School of Business faculty were delighted to welcome Carlos Brito to the school on March 23rd for an intimate opportunity to hear his perspectives on global leadership.
Carlos Brito is Chief Executive Officer of AB InBev (Anheuser-Busch InBev). Born in 1960, he is a Brazilian citizen and received a degree in Mechanical Engineering from the Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro and an MBA from Stanford University. Brito held positions at Shell Oil and Daimler Benz prior to joining Ambev in 1989. At Ambev he had roles in Finance, Operations, and Sales, before being appointed Chief Executive Officer in January 2004. He was appointed Zone President North America at InBev in January 2005 and Chief Executive Officer in December 2005.
Several of the take-away points from Brito’s discussion with faculty centered around the value of the people within organizations including:
- People who share a common culture provide their organizations with a competitive advantage
- Leaders demonstrate fairness by treating people differently–those employees that add the greatest value should enjoy a greater share of opportunities and compensation
- Employees should be made owners, being provided a share of wealth created within their companies
- Leaders must take employees out of their comfort zone to develop them as leaders
- Leaders need to model being frugal with company resources (e.g., fly coach, no big offices, no car service, etc.)
Brito also emphasised two valuable points regarding global leadership:
- Be open to learning from the best organizations
- When doing business globally, focus on adhering to the company’s values and maintaining its reputation to avoid unethical situations
Anheuser-Busch InBev is a publicly traded company (Euronext: ABI) based in Leuven, Belgium, with American Depositary Receipts on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE: BUD). It is the leading global brewer and one of the world’s top five consumer products companies. This includes global brands Budweiser®, Corona® and Stella Artois®; international brands Beck’s®, Leffe®, and Hoegaarden®; and local champions Bud Light®, Skol®, Brahma®, Antarctica®, Quilmes®, Victoria®, Modelo Especial®, Michelob Ultra®, Harbin®, Sedrin®, Klinskoye®, Sibirskaya Korona®, Chernigivske®, Cass®, and Jupiler®.
Anheuser-Busch InBev employs approximately 155,000 employees based in 25 countries worldwide. In 2014, AB InBev realized revenue of $47.1 billion.