The creation and communication of a new corporate identity at Anheuser-Busch InBev

Transcription

1 The creation and communication of a new corporate identity at Anheuser-Busch InBev Paper ( scriptie ) submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirement for the Advanced Master Degree: Multilingual Business Communication, by Sander Laridon Supervisor: Prof. dr. Geert Jacobs

2 Description of the internship Bedrijf Stagebegeleider Afdeling Taken Talen tijdens de stage Anheuser- Kristien Abbeel Internal Busch InBev / Communication Brouwerijplein Laurence Western Europe 1 Andrianne (People& 3000 Leuven Management) - Organisatie en opvolging van interne evenementen (LPC meeting, World Environment Day) - Redactie en coördinatie van interne communicaties voor de Zone Western Europe - Presentaties maken voor de Zone President Western Europe en voor de Vice President People & Management Hoofdtaal is Engels. Daarnaast ook Nederlands en Frans voor gewone gesprekken op de werkvloer. stageperiode 27 april 09 Tot 17 augustus

3 All information in this dissertation is confidential to Anheuser-Busch InBev. No part of this dissertation may be made public, be reproduced or distributed in any form or by any means, or stored in a database without the prior permission of Anheuser-Busch InBev

4 Word of thanks For me, this dissertation paper means the end of an extremely interesting but exhausting year. In the past year, I broadened my vision and mind and acquired knowledge and skills. In addition to this, I met a lot of interesting people whom it was a pleasure to work with. My internship at Anheuser-Busch InBev was the acme of my academic studies. It was an exquisite opportunity to turn the gathered knowledge and theory into practice. As a consequence, I want to thank the people at Anheuser-Busch InBev, and particularly Kristien Abbeel and the full People & Management Team, for the opportunities that they offered me. Furthermore, I would like to thank my parents for their unremitting care and support. In addition, I want to show my biggest thanks to Emmelien, my girlfriend. The past four months were extremely interesting but also very hectic and heavy. When I once in a while experienced a hard day, she always managed to tone me up with her love. Sander Laridon Ghent, August

5 Index 1. Anheuser-Busch InBev Anheuser-Busch InBev anno Anheuser-Busch InBev s history Den Horen Interbrew InBev Anheuser-Busch InBev Company structure Global level Zone Western Europe Corporate identity Mission and strategy: the four pillars Cost-Connect-Win Model Dream-People-Culture platform Anheuser-Busch InBev s brands Marketing & Brand strategy Brand portfolio and consumer profile

6 1.6 Anheuser-Busch InBev s competitors Direct competition Indirect competition Budget competition SWOT Analysis Strengths Weaknesses Opportunities Threats The creation of a new corporate identity after mergers and acquisitions Corporate identity, image and culture Internal communication Definition Purposes The interaction between internal communication and corporate identity Adaptation and acculturation in mergers and acquisitions The importance of postmerger/postacquisition integration Modes of acculturation A new Anheuser-Busch InBev corporate identity

7 2.4.1 Degree of acculturation The creation of the Anheuser-Busch InBev corporate identity The communication of the new corporate identity My internship at Anheuser-Busch InBev The rollout of the new Anheuser-Busch InBev Ten Principles Background Personal contribution Personal evaluation The organization of World Environment Day Background Personal contribution Personal evaluation The organization of the LPC Western Europe Background Personal contribution Personal evaluation The writing and sending of Flashes Background Personal contribution

8 3.5 Presentations Monthly Calls Engagement Conclusion Bibliography Printed sources Digital sources Annex

9 Preface This paper gives a detailed overview of my internship at Anheuser-Busch InBev and zooms in on the creation and communication of a new corporate identity, since I played a part in the communication of Anheuser-Busch InBev s new corporate identity. I resolutely chose to do my internship at Anheuser-Busch InBev for several reasons. First of all, I wanted to do my internship at a multinational in order to acquire relevant experience. I also thought it would be nice to put on my curriculum vitae. In addition, I am a beer enthusiast and I am fascinated by the brewing process and the whole beer culture. Anheuser-Busch InBev was a logical choice for me. Besides this, I felt attracted to the field of internal communication because it was one of the domains that I did not know that well. As a consequence, I wanted to explore the possibilities of this function. In November, I sent my application letter to Kristien Abbeel, Internal Communication Manager Western Europe. One week later, I had a personal talk with her. She explained me the responsibilities of the Internal Communication Department and talked about the company. After this talk, I knew that I had made the right decision. As a matter of fact, now that my internship is over, I am still of the opinion that I made the right decision. In this paper, I discuss my experiences at Anheuser-Busch InBev. The paper consists of 4 chapters. I the first chapter, I discuss the company, its structure, strategy and brands. The second chapter deals with the creation of a new corporate identity after mergers and acquisitions. I sketch a theoretical framework and I then use it to discuss the method that Anheuser-Busch InBev followed. In the third chapter, I describe my tasks within Anheuser-Busch InBev and I evaluate them. In the fourth chapter, I look back at my experiences and arrive at some summarizing conclusions concerning MTB, my internship and my personal and professional development

10 1. Anheuser-Busch InBev This chapter gives an overview of the company Anheuser-Busch InBev, or AB InBev. First, I will discuss Anheuser-Busch InBev s history and current position. Next, I will elaborate on how the company is organized and structured. After that, I will examine the corporate identity of AB InBev and AB InBev s brands. After a sketch of the consumer profile and the competitors of the company, a SWOT-analysis will summarize the chapter. Even though I will discuss AB InBev s history, identity, brands and competitors from a global point of view, I will often focus on the Western European Zone. This because of AB InBev s own structure and organization, and because of the fact that I did my internship at the Zone organization. The content of this chapter is based on AB InBev s corporate website 1, AB InBev s Inside website 2, AB InBev s intranet, the Annual Report and the knowledge and insights I gathered through my internship at the company. 1 Anheuser-Busch InBev, Corporate website. (20/08/2009). 2 This is a website that is only for the employees of Anheuser-Busch InBev. This website provides information about the company. 3 Anheuser-Busch InBev, Annual Report. (20/08/2009)

11 1.1 Anheuser-Busch InBev anno 2009 Anheuser-Busch InBev is a publicly traded company (Euronext: ABI) based in Leuven, Belgium. With operations and license agreements around the globe, Anheuser-Busch InBev is a truly global brewer. To be more precise: the leading global brewer 4. On the corporate site of Anheuser-Busch InBev, we find some figures that sketch the business of Anheuser-Busch InBev 5 : Anheuser-Busch InBev is the leading global brewer and one of the world s top 5 consumer product companies. In 2008, Anheuser-Busch sold 456,8 Mio HL over the whole world: 166,7 in North America, 101,5 in Latin America North, 33,7 in Latin America South, 35,0 in Western Europe, 46,1 in Central and Eastern Europe, 71,0 in Asia Pacific and 2,8 via Global Exports/Licenses. The company has a combined revenue of 39 billion USD. The company has 4 of the top 10 selling beers in the world and holds number one or two position in over 20 key markets. This is more than any other brewer. Nearly 300 brands in the brand portfolio. Anheuser-Busch InBev employs almost people worldwide. 4 Anheuser-Busch InBev, Corporate website. (20/08/2009). 5 Ibidem

12 It is clear that Anheuser-Busch InBev is not only the leading global brewer, but by extension a leading global consumer products company. As a consequence, Anheuser-Busch InBev prefers to describe itself as a beer company instead of brewer

13 1.2 Anheuser-Busch InBev s history The roots of the world s biggest beer company are diverse. As a consequence, the story of AB InBev can be told from different point of views. In Belgium, AB InBev is often described as a clear example of the Belgian enterprising spirit and hard work. In Brazil, they will probably describe it as a great example of the Brazilian spirit and drive. In medio stat veritas, or the truth stands in the middle. The history of Anheuser-Busch InBev is a complex story of mergers and acquisitions 6. Anheuser- Busch InBev was founded in November 2008, as a result of the combination between InBev and Anheuser-Busch. Actually, InBev acquired Anheuser-Busch and Anheuser-Busch became a wholly owned subsidiary. Nevertheless, Carlos Brito, the CEO of Anheuser-Busch InBev, prefers to refer to this acquisition as a combination of two companies Den Horen The roots of Anheuser-Busch InBev can be traced back to Den Horen in Leuven. This brewery began brewing beer in 1366 and is the birthplace of one of AB InBev s famous brands, Stella Artois. In the 14 th and 15 th century, Leuven had a flourishing trade and commerce. The beer business contributed to this wealth and by the middle of the 16 th century, Den Horen became by far the most important enterprise in Leuven. In 1708, Sebastian Artois was appointed master brewer and a couple of years later he acquired Den Horen and became the sole owner of the brewery. Since then, the name of Artois is linked to the 6 For a detailed history of Anheuser-Busch InBev, written from the Belgian point of view, see: Riepl, W., De Belgische bierbaronnen. Het verhaal achter Anheuser-Busch InBev. Roeselare (Roularta Books)

14 brewery. The history of Den Horen is kept alive until today and Anheuser-Busch InBev is proud of this rich heritage and long tradition. On the corporate website 7, Anheuser-Busch InBev significantly refers to these roots. The horn is also integrated in the Stella Artois logo Interbrew Figure 1 : Interbrew logo journey until the foundation of InBev. The year of 1987 is a milestone in the history of Anheuser-Busch InBev. In 1987, the history of mergers and acquisitions that will lead to the creation of the world s largest brewer, commences. The diagram below illustrates the Figure 2: The History of InBev 7 Anheuser-Busch InBev, Corporate website. (20/08/2009)

15 In 1987, the two biggest breweries in Belgium merged: Artois, located in Leuven and Piedboeuf, located in Jupille. Belbrew was the result of the combination of the two Belgian beer giants. After this merger, Belbrew acquired some local breweries in Belgium: De Kluis, Lootvoet and Belle- Vue. These companies brewed respectively Hoegaarden, Leffe and Belle-Vue. Meanwhile, Belbrew changed its name into Interbrew. In 1991, Interbrew looked outside Belgium s borders for the first time. Interbrew s first international transaction was in Hungary. In 1995, Interbrew acquired Labatt, one of Canada s largest breweries. The acquisition of Labatt was a historical step for Interbrew. With this acquisition, the company evolved from a regional brewery to a world player. This acquisition also prepared the way for a number of international transactions: a joint venture with SUN in Russia (1999), the acquisition of Bass and Whitbread in the UK (2000) and the acquisition of Beck s & Co in Germany (2002). In 2002, Interbrew strengthened its position in China by the acquisition of stakes in two important breweries. In the meantime, Interbrew underwent another important change. Until the end of 2000, Interbrew was a family-owned company. In December 2000, Interbrew organized a public offering and became a publicly owned company trading on the Euronext stock exchange InBev Figure 3 : InBev logo raised to a 91% controlling interest in In 2004, Interbrew and AmBev joined their forces to create InBev. The merger of Interbrew and AmBev brought positive economical effects for both. AmBev itself was created in 2000 by the merger of Antarctica and Brahma and in 2002, AmBev took a 37,5 % interest in Quilmes, an Argentine brewery. This interest was The merger of Interbrew and AmBev did not only create the world s leading brewer, but also caused a whole change of the former Interbrew culture and identity. The Brazilian boy wonders, as they were often described, from AmBev integrated their way of working in the new company. They laid

