AmBev

"AmBev’s talent factory, spilling out droves of highly-talented executives at full speed, was able to expatriate more than one hundred executives of all seniority levels to international outposts of the newly-created company. Carlos Brito, AB InBev’s current CEO, was one of them: he left AmBev to run Labatt for some time, and to get some international mileage under his belt, a move agreed upon with the Belgians before he took over as InBev’s CEO in Leuven."

"As mentioned previously, every year leaders are required to name two possible successors who have (or are going to have in the near future) the suitable skills to take on their roles should they be promoted (or leave the company.) These promotions are discussed, at least at AmBev, in a “People Chess” meeting, where the company’s leaders, alongside the People and Management Department, discuss who’s being promoted, and to which functions."

"the trio believes their only really sustainable competitive advantage is their management style, they sought to chase growth by purchasing “mature businesses, with pulverized (and/or weak) ownership, strong, recognized brands and poor management,” where “external and internal owners could make a difference,” in the words of Marcel Telles. Acquisitions supplied top-line growth, and management turnaround supplied earnings growth, a combination that pleased ambitious employees and shareholders alike. Acquisitions enabled Antarctica—then AmBev and finally InBev—to export talented individuals to a number of M&A-created positions (the Brazilians secretly pride themselves in having “taken over” much of AB InBev’s management structure) around the globe. That is…"

"I would recruit against the large corporate behemoths, head-to-head. The only difference is that [AmBev] sent its owners recruiting, whereas our competitors sent John Doe, from HR[19]."

"In March 2004, AmBev and its controlling shareholders announced a complex transaction, in which the trio, via its Braco holding company, merged its controlling stake in AmBev with a number of Belgium-based families’ stakes in Interbrew. As a result, the trio would share control in the combined company, which would itself hold controlling stakes in both AmBev[8] and Interbrew, and be called InBev[9]."

"The essence of our company is, and will continue to be, in our management capabilities, our culture, and our people’s unparalleled execution. We select, train, and follow carefully our young talents’ careers. We are all confident and demanding. We are motivated by an aggressive variable compensation system, which stimulates high performance, accountability, and entrepreneurship. Everybody at AmBev is focused in reaching long-term, sustainable goals. Strict financial discipline is intrinsic to our culture. We’re a young company, with an average age of 29 years. Nonetheless, we’re also a very capable management team. Senior executives take active part in recruiting the best professionals, carefully breeding the company’s next generation of ranks. These basic principles are supported by our talent, the AmBev people, by our proprietary processes, and by the unique way we make things happen.[7]"

"the Sales Excellence Program. Each sales team competes with its regional peers for the prize, which is calculated as a multiplier of the Profit Sharing Program (a very similar logic to the size of the pie and potential bonus.) AmBev, for example, has cut deals with most of the unions active in the brewing industry so they are able to use this strategy. They pay down to no profit sharing at all to losing units, and pay up to three times the profit sharing amount to winning units."

"Foreword on People A company’s biggest asset is good people working as a team, growing in proportion to their talent and being recognized for that. Employee compensation has to be aligned with shareholders’ interests.  The 18 Commandments Our commitment to recruiting, training, and retaining our best people is a key element of our strategic initiatives. We know the AmBev People are our greatest competitive advantage. AmBev’s 2003 Annual Report We’re a one-trick-pony: our trick is to leverage people. That’s what we know how to do. Find people that have talent, a spark in their eyes, and a desire to grow, and open up their path, to help them get ahead. Marcel Telles"