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Strategies & Market Trends : 2026 TeoTwawKi ... 2032 Darkest Interregnum -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: TobagoJack who wrote (37435)	7/20/2008 6:57:51 PM
From: elmatador	Respond to of 217564

my bubble-detector had that goal: Rise awareness of the embryonic bubble.

To: TobagoJack who wrote (37435)	7/20/2008 7:26:41 PM
From: elmatador	Respond to of 217564

no-frills leader without a company car or even his own desk. Carlos Brito, chief executive of brewer InBev SA, says he doesn't care for perks -- and neither should the people who work for him. ''I don't want the company to give me free beer; I can buy my own beer,'' he told Stanford MBA students earlier this year. Anheuser-Busch is a perked-up company with corporate jets for executives and free beer for the workers -- as well as generous donations to local communities and politicians. Similar employee extras at Belgium's Interbrew vanished when it merged with Brito's Brazil-based AmBev in 2004. ''His reputation precedes him as a no-frills, no-thrills severe cost-cutter,'' says Eric Shepard, editor of beer industry newsletter Beer Marketer's Insights. Born in 1960, Brito studied mechanical engineering in Rio de Janeiro and applied to several U.S. universities for a master's in business administration. He was accepted by several -- but could not pay his way. A family friend put him in touch with Brazilian investment banker and billionaire Jorge Paulo Lemann, who told Brito he would pay for his graduate studies at Stanford. ''All he wanted in return were periodic reports and clippings from the United States to keep him up to date with what was going on there,'' said Cerqueira Lima. ''Brito insisted on knowing how he would pay Lemann back and Lemann said, 'I do not want to be paid back. One day you will do for others what I am doing for you.''' Lemann put Brito to work at Brahma when he bought it in 1989, later merging it with another beer company, Antarctica, to form AmBev. Brito had been head of InBev's North American business for just over a year when he became CEO in August 2005, as the Brazilian management team firmly took the reins of the company and rolled out zero-based budgeting that forces managers to justify every expense. He doesn't have his own personal assistant or company car and shares a desk with top finance, marketing and human resources executives in an open office that he says allows dozens of two-minute meetings to discuss the business throughout the day. Hiding behind an office door is for the mediocre, he claims. Brito admits that InBev's Spartan style can make it difficult to attract experienced staff because few enjoy its ''more risk, more reward-type environment.'' nytimes.com