16 the foundations for further international growth with their strong focus on cost cutting and their persistent search for raising efficiency. This was a clean break with the Interbrew culture and way of doing business. To this day, certain employees of Anheuser-Busch InBev, who worked for the brewer in the 80 s and 90 s, look back on the Interbrew period with a lot of nostalgia Anheuser-Busch InBev Figure 4: AB InBev logo The most significant event in the company s recent history is the acquisition of Anheuser-Busch, the largest brewing company in the United States, in November Anheuser-Busch traces its origins back to the Bavarian Brewery in St. Louis, which was established in In 1860 the struggling brewery was acquired by Eberhard Anheuser, a successful soap manufacturer, who later teamed up with his son-in-law, Adolphus Busch. The company was later renamed Anheuser-Busch. Through innovative marketing and new technologies among them the introduction of pasteurization and artificial refrigeration - they transformed the local brewery into an industry leader. Budweiser was the brewery s first national beer brand, introduced in Next to the fact that they are the largest brewing company in the United States, Anheuser-Busch has a strong position in China. China is the largest-volume and among the fastest-growing beer market in the world. Anheuser-Busch first invested in China in In 1995 the company began brewing in the Budweiser Wuhan International Brewery; in 2004 it Figure 5: Anheuser-Busch logo acquired Harbin Brewery Group Ltd, China s oldest brewery, and the market share leader in the Northeast region of the country; in 2005 it 8 Anheuser-Busch, Corporate website. (20/08/2009)

17 increased its equity interest in Tsingtao Brewery Co. to 27% with the government retaining the majority share. The latter was reduced to a 7% minority interest in January The acquisition of Anheuser-Busch by InBev was a very symbolic one. Within the company of InBev, Anheuser-Busch had always been used as shining example.. InBev learned a lot of best practices from Anheuser-Busch and eventually acquired its own model. If there was one beer company the InBev senior leaders were jealous of, it was Anheuser-Busch, the US national beer symbol. It is in this perspective that we have to understand Carlos Brito s reference to the acquisition as a combination, as if it was a merger. This is where Anheuser-Busch InBev is today. The countries shaded in red indicate where Anheuser- Busch InBev has operations or license agreements. Figure 6: AB InBev operations & license agreements

18 1.3 Company structure Global level On the global level, Anheuser-Busch Inbev is led by the Executive Board of Management. As CEO, Carlos Brito is the head of the EBM. Below you find the organization chart. Figure 7: Management structure 9 Based on Anheuser-Busch InBev s Intranet, Inside website and my own insights

19 The Executive Board of Management can be divided into two groups: the six Zones and seven Functions. The six Zones reflect the geographical presence of Anheuser-Busch InBev in America, Europe and Asia Pacific. The creation of the Zones is based on AB InBev s business agenda, market qualities and size. The six Zones are: Zone Asia Pacific Zone Central & Eastern Europe Zone Latin America South Zone Latin America North Zone North America Zone Western Europe (including Cuba) Each Zone has its Zone President. Alain Beyens is the Zone President for Western Europe and consequently leads the Western European organization of Anheuser-Busch InBev. The second group within the Executive Board of Management consists of the Chiefs of the Functions. At this level, AB InBev divides the organization into seven Functions. Legal & Communications Finance People & Technology Strategy & Sales Marketing Supply Procurement These Functions focus on their core business and they work across the different zones. They share operational responsibility with the Zones to deliver the results

20 1.3.2 Zone Western Europe Below, I will focus on the organization and structure of the Western European zone because I did my internship at the Western European organization. In Western Europe, the organization is structured similarly as the global organization. On the one hand, the Zone has different Business Units (countries) and on the other hand there are six Functions that work across the countries. Figure 8: Zone Western Europe Structure Zone Western Europe has 4 Business Units: Benelux, UKI, GAUCH and Southern Europe. Initially, BeLux and The Netherlands were separate Business Units. During my internship, these two were combined and integrated. The GAUCH Business Unit consist of Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Italy, Spain, France and, quite striking, Cuba belong to Southern Europe. The Business Units are responsible for the Sales and Distribution (S&D)

21 Each of the Business Units is led by a Business Unit President and each of the six Functions is organized under the lead of a Vice President (VP) Western Europe. I did my internship at the Internal Communication Department Western Europe. When I started, Kristien Abbeel, my mentor, was Internal Communication Manager Western Europe and Simon Wuestenberg was Director Internal Communications and Projects. During my internship, Kristien moved to the Western European Planning and Performance Management and Simon moved to the Belgian Sales Department. Laurence Andrianne, Internal Communication Manager BeLux became Internal Communication Manager Western Europe and Alexandre Bouchet became the Director of Internal Communications, Perfomance and Planning Management and Facility Management. Alexandre directly reports to Marc Croonen, Vice President People & Management Western Europe, who then reports to Alain Beyens

22 1.4 Corporate identity In this part, I will give an overview of the new corporate identity of Anheuser-Busch InBev. I take a look at Anheuser-Busch InBev s mission, strategy and way of realizing its mission. In chapter 2, I will examine how this new Anheuser-Busch InBev identity was created and communicated through the organization Mission and strategy: the four pillars To create enduring bonds with consumers by providing the brands and experiences that bring people together. 10 The above sentence is Anheuser-Busch InBev s mission. A mission is the precise formulation of what the organization does. It describes the business the organization is in and gives a definition or formulation of the reason why the organization exists. Below, I sketched Anheuser-Busch InBev s mission and its matching strategy by Anheuser-Busch InBev s four pillars. 10 Anheuser-Busch InBev, Corporate website. (20/08/2009)

23 Winning with Consumers via our Winning Brand Portfolio 11 Consumers come first at Anheuser-Busch InBev. The promise is to create enduring bonds with consumers so that they enjoy Anheuser-Busch InBev s brands time and again. One way the company aims to realize this is through a superior brand portfolio. Out of nearly 300 brands, a small group of focus brands is prioritized. These are the brands AB InBev believes will most effectively build deep connections with consumers. Winning at the Point of Connection 12 The Point of Connection is the moment when consumers ultimately choose to purchase or consume AB InBev s brands. By utilizing capabilities in sales, merchandising and distribution, the company tries to win over the consumer at the point of connection. This entails building sales and merchandising capabilities, achieving preferred supplier partnerships with customers, and consistently building the equity of the brands. World-class efficiency 13 World-class efficiency drives every part of Anheuser-Busch InBev s business, wherever the company does business, and whatever the wider economic circumstances. AB InBev is focusing on a range of initiatives including the Voyager Plant Optimization (VPO) program, which is bringing about a real step-change in brewery performance. It also entails raising the status of AB InBev s procurement processes to maximize purchasing power, in order to gain the best results when AB InBev purchases 11 Ibid. 12 Ibid. 13 Ibid

24 a range of goods and services. The company also optimizes its network of breweries and shares best practices, to leverage the learnings and drive continuous improvements. Zero-Based Budgeting is a crucial element of this World-class efficiency, and one of the tools which helps to prioritize and control costs. Targeted external growth 14 The goal of targeted external growth is to strengthen the positions in developed markets, and continue to maximize opportunities in high-growth markets. Anheuser-Busch InBev s recent acquisitions are very much in line with this strategy. The above-mentioned four pillars are supported or enabled by three things: innovation, people/culture and financial discipline. Innovation 15 Underpinning the four pillars is innovation. Anheuser-Busch InBev seeks to combine technological know-how, with unparalleled market understanding, to develop a healthy innovation pipeline. A good example of an innovation delivering exciting choices for consumers is PerfectDraft: a system which combines a high-quality appliance and consumer-preferred beer brands in light metal kegs, delivering the great taste and experience of draught beer in the comfort of one's own home. 14 Ibid. 15 Ibid

25 People/Culture 16 At Anheuser-Busch InBev, people lead the way and represent the company s most important competitive advantage 17. AB InBev believes that great people are behind everything they do, and they believe great people build great companies. Anheuser-Busch Inbev s culture is one of ownership, disciplined execution and focus on results. The organization believes that people will make better decisions if they think and act like owners, and that teams are focused on the basis of stretched but achievable targets. The target setting and cascading system together with the compensation model are also built on the principles of ownership. Financial Discipline For Anheuser-Busch InBev, financial discipline means having the right metrics, with the right focus on tracking performance, whilst effectively managing the use of resources such as invested capital and capital structure. 16 Ibid. 17 Ibid

26 1.4.2 Cost-Connect-Win Model 18 Anheuser-Busch InBev s strategy is made operational day by day trough the simple cost-connectwin model 19. The aim is to capture non-working money from within the overall cost envelope, and convert it into working money, directly supporting the Anheuser-Busch Inbev brands and sales and marketing capabilities. 20 The cost element is about reducing the cost-base and enabling Anheuser- Busch InBev to stay ahead of the game in a highly competitive marketplace. By making savings, they intend to invest more in connecting with Figure 9: Cost-Connect-Win disciplined investment. consumers, turning non working Euros into working Euros. The key is Winning is about achieving sustainable, profitable, growth. Anheuser-Busch InBev is looking to achieve long-term growth that is sustainable and profitable. People are at the centre of this virtuous circle, because they are considered as Anheuser-Busch InBev s long-term competitive advantage, making things happen. The purpose is to create a winning combination, a dynamic and disciplined company that is wholly focused on the consumer, and at the same time a highly profitable company, that really will be the best Ibid. 19 Ibid. 20 Ibid. 21 Ibid

27 1.4.3 Dream-People-Culture platform Figure 10: Dream People Culture Anheuser-Busch InBev translated its mission, vision and strategy in the Dream- People-Culture platform. In this part, I will give an overview of what this platform is about. In , I will discuss the Ten Principles that form the essence of Anheuser-Busch InBev s Dream-People-Culture. Dream 22 AB InBev s dream is to be the Best Beer Company in a better world, ultimately delighting the customers and consumers, time and again. This dream aims to energize everyone to work in the same direction. The three long-term objectives of Anheuser-Busch InBev s business are: Figure 11: Dream To deliver volume growth ahead of industry growth. 23 To grow revenue ahead of volumes. 24 To maintain strong financial discipline and ensure that costs remain below inflation. 25 These three conditions are considered as necessary in order to fulfill the long-term goal of becoming the Best Beer Company in the industry, measured by profitability. Becoming the best is AB InBev s commitment and on-going challenge. AB InBev constantly aims to raise the bar in order to build a company that will generate growth and sustainable results for the long-term. 22 Ibid. 23 Ibid. 24 Ibid. 25 Ibid

28 Figure 12: People People 26 Being the Best means having the best people. 27 Talented people who are engaged and thriving in Anheuser-Busch InBev s culture represent the most important, and indeed only sustainable competitive advantage. Culture 28 Ownership is an important part of who the AB InBev employees are and how they behave. It begins with a mindset of everyone who works at Anheuser- Busch InBev. The people should behave and act like they really own the company and treat it as if it were their own. Anheuser-Busch InBev believes that its culture defines the employees as a company, unites them wherever they do business, and is the one thing the competitors can never copy. Above Figure 13: Culture all, Anheuser-Busch InBev considers itself as a truly consumer-centric, sales driven company, where everything they do is geared towards the mission of creating enduring bonds with consumers through brands and experiences that bring people together Ten Principles Anheuser-Busch InBev translated its whole Dream-People-Culture and corporate identity in ten principles. These Ten Principles are of key importance for all the Anheuser-Busch InBev employees. In chapter 3 I will discuss how these principles were created and communicated after the acquisition of Anheuser-Busch by InBev. 26 Ibid. 27 Ibid. 28 Ibid

