4. How did BudNet decrease uncertainty? Anheuser-Busch Companies wants to be the life of every party with their beers and theme parks. The Fortune 500 company is one of the world's largest brewers, best known for its Budweiser, Bud Light, and Michelob labels. Heineken, Molson, Coors, and SABMiller are its fiercest competitors.

Anheuser-Busch had 48 percent market share in the United States in 2008, which is impressive in any business, but a decline from 49 percent in 2006 and 50 percent in 2005. Each 1 percent represents 1.4 million barrels of beer.

Anheuser-Busch's business strategy can be summed up in one word—responsiveness. The ability to respond quickly to opportunities and threats relies on IT applications that support the analysis and interpretation of company, market, and economic data. For example, by monitoring and analyzing sales data as precisely as its ITs allow, the company was first to identify the shift in customer purchasing preferences toward more healthy beverages. Armed with this intelligence, the company responded with and captured the low-carb beer market.