Sour grapes at Diageo

Apparently, having a craft beer company winning 'Bar Operator of the Year' didn't go down too well with the Diageo reps at the British Institute of Innkeeping (Scotland) awards:

A representative from Diageo, who has not been identified, was allegedly overheard threatening to withdraw the drinks giants' sponsorship from future BII awards if BrewDog was declared the winner.
Sources at the dinner at the Grand Central Hotel in Glasgow claimed the trophy had already been engraved with BrewDog's name and judges were shocked when another bar, Behind the Wall in Falkirk, was announced the winner of the category.

The judges were shocked? I'm shocked that a giant of the drinks industry would stoop to such behaviour. Oh, my mistake, it wasn't an official policy or anything:

Diageo said in a statement: "There was a serious misjudgment by Diageo staff at the awards dinner on Sunday evening in relation to the Bar Operator of the Year Award, which does not reflect in any way Diageo's corporate values and behaviour.

Yes, because the fact that Diageo employs and promotes people like that has nothing to do with Diageo as a corporation. Umm. And by "serious mistake" you just know that the spokesperson means "got caught".

This is what really grips my chaps about the Borg-like FTSE and Dow giants. On the occasions where staff members do something dementedly tyrannical (depressingly frequent) and get caught (depressingly few) the company points to its policies and "values" training and says "hey, nothing to do with us, we condemn behaviour like this." But anyone with experience of their working environments and the practicalities of promotion and advancement within the company structure can see that bullying, arrogant and borderline sociopathic behaviour is disturbingly effective at helping one to rise to positions of power. I'm sure no-one sat down and designed the company that way, but that's how it turns out. That which you reward, increases.

I'm glad to see that BrewDog, the real winner, isn't a meek and mild organisation though:

The group has also riled health campaigners by producing high strength brews such as "Sink the Bismarck", which at 41pc is believed to be the world's strongest beer.

You just know that they'd bring a keg of that along to a brewing festival in Munich, don't you?