29 During my internship, I did the rollout of the Anheuser-Busch InBev Dream-People-Culture campaign for Western Europe. I drew up a planning (see Annex I.a), coordinated the translation of the Ten Principles into Dutch, German, Italian and French, and I had the lead over the layout, prepress and printing process and the distribution of the material to all of AB InBev s Western European offices, and InBev Belgium s breweries and depots. The Ten Principles were printed on A3 posters, credit cards, leaflets, bookmarks, and pop up banners. Below, I listed the Ten Principles: Our dream 1. Our shared dream energizes everyone to work in the same direction: to be the Best Beer Company in a Better World. Our people 2. Great people, allowed to grow at the pace of their talent and compensated accordingly, are the most valuable assets of our company. 3. We must select people who, with the right development, challenges and encouragement, can be better than ourselves. We will be judged by the quality of our teams. Our culture 4. We are never completely satisfied with our results, which are the fuel of our company. Focus and zero-complacency guarantee lasting competitive advantage. 5. The consumer is the Boss. We connect with our consumers through meaningful brand experiences, balancing heritage and innovation, and always in a responsible way. 6. We are a company of owners. Owners take results personally. 7. We believe common sense and simplicity are usually better guidelines than unnecessary sophistication and complexity. 8. We manage our costs tightly, to free up resources that will support top-line growth

30 9. Leadership by personal example is the best guide to our culture. We do what we say. 10. We don t take shortcuts. Integrity, hard work, quality and consistency are keys to building our company Six Competencies For its employees, Anheuser-Busch InBev converted the Ten Principles into Six Competencies. Every Anheuser-Busch InBev manager is weekly reviewed by his or her line manager. During these weekly reviews, the Ten Principles are used as a guideline to evaluate every employee. These competencies tell how the Anheuser-Busch InBev people are expected to act and behave. Below I listed the Six Competencies: 1. Thinks Big an takes on big challenges. Sets the bar high, never satisfied with results, and constantly strives to be the best. 2. Develops the Best People & Teams. Attracts, directs, motivates, and develops others to provide maximum contribution to the business. 3. Has Impact & Influence. Inspires others and gains commitment to achieve maximum results. 4. Acts as an Owner. Always acts in the best interests of the company, taking results personally. 5. Executes with discipline. Aligns and follows the Anheuser-Busch InBev way to achieving results: simple, focused, and disciplined. 6. Leads by Example. Walks the talk, as an Ambassador for our culture, doing things the right way

31 1.5 Anheuser-Busch InBev s brands Marketing & Brand strategy As mentioned above, Anheuser-Busch InBev is a sales-driven organization. In 2008, the first of many new steps were taken to ensure that AB InBev became a truly consumer-centric company. As a relative newcomer to the world s top five consumer product companies, Anheuser-Busch InBev believes that it needs to continue to build a truly world class marketing capability to create sustainable shareholder value. In order to do so, they continuously search and reapply global best practices, both internally and externally. Anheuser-Busch InBev divides its brands into three categories: the global brands, the multi-country brands and the local jewels. The global brands are also called the flagship brands. The company believes that these brands have the highest potential to create global reach and are built on the consumers values and needs across the globe. The multi-country brands consist of brands which have their current geographic footprint in a specific set of countries. Their values and needs also transcend borders, they complement Anheuser-Busch InBev s global brands and enhance AB InBev s competitiveness in the markets. The category of the local jewels consists of local top beers around the world. These local jewels are mostly distributed only in their homeland. In the following paragraphs, I will give an overview of the five most important characteristics of Anheuser-Busch InBev s marketing and brand strategy Focus Anheuser-Busch InBev believes that focus works. This is why the company rigorously reinforced its focus brands strategy. As mentioned above, focus brands are the brands in which Anheuser-Busch 29 This is mainly based on information available on Anheuser-Busch InBev s Intranet

32 InBev invests most of its marketing money. Out of nearly 300 brands, and following a bottom-up exercise in all key countries, AB InBev prioritizes a small group with greater growth potential within each relevant consumer segment. These focus brands, including the three global brands, key multicountry brands, and selected local jewels, account for two-thirds of Anheuser-Busch InBev s total volume One global way of marketing In 2008, InBev created and successfully implemented one marketing language. The intention was to give it a comprehensive definition, including metrics within the World Class Commercial Program (WCCP), shared by both the marketing and sales functions. For each country Anheuser-Busch InBev translated its marketing ability into an objectively quantifiable component of its target setting and performance culture, allowing for cross-country comparison, best practice sharing, and targeted training and development. This integrated way of marketing is shared from senior management through to brand management, aligning the entire company Addressing global trends with global brands In 2008, the global brands had a good year 30. Particularly in the more developed markets this achievement was the result of the focus placed on the brands that are able to address changing tastes globally. While the local jewels remain the backbone of the company and capture local needs very well, there seems to be a growing and very vibrant group of consumers who are behaving more and more like global citizens, with shared tastes and values. 30 Anheuser-Busch InBev, Annual Report. (20/08/2009)

33 Innovation and Renovation According to Anheuser-Busch InBev, strong brands, whether local or global ones, depend on a constant stream of innovation. Next to that, equally important for strong brands is the ability to renovate their core. The core variants need to stay relevant and vibrant to remain appealing to new generations of beer lovers. Therefore, Anheuser-Busch InBev systematically measures marketing elements like packaging and labels. As necessary, and after solid testing, the company carefully evolves them. Within the new and global one way of marketing, AB InBev created one global way to manage the innovation and renovation pipeline. In 2008, a wave of new brands and varieties saw the light of day, with innovations such as Stella Artois 4% (UK), Stella Artois Légère (Canada), Quilmes Red (Argentina), Jupiler Tauro (Belgium), Chernigivske non-alcoholic (Ukraine) and Brahma Fresh (Brazil). By the end of 2008, in partnership with Philips, Anheuser-Busch InBev had sold a total of about PerfectDraft dispensers, in five European countries, with mini-keg sales for home use reaching a record high. Renovation examples include Skol in Brazil, Jupiler in Belgium, and Stella Artois and Beck s globally. Figure 16: Stella Artois 4% Figure 15: PerfectDraft with Leffe keg Figure 14: Jupiler Tauro

34 Responsible drinking In the journey to achieve the dream of becoming the Best Beer Company in a Better World, Anheuser-Busch InBev holds the opinion that it must do the utmost to encourage responsible drinking. In 2008, together with public and private partners from different backgrounds and geographies, Anheuser-Busch InBev leveraged the leading brands to encourage the right consumption behavior: regular, but moderate and with a full understanding of the negative personal and social consequences of excessive drinking 31. As an industry leader, Anheuser-Busch InBev wants to convince young adults of legal drinking age that Responsible Cool is the new cool. The focus on responsible drinking and consciousness-raising is a clear inheritance of Anheuser-Busch. In the US, Anheuser-Busch has a strong reputation concerning this topic Brand portfolio and consumer profile Global brands Anheuser-Busch InBev has three global brands: Stella Artois, Beck s and Budweiser. Below I will give a brief introduction to these three flagships. 31 Anheuser-Busch InBev, Annual Report. (20/08/2009)

35 Stella Artois Stella Artois is globally positioned as the premium lager, renowned in the whole world for its quality, and for the rich heritage of the brand which dates back to Leuven in Stella Artois is a brand with a well-known international profile. Stella Artois aims to reach a refined consumer, especially men between 21 and 35, who can enjoy the delicate taste. Figure 18: Stella Artois Stella Artois is currently distributed in more than 80 countries, and it has very strong global appeal. In 2008, Stella Artois had an excellent year globally, in terms of brand health as well as volume and share performance. Particularly in the U.K., a critically important market for the brand, the market share grew for the first time in five years 32. Furthermore, the brand delivered strong double-digit growth in Canada and the brand also grew particularly well in the U.S. where it is building such a sophisticated image that it has become the only beer brand that can be displayed alongside wine in the off-trade. 33 Also in 2008, Stella Artois became the number one international beer brand in Argentina, only 31 months after launch. 34 Figure 17: Stella Artois assortment 32 Anheuser-Busch InBev, Annual Report. (20/08/2009) 33 Ibid. 34 Ibid

36 Beck s Beck s is German beer, positioned as an exciting, rather urban brand with a lot of heritage. Beck s is a brand for young and dynamic people who are progressive, innovative and open-minded. Figure 19: Beck's True to its original recipe, Beck s has been brewed in the same way using four key natural ingredients for more than 125 years. Every bottle of Beck s is brewed according to the traditional German Reinheitsgebot. It is a tribute to Beck s strong commitment to this heritage, that the brand has had only six brewmasters in a 125 year history. Beck s is the number one German beer in the world, present in more than 100 countries. In 2008 it achieved very strong global growth, gaining or maintaining market share in four out if its five top markets. Germany, its largest market, grew in both volume and share, despite a general downturn in beer consumption 35. In the U.K., Beck s had another strong year, delivering impressive double-digit growth in both market share and volume, helped by the successful expansion of Beck s Vier. 36 In Romania, the leading Beck s market in the Central & Eastern European Zone, the brand s volumes were also up. 37 Much of this international growth was due to powerful brand innovations. The brand s progressive international image was given a boost with a completely new global packaging look and feel together with the launch of a unique and effective advertising campaign, reflecting its Different by Choice identity. The launch of Beck s Green Lemon in Romania and Beck s Ice in Germany helped to drive sales, and at the same time Beck s continued to successfully leverage the Beck sperience music platform, engaging hundreds of thousands of consumers in Germany, the U.K., Central & Eastern Europe and Australia. Figure 20: Beck's assortment 35 Ibid. 36 Ibid. 37 Ibid

37 Budweiser Budweiser is the U.S. national beer symbol. It was introduced in 1876 when Adolphus Busch set out to create the United States first truly national beer brand, brewed to be universally popular and transcend regional tastes. Each batch of Budweiser stays true to the original family recipe used by five generations of Busch family brewmasters. Budweiser, the Great American Lager is a medium-bodied, flavorful, crisp and pure beer with blended layers of premium American and European hop aromas, brewed for the perfect balance of flavor and refreshment. Figure 21: Budweiser In 2008, Budweiser continued its strong performance in the North American Zone. The Budweiser family of brands had 11.6% share of the U.S. market and remained the number one brand in Canada 38. Due to the global impact of many of its marketing campaigns, Budweiser is in the exceptional position of having strong brand equity in markets where it is not currently available. This represents a major opportunity for the new combined business to leverage Anheuser-Busch InBev s broader reach. Figure 21: Bud assortment 38 Ibid

