No Water, No Beer, Right?
Carlos Brito runs the world’s biggest brewer, a truly global company that brought in nearly $54 billion in revenue last year. But the CEO of AB InBev says that his company’s success depends on being nimble enough to respond quickly to the needs of farmers, brewers, and customers at the local level.
“We brew 95% of what we sell locally,” Brito says on the latest episode of Fortune’s Leadership Next podcast. “We get the water locally, we buy from local farmers…We sell to consumers locally, and we hire our colleagues locally.”
It’s a counterintuitive sentiment to hear from an executive whose company sells more than 500 brands (including Budweiser, Stella Artois, and Corona) and operates in more than 50 countries. But that local focus has helped AB InBev earn strong marks for social responsibility. And it earned it a spot on Fortune's 2020 Change the World list.
Brito was also my guest this week on Leadership Next, our podcast about the changing rules of business leadership.
Brito talked about the company's "Smart Barley" program, which provides data, technology and advice to 20,000 farmers that creates the kind of triple play we look for in evaluating companies for Change the World: It helps farmers improve their income and living standard, it reduces the strain on the environment, and it makes money for AB-InBev - which assures the company will continue to support it in the future.
“No water, no beer, right? So it’s that simple,” he says. “I have to take care of my farmers, because if there’s no barley, there’s no beer. So I mean, that’s the best thing for me.”
We'd like to hear your suggestions of other triple-plays. To see the other companies on this year's Change the World list, click here. To hear other inspiring examples of the new brand of leadership, subscribe to Leadership Next.
CEO at Cyberdizzy Enterprise Advisory
4 年Amazing article Alan! Thank you!
Hair Raising Philosophy. Yale PhD. Morehead-Cain. I bring deep wisdom to business through talks, advising, and books. Bestselling author. Novelist. 30+ books. TomVMorris.com. TheOasisWithin.com.
4 年I'm loving these interviews, Cousin Alan. I've listened to three recently while doing my daily exercise walkabouts on our property. Most people don't know that Adam Smith wrote extensively about the virtues before he did The Wealth of Nations, and seemed to presuppose the former in the latter. Rather than operating as simply a money machine, business was to be a powerful engine for human good across its entire spectrum. Your interviews are brilliantly displaying our incipient rediscovery of this old and vital perspective. No water, no beer. No virtue, no value. Kudos!