: match your ambition with the commitment to invest in appropriate technology from the start. Doesn't have to be NetSuite. Does have to be scalable from small operation, to big one.
Donovan Jackson is attending SuiteWorld in Las Vegas as the guest of Oracle NetSuite.