38 Multi-country brands Leffe Leffe is one of the two multi-country brands, beside Hoegaarden. Leffe is positioned as a genuine, trustworthy and warm brand. It is the beer that brings people together to share and savor special moments. Leffe is consumed by mature people who are willing to take some time and spend money on refinement. The prototypic Leffe consumer appreciates depth, meaning and warmth in his life. At this moment, the Leffe Aperitif campaign is running. These campaigns tries to promote Leffe as an appetizer; the zakouskis bring the concept of food pairing to the front. The entire website Figure 22: Leffe aperitif of Leffe 39 is dedicated to this concept. The Leffe family of beers are rich and full bodied. Made from only the highest quality ingredients, they provide a recipe for rich moments in life that deserve to be savored. Leffe s unique brewing heritage is now shared and enjoyed by consumers in more than 60 countries worldwide. Overall volume increased by 5.1% compared to 2007 driven by Leffe s strong performance in France. 40 Leffe also saw its market share increase in both France and Belgium while at the same time increasing its brand awareness among consumers in all of its major markets through the year. In 2008, for the fourth time in a row, Leffe was given the Crystal Taste Award by the International Taste and Quality Institute, a leading, independent chef and sommelier based organization dedicated to judging, honoring, and promoting superior tasting food and drinks from around the world. Figure 23: Leffe 39 See the brand s website: 40 Anheuser-Busch InBev, Annual Report. (20/08/2009)

39 Hoegaarden The second multi-country brand is Hoegaarden, positioned as the authentic and unique Belgian wheat (or white ) beer. Hoegaarden aims at the urban professionals between 25 and 40, both male and female. The brand appeals to open-minded, authentic and dynamic people that enjoy their urban lives but now and then long for being in tune with nature. Hoegaarden is the perfect beer to drink in a group. The latest two varieties, Hoegaarden Citron and Hoegaarden Rosé address young and enterprising women. First brewed in 1445, this top fermented beer is refermented in the bottle or keg, Figure 24: Hoegaarden leading to its distinctive cloudy white appearance. The unique taste of Hoegaarden delivers an appealing sweet and sour beer with a note of bitterness, slightly spicy, with a strong touch of coriander and a hint of orange. With volume growth of over 20% in 2008 in the fast-growing white beer segment, Hoegaarden became the fastest-growing brand in Anheuser-Busch InBev s focus brand portfolio 41. In 2008, considerable investments were made in the Hoegaarden brewery in Belgium to optimize production to meet the rising demand for Belgium s favorite white beer. 41 Ibid

40 Local jewels The local jewels or local champions are Anheuser-Busch InBev s backbone and capture the local needs of the consumers. In Belgium, Jupiler is the local champion. This brand is the most sold beer in Belgium and the fifth most sold beer in Western Europe. Jupiler is positioned as a strong masculine brand that radiates courage, adventure and friendship. Jupiler s consumer profile is the real man : masculine, courageous and adventurous. Jupiler s sponsorship of the highest Belgian soccer division, the Jupiler Pro League, Figure 25: Jupiler contributes to this image. Among others, Anheuser-Busch InBev brews local jewels like Antarctica, Brahma, Quilmes, Harbin, Cass, Chernigivske, Bud Light, Labatt Blue, Skol, Franziskaner and Bass

41 1.6 Anheuser-Busch InBev s competitors In this chapter, I will try to give an overview of Anheuser-Busch InBev s most important competitors from a global point of view. I will divide Anheuser-Busch InBev s competitors into three levels of economic competition: direct competition, indirect competition and budget competition Direct competition In direct competition, products with the same function compete against each other 42. Direct competition is also known as category competition or brand competition. Anheuser-Busch InBev s three most important direct competitors are Heineken NV, the Carlsberg Group and SABMiller Heineken NV Heineken is one of the world s great brewers and is committed to growth and remaining independent. The brand that bears the founder s family name, Heineken, is available in almost every country on the globe and is the world s most valuable international premium beer brand. Figure 26: Heineken logo Heineken s aim is to be a leading brewer in each of the markets in which we operate and to have the world s most prominent brand portfolio 43. The company s principal international brand is Heineken, but the Group brews and sells more than 200 international premium, regional, local and specialty beers and ciders, including Amstel, Birra Moretti, Cruzcampo, 42 Business Dictionary, Direct competition. (20/08/2009) 43 Heineken, Annual report (20/08/2009)

42 Foster s, Maes, Murphy s, Newcastle Brown Ale, Ochota, Primus, Sagres, Star, Strongbow, Tiger and Żywiec. Heineken has the widest presence of all international brewers, thanks to their global network of distributors and 125 breweries in more than 70 countries. In Europe they are the largest brewer and cider producer The Carlsberg Group Figure 27: Carlsberg logo The Carlsberg Group is headquartered in Copenhagen, Denmark. The company s focus brand is Carlsberg Beer, but it also brews international brands like Tuborg, Baltika and Next to that, the company sells also a wide range of local beers, including the Belgian Grimbergen. Carlsberg is the number one brewer in Northern and Eastern Europe and the fourth largest brewer in the world 45. In 2008, Carlberg partially acquired Scottish & Newcastle whereby Carlsberg gained full control over its business in Russia and other Eastern European countries as well as the French brewery Kronenbourg and Greek brewery Mythos. 44 Ibid. 45 Carlsberg Group, Annual report (20/08/2009)

43 SABMiller One of the world s largest brewers, SABMiller plc has brewing interests and distribution agreements across six continents 46. Figure 28: SABMiller logo SABMiller has a wide portfolio of brands including premium international beers such as Pilsner Urquell, Peroni Nastro Azzurro, Miller Genuine Draft and Grolsch along with leading local brands such as Aguila, Castle, Miller Lite, Snow and Tyskie. Six of SABMiller s brands are among the top 50 in the world. The company is also one of the world s largest bottlers of Coca-Cola products 47. SABMiller s markets range from developed economies such as the USA to fast-growing developing markets such as China and India. Although SABMiller s competition is less severe in Western Europe, the company has a very strong market share in Southern and Eastern Europe, Africa and Asia and both North and Latin America Indirect competition Indirect competition is when products are close substitutes for one another 48. Since Anheuser-Busch InBev sells alcoholic beverages, all the other alcoholic drinks can be considered as substitutes for beer. The companies who sell these alcoholic drinks can be count among the indirect competitors. 46 SABMiller, Company snapshot. (20/08/2009). 47 Ibid. 48 Business Dictionary, Indirect competition. (20/08/2009)

44 Anheuser-Busch InBev wants to penetrate more in the market of alcoholic drinks by broadening the beer image. As mentioned above, Anheuser-Busch InBev tries to position its beers as an ideal appetizer (Leffe) or an ideal food companion or ingredient trough food pairing. During my internship I got the opportunity to co-organize the Leadership, Performance and Change meeting for the 150 senior leaders of Western Europe (see Chapte 3.3). One of the evening activities that we set up, was an Innovation & Mindset/Cocktail Event. A world famous cocktail mixer, Sergio Pezzoli, was booked to explain the possibilities of mixing beer and serving it as a cocktail variety. One of the sample cocktails was a Hoegaarden Mojito. With this event, we wanted to stimulate the senior leaders to think out of the typical beer box and think about ways of competing with spirit and whine brands. Diageo Figure 29: Diageo logo One of the biggest indirect competitors is Diageo. Diageo was formed in 1997 from the merger of Guinness plc and Grand Metropolitan plc. Diageo can even be considered as a direct competitor since they also have some beer brands. Nonetheless, Diageo s beer portfolio is not as large as Heineken s, Carlsberg s or SABMiller s. Diageo is the world's leading premium drinks business with an outstanding collection of beverage alcohol brands across spirits, wine and beer categories 49. These brands include: Smirnoff, Johnnie Walker, Guinness, Baileys, J&B, Captain Morgan, Cuervo, Tanqueray, and Beaulieu Vineyard and Sterling Vineyards wines. 49 Diageo, Diageo at a glance. (20/08/2009)

45 1.6.3 Budget competition The third form of competition is budget competition. This can be anything on which the consumer might spend his available money. If we look to Anheuser-Busch InBev s budget competition, we can consider all the beverages as budget competitors. From a broader point of view, all the fast moving consumer goods companies can compete with Anheuser-Busch InBev. Anheuser-Busch InBev likes to compare itself with consumer goods companies like P&G, Unilever and The Coca-Cola Company as they function as Anheuser-Busch InBev s benchmarks

46 1.7 SWOT Analysis I will conclude the first chapter with a SWOT analysis of Anheuser-Busch InBev. I will discuss the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities an threats of the world s leading global brewer. This analysis is based on the info I described in this chapter and on my personal experience as an intern. Since I did my internship at the Western European zone, the focus of this analysis will be on Western Europe. Strengths Weaknesses - The leading global brewer and one of the world's top five consumer products companies - Engagement - Anheuser-Busch - Industrial Relations - Strong, value based and diversified brand porfolio - Drawback of the cost cutting - One, consumer-centric way of marketing - Innovation and renovation pipeline - Financial discipline Opportunities Threats - Off Trade potential - Declining beer market - Premium lagers - Increasing costs - Further synergies - Public opinion Figure 30: SWOT analysis Strengths The leading global brewer and one of the world s top five consumer products companies Anheuser-Busch InBev is the leading global brewer and has operations and licenses all over the world. The company has a key presence both in developed and developing markets. Because of this position, Anheuser-Busch InBev has a predominance which the company uses to keep on growing Anheuser-Busch In November 2008, InBev acquired Anheuser-Busch. Although the integration is still going on, InBev can have the advantage of all of Anheuser-Busch s skills, image and distribution network. Anheuser- Busch has strong marketing skills and the company knows the American market, needs and

47 consumers like no other company does. Next to that, the new company can use Anheuser-Busch s established distribution channels. The combination of Anheuser-Busch and InBev will is strength that will produce a lot of synergies Strong, value-based and diversified brand portfolio Anheuser-Busch InBev has a brand portfolio of almost 300 brands. The company has three global flagships or focus brands, two multi-country brands and hundreds of local champions. Each of these brands is value-based and tuned to the local consumer s needs and values. This enables Anheuser- Busch InBev to meet the needs of the consumers in each market. This is what really separates Anheuser-Busch InBev from its competitors. Heineken and Carlsberg do not have several global brands nor that number of local hero brands One, consumer-centric way of marketing In 2008, InBev decided that its marketing had to be consumer-centric. Since then, the brands are built up around the consumer s profile, needs and values. This requires constant market research and the willingness to constantly reinvent the own brands and packaging Innovation and renovation pipeline In order to stay relevant in the fast moving consumer goods market, innovation is extremely important. Anheuser-Busch InBev always searches for new opportunities and innovations and will put these innovations on the market if the company believes it will strengthen its bond with the consumer. For Anheuser-Busch InBev, renovation is as important as innovation. The company puts a lot of effort into keeping the existing brands up-to-date and relevant

48 Financial discipline Anheuser-Busch InBev has a rigid discipline when it comes to managing its costs. Cost cutting is one of the key characteristics of the company. The aim is to capture non-working money from within the overall cost envelope, and convert it into working money, directly supporting the Anheuser-Busch Inbev brands and sales and marketing capabilities Weaknesses Engagement The outcome of the employee engagement survey of 2008 was better than the outcome of the one of 2007, but the employee engagement is still a flaw in Anheuser-Busch InBev s organization. Especially in Supply (the breweries), employees think that their opinions do not count. Other trouble spots are the perspectives and pride of AB InBev. The fact that the acquisition of Anheuser-Busch was a leveraged buyout makes the employees fear for radical restructurings and severe cost cutting. In order to tackle these problems or weaknesses in Western Europe, Alain Beyens, the Zone President of Western Europe, travels to the plants where the engagement is below average. He travels to these plants to listen to the employees and to show that the company cares. I made the presentations for all of his visits, based on the results of the surveys. For every Western European brewery of Anheuser-Busch InBev, I analyzed the results of the annual survey and summarized my findings in PowerPoint presentations (see also 3.5.2) Industrial relations The industrial relations are another weakness of Anheuser-Busch InBev. During my internship, I witnessed two strikes in Leuven. During my internship, Anheuser-Busch InBev also had major issues with the labor unions in Germany. The unions blame the management of putting work pressure too high

49 During my internship, Kristien Abbeel, Internal Communication Manager Western Europe, was preparing an improved IR (Industrial Relations) Tracker. In the future, this tracker should enable the management to predict and follow up IR problems Drawback of the cost cutting Anheuser-Busch InBev is obsessed with cost-cutting in order to convert non-working money into working money. In order to save money, AB InBev did not only outsource all the IT, but also wants to pay the least possible. The result is that you often get inferior services in return. Anheuser-Busch InBev s Intranet works extremely slowly, there are a lot of troubles with the access and the internet is regularly down. This is noxious for both the productivity and the engagement Opportunities Off Trade potential While the On Trade beer market (pubs and direct distribution) is declining, the home consumption of beer is increasing. As a consequence, Anheuser-Busch InBev stated that its focus will shift from On Trade to Off Trade. The Off Trade Department is implementing a new brand shelves concept to penetrate into this segment. Anheuser-Busch InBev also plans to invest more in small stores and convenience stores (for e.g. gas stations) since they have been neglecting this segment for the last couple of years Premium lagers The sales of the premium beers are rising. Consumers all over the world more and more appreciate a global, strong and qualitative brand. With three global premium beer in its brand portfolio, Anheuser-Busch InBev has a strong position with a lot of possibilities in this market

50 Further synergies The integration of Anheuser-Busch activities is still going on, and there are still further synergies to be set up. Anheuser-Busch s well-established distribution network in America and in the fast growing Asian beer markets still offers a lot of possibilities for the combined company Threats Declining beer market In the mature Western European beer market, the demand for beer has been declining for years now. Even on the global scale, a generally weaker demand trend can be seen. 50 The fierce indirect competition of whine, spirits or champagne contributes to this decline Increasing costs Anheuser-Busch InBev is confronted with increasing prices of commodities, packaging and energy. Both price increases of the Anheuser-Busch InBev beers as further cost-cutting are very difficult to put through Public opinion Anheuser-Busch InBev has a dominant position in the beer market. Because of this, Anheuser-Busch InBev is able to fix the price. During the last years, beer prices have been rising, stimulated by Anheuser-Busch InBev. Anheuser-Busch InBev has to be careful not to get the public opinion against itself. Next to that, its image of a dominant company and a rather aggressive way of doing business is not without any risks when it comes to the public opinion. 50 Anheuser-Busch InBev, Annual Report. (20/08/2009)

51 2. The creation of a new corporate identity after mergers and acquisitions In this chapter, I first will discuss the concepts and importance of corporate culture, identity and image. Then, I will give an overview of the most important purposes and functions of internal communication and its role in creating a corporate identity. After that, I will examine how a new corporate identity can be created and communicated after a merger or an acquisition. Next, I will investigate how the new corporate identity of Anheuser-Busch InBev was created and communicated within the company. 2.1 Corporate identity, image and culture The concepts of corporate identity, corporate image and corporate culture are frequently used in a corporate context, but it is not always clear what these concepts stand for. In the following paragraphs, I will try to define and discuss these three concepts. Corporate identity According to Bos and Mastenbroek 51, the corporate identity is what a company really represents or is. They sum up eleven elements that are included in the identity of an organization 52 : The objectives of the company 51 Bos, M.; Mastenbroek, J., Communicatie in organisaties. Cultuur, stijl en leiderschap. Alphen aan den Rijn (Samsom) 1998, p Ibid

52 The structure of the organization The corporate culture The corporate philosophy The policy The standards The organizational behavior The way of communicating The production processes Products The financial-economic status Argenti and Forman put it like this: Simply stated, your company s identity is the concrete, often visual, manifestation of its reality, including names, brands, symbols, self-presentations, corporate sponsorships, and, most significantly, your company s vision. How you build this reality determines if your company successfully engages all of its constituencies Argenti, P.; Forman, J., The power of corporate communication. New York (McGraw-Hill) 2002, p

53 Corporate image According to Bos and Mastenbroek, the corporate identity communicates 54. Through this communication, the perceivers of the communication get a certain image of the organization. In other words: the company s image is a reflection of an organization s identity [ ] it is how each constituency views your organization. 55 Based on Argenti and Forman 56 and Bos and Mastenbroek, I made a diagram of the relations between corporate identity, corporate image and corporate reputation. Figure 31: Corporate identity, image and reputation 54 Bos, M.; Mastenbroek, J., Communicatie in organisaties. Cultuur, stijl en leiderschap. Alphen aan den Rijn (Samsom) 1998, p Argenti, P.; Forman, J., The power of corporate communication. New York (McGraw-Hill) 2002, p Ibid

54 In this figure, you also see the relation between the image and the corporate reputation. If the images of the company are all align with the organization s reality, the reputation will be good and the reputation management a success. 57 Corporate culture Corporate culture can be seen as a cluster of rules of conduct. These rules of conduct go for everyone, are observed and define how the organization behaves and reacts in the world. In other words, corporate culture is defined as a set of taken-for granted assumptions, expectations or rules for being in the world. This culture concept emphasizes the shared cognitive approaches to reality that distinguish a given group or company from others. 58 According to Bos and Mastenbroek, the shared values and standards of an organization are the roots of the company s culture 59. These roots are the fundamental guiding beliefs and are often expressed in the company s mission statements. The shared values of a company are typical of that one, specific organization or company. It is of great importance that leaders or managers recognize and maintain these values, and integrate them into the communication. We also find the shared values in the centre of the 7S model of McKinsey 60 that is used to analyze and improve organizational effectiveness: 57 Ibid. 58 Weber, Y.; Shenkar, O.; Raveh, A., National and Corporate Cultural Fit in Mergers/Acquisitions: An Exploratory Study. (15/08/2009) 59 Bos, M.; Mastenbroek, J., Communicatie in organisaties. Cultuur, stijl en leiderschap. Alphen aan den Rijn (Samsom) 1998, p Bos, M.; Mastenbroek, J., Communicatie in organisaties. Cultuur, stijl en leiderschap. Alphen aan den Rijn (Samsom) 1998, p

55 Figure 32: McKinsey's 7S The shared values are the cultural cement that holds the company together and that largely gives the company its identity. These set of values help in unifying the social dimensions of the organization. The corporate culture can function as a stabilizing factor in the organization. According to Bos and Mastenbroek, the corporate culture has two functions: supplying templates for the problem solution and decreasing the fear when employees are confronted with uncertainties or ambiguities or an abundance of impressions Bos, M.; Mastenbroek, J., Communicatie in organisaties. Cultuur, stijl en leiderschap. Alphen aan den Rijn (Samsom) 1998, p

56 2.2 Internal communication Definition Internal communication can be seen as a part of corporate communication. Argenti and Forman describe corporate communication as follows: By corporate communication we mean the corporation s voice and the images it projects of itself on a world stage populated by its various audiences, or what we refer to as its constituencies. Included in this field are areas such as corporate reputation, corporate advertising and advocacy, employee communications, investor relations, government relations, media management, and crisis communication. [ ] In addition, corporate communication is also the processes a company uses to communicate all its messages to key constituencies a combination of meetings, interviews, speeches, reports, image advertising, and online communications. Ideally, corporate communication is an attitude toward communication or a set of mental habits that employees internalize. The result is good communication practices that permeate an organization and are present in all its communications with constituencies. 62 It is clear that the concept of corporate communication is very broad. When we focus on internal communication, we notice that there are almost as many definitions of internal communication as there are authors who write about the topic. Some definitions stress the transfer of information from the sender to the receiver and describe internal communication as a management tool, other definitions consider internal communication as every communication within the organization: 62 Argenti, P.; Forman, J., The power of corporate communication. New York (McGraw-Hill) 2002, p

57 The offer of messages from senders to receivers who are part of the same organization, with the intention to realize organizational and/or individual goals. 63 [Internal communication is] the process whereby members gather pertinent information about their organization and the changes occurring within it. 64 Organizational communication occurs in large cooperative networks and includes virtually all aspects of both interpersonal and group communications and includes topics such as the structure and function of organizations, human relations, communication and the process of organizing and organizational culture Purposes Internal communication is a broad concept and consequently can have different purposes. Internal communication can roughly have three different functions or purposes: to inform, to motivate and to collect. Van Putte makes a distinction between internal communication as a direct directive instrument and internal communication as an indirect directive instrument 66. Direct directive instrument According to her, internal communication as a direct directive instrument can have three desired effects. The first one is acceptance of the organization s policy. This is the case when the policy is developed at the top of the organization, and then, via the communicative way, is presented to the employees. The role of the communication manager is to formulate the decisions in a way that they sound clear and acceptable. In this case, actual participation of the employee is out of the question. 63 Putte, M. Van, Interne communicatie: van theorie naar praktijk. Bussum (Uitgeverij Coutinho) 1998, p Ibid., p Ibid., p Ibid., p 83 et seq

58 The second desired effect is engagement or involvement. In this context, engagement is considered as an emotional matter, as a commitment. The employee should feel involved with the company, the company s targets and the ways of achieving these targets. This effect is about motivating the employees, strengthen the team spirit, and increase the enthusiasm and drive. The third effect that organizations want to achieve through internal communication, is the employee s willingness to change. This is for example the case when an organization wants to restructure or move. The above three effects are linked to each other. A stronger engagement or involvement will stimulate the willingness to change and the acceptance of the organization s policy. This is a one-way communication, and is actually a direct translation of the ideas about external communication into the internal practice of the company. Therefore, this type of internal communication is often called internal marketing communication. 67 Indirect directive instrument When internal communication is used as an indirect directive instrument, it is still considered as an instrument, meant to achieve the desired effects. In this case, the effects are not achieved directly, but via indirect mutual swaying of the employees. The two most important desired effects of this way of communicating are creating a univocal, uniform culture and influencing the attitude and behavior of the employees towards organizational matters. Van Putte describes this kind of internal communication as a sort of internal public relations 68. Van Putte quotes Cutlip when she states that the function of this internal communication is : [ ] to 67 Ibid., p Ibid., p

59 identify, establish and maintain mutually beneficial relationships between the organization and the employees on whom its success or failure depends The interaction between internal communication and corporate identity Corporate identity, corporate culture and internal communication are closely knit. The corporate culture (and identity) determines how people in an organization communicate with each other. Turning it round, you could also state that the internal communication determines the corporate culture. 70 In fact, both propositions are true and you could consider it as a cycle: they push ahead each another. It is important to remark that internal communication can be used as a steering gear in order to change the corporate culture. Besides, if the company wants to change its culture, it has to implement the new criteria and rules of conduct. If this succeeds, these criteria and rules of conduct are part of the culture and you get the reversal. Then, the internal communication will be defined by the corporate identity and culture. 69 Ibid., p Bos, M.; Mastenbroek, J., Communicatie in organisaties. Cultuur, stijl en leiderschap. Alphen aan den Rijn (Samsom) 1998, p

60 2.3 Adaptation and acculturation in mergers and acquisitions In the below paragraphs, I discuss the modes and factors of adaptation and acculturation in mergers and acquisitions. This theoretical framework will be used to discuss Anheuser-Busch InBev s process after the combination of Anheuser-Busch and InBev The importance of postmerger/postacquisition integration In strategic management, mergers are most commonly classified on the degree of relatedness of two firms. 71 The choice of the degree of relatedness between the two firms depends upon the motives behind the merger or acquisition. These motives can include achieving operating synergies in production, in marketing, in scheduling, in managerial experience, in compensation systems or in risk reduction or access to more favorable financial terms 72. Depending on the type of merger or acquisition and the motive, the acquiring company must decide on an implementation strategy. This strategy determines the extent to which the various systems of the two firms will be combined and the degree to which the employees of the companies will interface. 73 Overall, a lot of problems are caused by differences in managerial styles, compensation systems, differences in the structure of the companies and the differences in the firms personnel characteristics and employees willingness to adapt to the customs, culture and practices of the other company Nashavandi, A.; Malekzadeh, A., Acculturation in Mergers and Acquisitions. (15/08/2009). 72 Ibid. 73 Ibid. 74 Ibid

61 2.3.2 Modes of acculturation In the article Acculturation in Mergers and Acquisitions, Nahavandi and Malekzadeh compare the change and adaptation of the acquired to the practices of the acquirer with the concept of acculturation in anthropology and cross-cultural psychology: Though the concept of acculturation was developed to explain events involving societal groups, it can be applied to industrial or social organizations as well, because the two share many defining characteristics. Both industrial and social organizations exist and adapt within a specified environment and have well-defined boundaries that encompass a number of individuals who interact and are interdependent to varying degrees. They have a functional and adaptive quality and provide their members with a system of shared symbols and cognitions to deal with each other and with the outside world. 75 There are however a couple of differences between the systems in organizations and in societal systems. In organizations, aspects like structure and technology affect the organization and its members more directly. Furthermore, when a societal group is forced to interact with another, the members do not have the option of not acculturating and refusing contact as readily as organization members do. 76 In organizations, members can choose not to accept the culture of the other by simply leaving the organization, or the acculturation process can be bypassed if most members of the acquired company are fired. Nahavandi and Malekzadeh distinct four modes of acculturation: integration, assimilation, separation and deculturation. Integration is triggered when members of the acquired firm want to preserve their own culture and identity and want to remain autonomous and independent. 77 This leads to a mode of acculturation with structural assimilation but little cultural and behavioral assimilation. It requires mutual contribution, but without loss of cultural identity by either. This can only take place if the acquiring company is willing to allow such independence. 75 Ibid. 76 Ibid. 77 Ibid

62 The process of assimilation, the second mode, is completely different. Assimilation is always a unilateral process in which one group willingly adopts the identity and culture of the other. 78 The acquired company relinquishes its own culture, identity and practices and adopts the culture, identity and systems of the acquiring company. The third mode of acculturation is separation. This involves attempting to preserve one s culture and practices by remaining separate and independent from the dominant group. This is likely to take place when members of the acquired company want to preserve their culture and organizational systems and they refuse to become assimilated with the acquirer in any way or at any level. 79 In this case, the members of the acquired company resist any attempt at adaptation and conciliation. These members will try to remain totally separate from the acquirer. This mode of acculturation means minimal cultural exchange between the two organizations. The fourth mode of acculturation, according to Nahavandi and Malekzadeh, is deculturation or marginality 80. This is the case when both the acquirer and acquired lose their cultural and psychological contact. This can happen when members of the acquired company do not value their own culture and organizational practices and systems, and they do not want to be assimilated into the acquiring company. 81 The precise course of acculturation depends on the way in which the acquirer and the acquired companies approach the implementation of the merger or acquisition. Nahavandi and Malekzadeh state the following concerning the acquired company s point of view: [ ] the degree to which members want to preserve their own culture and organizational practices and the degree to which they are willing to adopt the acquirer s culture and practices will determine their preferred mode of acculturation Ibid. 79 Ibid. 80 Ibid. 81 Ibid. 82 Ibid

63 Figure 33: Acculturation 83 In the case of the acquirer, the degree to which the firm is multicultural and the diversification strategy regarding the type of merger will determine the preferred mode of acculturation. What we exactly mean by the term multiculturalism is explained in the below quote: The term multiculturalism refers to the degree to which an organization values cultural diversity and is willing to tolerate and encourage it. If an organization simply contains many different cultural groups, it is considered to be multicultural. If an acquirer is unicultural and, therefore, emphasizes conformity and rewards adherence to unique goals, strategies, and organizational practices, it is more likely to impose its own culture and management systems on a new acquisition. If the acquirer is multicultural, it is likely to consider diversity as an asset and therefore will allow the acquired firm to retain its own culture and practices. 84 The second variable, next to multiculturalism, is the diversification strategy regarding the type of the merger or acquisition. In other words: the degree of relatedness between the acquirer and the 83 Ibid. 84 Ibid

64 acquired firms. The more related the companies are, the more likely it is that the acquirer will impose some of its culture and practices. 85 Figure 34: Acculturation When two companies merge, or one company is acquired by another, members of the two organizations may not have the same preferences regarding a mode of acculturation. Then, the degree of agreement or congruence regarding each one s preference for a mode of acculturation will be a central factor in the successful implementation of the merger. 86 Nahavandi and Malekzadeh state the following: 85 Ibid. 86 Ibid

65 [...] when two organizations agree on the preferred mode of acculturation for the implementation of the merger, less acculturative stress and organizational resistance will result, making acculturation a smoother process. 87 The reverse is also true: when two organizations do not agree on the preferred mode, and incongruence occurs, this will likely lead to high amounts of acculturative stress and disruption for both individual and group functioning. 87 Ibid

66 2.4 A new Anheuser-Busch InBev corporate identity In November 2008, with the combination of Anheuser-Busch and InBev, a new company was created: Anheuser-Busch InBev. InBev acquired Anheuser-Busch and the latter became a wholly owned subsidiary of Anheuser-Busch InBev. The combination of InBev and Anheuser-Busch created the largest beer company and one of the top 5 FMCG companies worldwide. With the creation of this new company, a new corporate identity was created. I will discuss how this new identity was created and communicated within the company. I interviewed Jorge Indra concerning this topic. Jorge was one of the project leaders of the new Anheuser-Busch InBev corporate identity Degree of acculturation The story of InBev is a story of mergers and acquisitions. This caused that, from the start, InBev was essentially a multicultural organization, but a particular sort of multicultural organization. The company valued cultural diversity and encouraged it, but only to a certain level: InBev always searched for the best practices and imposed its structure and practices on the acquired companies. As a consequence, InBev was known as a ruler. However, the acquisition of Anheuser-Busch cannot be compared to former acquisitions by InBev. With most of InBev s previous acquisitions, the company behaved as a ruler that imposed its own structure and practices. The acquired companies had to integrate important parts of InBev s culture and way of working. With the acquisition of Anheuser-Busch, InBev did not behave as the ruler. For more than a decade, InBev had been looking up to Anheuser-Busch. By acquiring this company, InBev was acquiring its leading example. This caused that the senior management of InBev chose to integrate Anheuser- Busch s identity, culture and heritage in a new company: Anheuser-Busch InBev. Since it are two

67 related companies and InBev wanted to value and encourage the cultural diversity, InBev s mode of acculturation can be described as integration. From Anheuser-Busch s point of view, the story is slightly different. Anheuser-Busch was a company that valued the preservation of its own culture. Anheuser-Busch was the American beer symbol, a company that was proud of its heritage and its own identity. It is difficult to estimate or evaluate how InBev was perceived by the employees of Anheuser-Busch, but they sure did not find the idea of being acquired by a Belgian company very attractive. If we have to describe Anheuser-Busch s preferred mode of acculturation, it would rather be separation. This incongruence of preferred modes of acculturation was resolved by a simple trick: the mother company would integrate Anheuser-Busch s culture and values by creating a new identity while Anheuser-Busch USA, the wholly owned subsidiary, could keep its own corporate identity The creation of the Anheuser-Busch InBev corporate identity The story behind the new corporate identity The transformational combination of Anheuser-Busch and InBev unlocked a new world for the employees, shareholders, customers and consumers, and fueled the dream of becoming the Best Beer Company in a Better World. When the deal concerning the acquisition of Anheuser-Busch was closed, the agreement was that they would give the new company a new name, one with a reference to Anheuser-Busch in it. This was a requirement of the Anheuser-Busch management. The new company got the name Anheuser- Busch InBev. The next step was to create a new identity that reflects the identity and culture of both companies. Anheuser-Busch had to be integrated in InBev s identity and culture. The design of the new corporate identity was led by a small team of senior leaders, two project leaders and the agency FutureBrand over a period of 2 months. It was co-created with the feedback and opinions of hundreds of employees around the world, including employees of Anheuser-Busch and of InBev

68 It is important to know that the target group or audience for the new identity are first and foremost the current and future employees of Anheuser-Busch InBev. The project team divided the audiences into three groups: the primary audience, the secondary audience and the tertiary audience. The below diagram visualizes these three audiences. It is important to keep in mind that the new identity is primarily created for the Anheuser-Busch InBev people. Figure 36: Target audience The process of creation The project team of Anheuser-Busch InBev worked closely together with FutureBrand to develop the new Anheuser-Busch InBev identity. The first thing they did was analyzing the image, culture and identity of InBev and Anheuser-Busch. Next, they defined the ideal image, culture and identity of the new company. The new corporate identity for Anheuser-Busch InBev had to be centered around a new logo mark

69 First of all, Anheuser-Busch InBev s project team briefed FutureBrand, a brand strategy and design consultancy of the McCann-Erickson WorldGroup. They discussed what they knew of the two companies and how it could come together. The project team also presented the new Ten Principles. These new Ten Principles are almost the same as the old InBev principles. When I confronted Jorge Indra with this fact, he explained to me that the culture of InBev and Anheuser-Busch had a lot of things in common and were based on the same values. Because of the fact that it was basically an acquisition, they decided that the dominant culture had to be InBev s culture. However, they wanted to bring a couple of Anheuser-Busch s typical values into the new company. As a result, the project team wanted more focus on craftsmanship, heritage and quality, three of Anheuser-Busch s core values. Brand archetypes Next, FutureBrand made an analysis of the two companies, based on the concept of brand archetypes. As you can see below, we can distinguish 12 archetypes: caregiver, ruler, innocent, creator, sage, explorer, innocent, outlaw, hero, magician, jester, everyman and lover

70 Anheuser-Busch is the caregiver: altruistic, selfless, nurturing, empathy, supportive and generous. Anheuser-Busch has a strong reputation concerning responsible drinking, recycling and corporate social responsibility. InBev is the ruler: manager, organizer, effective, productive, confident, responsible and a role model. In order to unite these two brand archetypes, the purpose was to find a balance in terms of their principles and personality. The caregiver and ruler archetypes occupy the same space of stability and control. The project team decided that Anheuser-Busch InBev should seek to take a different direction. With its unapologetic drive and complementary approach, this was best represented by the hero archetype. They suggested that like Nike, Anheuser-Busch InBev should be a hero brand; they just do it. Everything about Anheuser-Busch InBev should feel like they are creating a Hero Champion for employees, shareholders, distributors and consumers

71 Brand framework After this analysis, FutureBrand and Anheuser-Busch InBev s project team created an Anheuser- Busch InBev brand framework. This brand framework had to consider the integration of the dream, principles and personality to form the brand essence. Anheuser-Busch InBev s dream had to be an inspirational, consumer and customer-focused and competitively distinctive statement of the brand s role in the world. This dream was defined as To become the best beer company in a better world by enhancing everyday enjoyable moments. The ten guiding principles of Anheuser-Busch InBev represent the core of the organization and its culture. FutureBrand stated that they still needed distilling to create something manageable to the target audience. From the ten principles listed under , they thought there were words that defined key essences. FutureBrand selected three key principles: ambition, realness and friendship

72 The mergers between AmBev and Interbrew, and now Anheuser-Busch and InBev, catapulted the company into the position of world s largest brewer. This reflects the ambition to be the best, demonstrating a harder-edged business focus, supported by a positive view to the future. The realness represents the pride of ownership and heritage of Anheuser-Busch InBev s brands. This is demonstrated by the long history of InBev s brands (Stella Artois can be traced back to 1366) and Anheuser-Busch s origins in the Bavarian brewery which was established in The principle of friendship demonstrates how Anheuser-Busch InBev creates an enduring connection between others and sharing in special moments. Anheuser-Busch InBev believes that Making friends is our business is a philosophy and responsibility which extends to customers, employees and the communities in which Anheuser-Busch InBev does business. Next to the dream and the principles, Anheuser-Busch InBev s personality was the third factor that had to be integrated and unified in the brand essence. FutureBrand and the project team linked the personality to the values and they put Anheuser-Busch InBev s personality into three statements: we value ambition and we are driven, we value realness and we are authentic, we value friendship and we are engaging. Futurebrand integrated the dream, principles and personality to form the value based brand proposition. This proposition is authentically driven. Below I visualized the Anheuser-Busch InBev brand framework that was created by Anheuser-Busch Inbev s project team and FutureBrand:

73 Figure 35: Anheuser-Busch InBev Brand Framework New identity Figure 37: InBev logo Figure 36: Anheuser-Busch logo Now that Anheuser-Busch InBev s audience, values, personality, target and vision was defined, it needed to be visualized. Both Anheuser-Busch s and InBev s logos, typography, iconography and colors were analyzed. The team found the Anheuser eagle and A very old fashioned whilst the InBev corporate identity was very cold and clinical. They wanted to be a greater balance between the human element and the business element. InBev colors were used, they thought it could be made to work. primarily red and black and Anheuser-Busch are primarily blue and red; a compromise had to be found. Although the eagle may be somewhat over

74 Figure 38: Identity overview With this information, FutureBrand started to explore the possibilities. Below you find some of these explorations

75 - 75 -

76 Carlos Brito, the CEO of Anheuser-Busch InBev, at all costs wanted to have the iconic eagle in the new logo. Eventually, after a process of two months, the logo below was the result: Figure 39: New Anheuser-Busch InBev logo The logo and the corporate identity are designed to represent the personality of the company. At Anheuser-Busch InBev, people are Driven to achieve results, and they cherish Authenticity and Friendship. The AB InBev name and its classic typeface should reflect the centuries-long heritage of brewing expertise, as well as the unrelenting commitment to quality. The colors tell the story about what Anheuser-Busch InBev knows and does best: the expertise and heritage in brewing great beers which is so often a part of enjoyable moments shared by friends. The dark brown and red, going to golden and white foam convey the rich portfolio of beer flavors produced with superior quality and craftsmanship everyday in the company s breweries around the world. The red color conveys the passion and determination of Anheuser-Busch InBev s people to brew and sell great beers that are enjoyed among friends. The eagle universally represents strength, agility and focus, characteristics of Anheuser-Busch InBev s culture and people. The eagle takes inspiration from the history in Anheuser-Busch USA as well as Roman, golden and imperial eagles which have been used for millennia as a symbol of power and vision. The iconic Anheuser-Busch InBev Eagle is soaring, looking forward and upwards to reflect the collective vision, drive and energy to build a company for the long haul. It is created in the full color spectrum of beers, a business which Anheuser-Busch InBev is deeply proud of. It goes from rich deep brown, passionate red to vibrant gold. These colors refer to the dream to become the best beer company in a better world

77 The templates for the press releases, Power Points, web pages, external signage and letterheads were derived from the Anheuser-Busch InBev logo. The main visual of these templates is the deep brown and vibrant golden wave that symbolizes the beer and the foam on top of the beer: Figure 40:New PowerPoint template The communication of the new corporate identity The new corporate identity was created in the global Anheuser-Busch InBev organization by a small team led by two project leaders, Jorge Indra and José Gertry. Both Jorge and José are Global Marketing Directors. Anheuser-Busch InBev did not provide an extra budget to change the corporate identity in the different Zones and countries. Each Zone or country had to pay the new corporate material from its own budget. As a consequence, Anheuser-Busch InBev did not set up a global planning concerning the change of the corporate identity. Nevertheless, it is the intention that by the end of 2009, most Zones and countries will have integrated the new corporate identity. Because of the fact that Anheuser-Busch InBev does not have a Corporate Communication Director or Manager, K-Creation was hired as a gatekeeper concerning the use of the new corporate identity. When the local situation or condition requires local adaptations or translation, this has to be checked and approved by K-Creation. This agency is the first point of contact for all questions related to the new corporate identity

78 On the day of the official acquisition of Anheuser-Busch, the corporate identity was already finished. Every employee received a mail with Brito s signature to welcome everybody to the new company. In this mail, the new Anheuser-Busch InBev logo was used for the first time (see Annex VI.a.) and in this mail, Brito also referred to the new principles that were created. In order to anticipate possible questions, the website welcometoabinbev.com was created and communicated via Brito s message. On this website every employee could find all the necessary information concerning the combination, the new company and its new identity. A couple of days after this mail from Brito, the Zone employees received an with an invitation for a Budweiser drink in honour of their new company (Annex VI.b.). In the course of January, the new corporate identity was cascaded. Jorge and José, the two project leaders, sent the new Anheuser-Busch InBev logo and the new templates, together with a Corporate Identity Guide that explained the use of the templates, to all of the Communication Managers of the Zones. These Zone Communication Managers were also briefed upon the meaning and use of the new corporate identity. In Annex VI.c., I included the presentation that was used for this briefing. Once all the Internal Communication Managers of the different Zones were briefed, they had to cascade the new corporate identity to the employees of the Zone and to the Internal Communication Managers of the different countries or Business Units. See Annex VI.d. en VI.e. for the communication that was sent out to the employees that work on a Zone level. The Internal Communication Managers of the Countries were responsible for cascading this new identity to their local organization. It is clear that in order to communicate the new corporate identity and create a new corporate identity, the internal communication was used as a direct directive instrument. The corporate identity was first created at the top of the organization and then presented to the employees via the communicative way. Anheuser-Busch InBev pursued all three desired effects of internal communication as a direct directive instrument: a strong focus on the acceptance of the organization s policy, but also attention

79 to the engagement and the willingness to change. The internal communication was used as a management tool or steering gear in order to change the corporate identity and culture. During my internship, I did the rollout of the new Ten Principles and Six Competencies (see 3.1). This was the first time that the new corporate identity was communicated via print. Before, the employees had to take the initiative themselves to surf to the website of Anheuser-Busch InBev if they wanted to read about the new Dream, People and Culture

80 3. My internship at Anheuser-Busch InBev I did my internship at Anheuser-Busch InBev from April 27 th until August 17 th at the Internal Communication Department Western Europe of Anheuser-Busch InBev. The Internal Communication function is part of the People & Management Department, Anheuser-Busch InBev s HR alternative. On my first day, Kristien Abbeel, my mentor and Internal Communication Manager Western Europe, gave me a short introduction on the structure and functions of the company. After that, she gave me an overview of what I was expected to do during my internship. The organization of World Environment Day and the Leadership, Performance and Change meeting and the rollout of the new Ten Principles material would be my three main projects. Apart from these three tasks, I would have to assist Kristien on the daily tasks of the Internal Communication Department. These daily tasks included writing short communications ( Flashes ) and making presentations. In this chapter, I will discuss my three most important tasks quite extensively and I will evaluate them personally. Next, I will give a more concise overview of my other tasks during my internship

81 3.1 The rollout of the new Anheuser-Busch InBev Ten Principles Background During my internship, I did the rollout of the new Ten Principles and Six Competencies. These new principles and competencies were the result of the new Anheuser-Busch InBev corporate identity. The principles and competencies had to be printed on banners, posters, leaflets, bookmarks and credit cards. The purpose of this printed material was to expose all the employees of Anheuser-Busch InBev to the new corporate identity and to the new principles and competencies. Anheuser-Busch InBev did not have a global strategy to reach all of its workers, but assumed that everybody who wanted to know more about the new identity could surf to Anheuser-Busch InBev s website. In other words, the global corporate identity strategy of Anheuser-Busch InBev did not focus on the workers or people who do not have an internet connection. With this material, the Western European Zone also wanted to contact the workers in the breweries and depots. In the leaflets the employees could for example find further information concerning the principles and competencies Personal contribution High-level process In order to coordinate this process and to brief the Communication Managers of the countries, I set up a high-level process in Powerpoint (see Annex I.a.). This process was based on the printing process of InBev, the former internal magazine. On the left, I put the different responsible parties vertically: Antilope (the printing company), the Internal Communication Managers of the countries, the Internal Communication Manager of the

82 Zone Western Europe (myself) and K-Creation (the first point of contact and gatekeeper with regard to the new corporate identity). Horizontally, I divided the process into four phases: layout, correction, approval and delivery. I connected the successive steps with arrows to create an easily legible process. I set up this high-level process in order to send it to the Internal Communication Managers of the countries so they would have a clear overview or summary of what they were expected to do Briefing of the Internal Communication Managers Next, I briefed the Internal Communication Managers of the Countries during an Internal Communication conference call. Eline Leunissen and Laurence Andrianne, Internal Communication Managers of the BeNeLux, were present, while the other Internal Communication Managers dialed in. During this briefing, I discussed the high-level process that I made and explained what the Communication Managers were expected to do. I stressed the fact that we had to try to have as less correction rounds as possible. The first correction round was included in the price, but for each extra correction round, we had to pay Antilope, the printing company, an extra charge Consolidation of the tenders We wanted to print five types of material: posters, credit cards, bookmarks, leaflets and pop-up banners. Antilope, the printing company, had submitted an offer for each type of material. Kristien asked me to consolidate all the different tenders in one Excel sheet. First, I merely made an overview of the different costs and the estimated total cost. Kristien told me that I always had to make my Excel sheets as flexible as possible. Therefore, I made a new version and inserted formulas so that everything was automatically recalculated when the ordered quantities or number of different languages changed. See Annex I.b. for an excerpt of this sheet

83 Coordination of the correction phase The first phase of the process was the correction phase. Inge Nauwelaerts from Antilope sent me the Dutch, German, French and Italian pdf files that were translated by a translation company. I forwarded these files to the Internal Communication Managers of the countries and asked them to review and correct the files using Acrobat Writer. This correction round was important because we had to make sure the translations were written in the same style and with the same feeling as the original English versions. The Internal Communication Managers sent me their corrections or remarks (see Annex I.c.). I consolidated all the remarks and corrections and made a clear overview of which words had to be changed, replaced or corrected. Next, Antilope processed these remarks or corrections and sent me back the updated files. When the Internal Communication Managers approved these files, I sent them to K-Creation. As mentioned above, K-Creation is the first point of contact regarding the new corporate identity of Anheuser- Busch InBev. They had to approve all the translations of the material. I received a couple of remarks from them ( see Annex I.d.). Most of the remarks concerned word breaks or lay out issues. Afterwards I discussed K-Creation s remarks with Antilope so that they could correct the files Coordination of the approval phase Once K-Creation s corrections were processed by Antilope, the printing company put high resolution pdf files on its website. The Internal Communication Managers had to log in on the site and approve these files. Antilope also created an account for me so I could log in on the site and check which files already had been approved and which files still needed to be approved or corrected. During this phase, I had to chase the Communication Managers in order not to hold up the process

84 Coordination of the delivery and the transactions After all the files were approved via Antilope s website, Antilope started with the printing of the material. I collected all the delivery addresses with the corresponding ordered quantities and put the data in an Excel sheet that I sent to Antilope (see Annex I.f.). Next, I sent an to all the contact persons to inform them when the material would be delivered so that they could make sure that there was someone present to receive the material. In this , I also asked them to send me an when they received the new material. By doing this, I could trace possible problems. Because of the fact that Anheuser-Busch InBev did not foresee a central budget for the corporate identity change, every country/business Unit had to pay for the material from its own budget. This was not only a pity because of the fact that some BU s did not have enough budget to buy leaflets for all of their employees, but it also complicated the settlement of the accounts. I had to make sure that every country or Business Unit made a PO and that Antilope split the costs into six different invoices: Belux, the Netherlands, Gauch (Germany), Southern Europe, UKI and Zone Headquarters. This brought along quite an administrative fuss Personal evaluation The follow-up of this process was a rather administrative task that did not require a lot of creative input from my side. However, I found it very interesting to get in touch with the different responsible parties and to act as an intermediary. I discovered a side of the Internal Communication Manager s function that I did not know before. When you are a Communication Manager at the Zone level, you constantly have to give orders to the Internal Communication Managers of the countries, check if they execute the instructions and chase them if necessary. I also experienced how hard it is to get things done during the holiday period. I sometimes needed the input of all of the countries and time after time one of the Communication Managers was on

85 holiday while nobody else was well informed about the things I needed to know. This slowed down the whole process

86 3.2 The organization of World Environment Day Background World Environment Day (WED) is an initiative of the United Nations. WED, commemorated each year on the 5 th of June, is one of the principal vehicles through which the United Nations stimulates worldwide awareness of the environment and enhances political attention and action. The theme for 2009 was UNite to combat climate change. Anheuser-Busch InBev decided to support the initiative in order to raise awareness concerning environmental issues among the employees, raise engagement and get some free publicity. World Environment Day fits in with Anheuser-Busch InBev s dream to be the Best Beer Company in a Better World. The global department of Anheuser-Busch InBev wanted to organize a contest between the different Zones. Each Zone had to select its best initiative / country. Then, a jury would select a winner based on the impact of the initiative, support of local or national politicians, the press coverage etc. We wanted to win the global competition with Zone Western Europe, so we decided to set up a big competition in our Zone. The whole project would be led by Internal Communication Western Europe and Corporate Affairs Western Europe. We set up guidelines for the Western European countries / Business Units. Our covering theme or event was WE bike to work. This Zone-wide event had to encourage employees to leave their cars at home and come by bike or by public transport or carpool to work. By doing this, we would save kilometers and reduce our carbon footprint, raise awareness around environmental issues among our employees, drive engagement and have fun. Each Western European Business Unit had to work out an approach within the guidelines that were set by us, the Zone team. For Western Europe, the competitors were BeNeLux, Southern Europe, Gauch, UKI and the Zone Headquarters

87 Next to the regular competition, we also organized a best practice competition for Supply, because otherwise these people could not participate in World Environment Day due to their shift work Personal contribution I helped with the coordination of WED on the Zone level and was responsible for the Bike To Work event at the Zone Headquarters in Leuven. For the event at the Zone Headquarters, I created an action log (Annex II.g.). This helped me to know what was done and what was still in progress or not yet started. In order to motivate the employees to come by bike (or by public transport or carpool) to Leuven on June 5 th, we decided to organize a breakfast for all the participants. I organized regular meetings with the Belgian Special Events Team to arrange the catering, logistics and music installation for the breakfast. I contacted the Mobiliteitsdienst of the city of Leuven and the Preventiecel of the Police to inform if they wanted to support our initiative. I wanted to give the participants the opportunity to get their bikes engraved, checked and repaired during the breakfast. The Police was very enthusiastic and willing to engrave the bikes on the 5 th of June. I contacted Velo about the bike repair. This organization, a partnership between the City of Leuven and the Catholic University of Leuven, was also willing to cooperate (see Annex II.a.). In order to raise awareness and create some buzz around World Environment Day, we sent out several Flashes concerning WE Bike to Work (Annex II.h.). Via the voting buttons of one of these Flashes, the employees could indicate if and how they wanted to participate in the event. Next to the Flashes, I also created flyers (Annex II.d.) and posters (Annex II.e.). I put the flyers on the desks of all the employees of the Western European Zone and hung up the posters through the whole building. I also set up a tombola for all the participants. The first prize was a bike worth 500. Two weeks in advance, I bought the bike at Jacobs, a local bike dealer, and I put it in the entrance hall as a manifest teaser. On the 5 th of June, the participants could subscribe for this tombola via tombola registration forms that I created (Annex II.f.)

88 In order to facilitate the organization of the carpool, I created a carpool registration form and hung it up on the bulletin board of the cafeteria. By means of this form, people could find a carpool buddy. We informed the employees about the carpool registration form via the above mentioned posters and Flashes. World Environment Day turned out to be a big success. I was present at 6:00 am to put everything ready for the morning event. 115 Employees of the Zone Headquarters participated and came by bike, others carpooled or came by public transport. Thanks to the efforts of the Corporate Affairs team, some journalists came over and covered the event (see Annex II.i. and II.j.). World Environment Day was also successful in all the other Business Units. Eventually, Germany won the Zone competition and my Zone Headquarters event finished second Personal evaluation The organization of World Environment Day was the task that gave me the most satisfaction. I had the final responsibility and could be very creative in my approach. I enjoyed having the lead over an event and putting things on the right lines. Next to this, I found it very interesting to work closely together with the Corporate Affairs Department and the Special Events Team. The organization of this event gave me the possibility to show my capabilities to a big part of the company. Marc Croonen, the Vice President People & Management was full of praise for the initiative and the organization of it. He personally and explicitly congratulated me with my approach

89 3.3 The organization of the LPC Western Europe Background The Leadership, Performance and Change meeting Western Europe (LPC WE) is an annual meeting. The purpose of this meeting is to further cascade the messages from the Global SLC (Senior Leader Convention) earlier that year, but also to look back at HY1, layout the plans to deliver in HY2, share best practices and recognize extraordinary actions and people. The LPC is the platform to better understand the challenges Anheuser-Busch InBev s leaders are facing, and to support each other in formulating the right answers to them. The LPC WE is traditionally organized by the Internal Communication Department. Originally, the LPC meeting was planned for the 29 th and 30 th of June. Two weeks on beforehand, the Zone Management Committee decided to postpone the meeting due to circumstances. The new date was set on 17 th and 18 th of September. Due to this postponement, a lot of preparative work had to be redone. Next to the fact that we had to reschedule and rebook everything, the Mancom decided that the top 150 of the Senior Leaders had to be invited instead of top 100. This increase in invitees was made possible by the excellent results of Anheuser-Busch InBev during the first half year of Another consequence of the LPC s postponement was that the LPC itself found place when my internship was already over. Nevertheless, Kristien and Laurence asked me if I was willing to help them during these two days. During my internship, I needed to schedule weekly meetings with Kristien, Pietro Hofling and Christophe Nys, two men of the Special Events Team. These two men organize a lot of big events such as the Joe Piler bar at the Belgian festivals and diverse events with regard to the Jupiler League. Their expertise and knowledge in the field of the organization of events was invaluable. They took care of a lot of practical arrangements: the reservation of the hotel, the catering and the logistics

90 Beside the meetings with the Special Events Team, I also had to plan weekly meetings with Kristien and Alexandre Bouchet. Alexandre is the Director of Internal Communication and he wanted to get a weekly update on what had been done and what still needed to be done Personal contribution Invitation Senior Leaders First of all, the top 100 of the Senior Leaders had to be invited. I looked up the invitation mail of last year and made some adaptations to it. We put a registration form and a PowerPoint Presentation with some necessary info concerning the location in attachment. I also stressed the fact that we encouraged room sharing in order to reduce costs. Kristien sent out this invitation. The Senior Leaders had to fill in the registration form and send it back to Kristien. Kristien then sent these registration forms to me. See Annex III.l. for the invitation mail Registration Senior Leaders I collected all the registrations and consolidated them into one Excel sheet. See Annex III.k for this sheet. Once I received all the registrations, I checked the registration form for possible errors. The arrangement of the room sharing was the aspect that demanded the most attention. Via the registration form, invitees could indicate whether they were willing to share rooms. If they were willing to share rooms, they could fill in the name of the person with whom they wanted to share a room. Some invitees merely indicated that they wanted to share a room, but did not fill in the name of a roommate. Others filled in the name of a person who was already sharing a room with somebody else. I called up these persons in order to solve these practical issues

91 Action log The organization was a big project and brought a long a lot of details. As a consequence, a meticulous follow-up of all the actions was necessary. For this purpose, Kristien sent me a template for an action log. In my action log (Annex III.a), I registered all the actions together with the due date, the responsible of each action and traffic lights. These traffic lights indicated whether an action was completed, delayed, in progress or not yet started Agenda I drew up the LPC s agenda in consultation with Kristien. It was important to have a diversified schedule in order to maximize the attention and concentration of those present. I also had to take the personal agendas of the Executive Board Members into account. Carlos Brito, the CEO, could join us only on the second day, while other Board Members could only be there on the first day. The agenda and the topics of presentations had to be adapted to the presence of these Executive Board Members. I put an excerpt of the agenda in Annex III.b. The final version of the agenda had to be approved by Alain Beyens, Zone President Recognition A very important topic on the LPC s agenda was the recognition. By means of a recognition ceremony on the first day of the LPC, we wanted to recognize and celebrate those employees going the extra mile. We wanted to recognize people or departments with regard to five categories: Anheuser- Busch InBev Owners, Business Service Center, World Environment Day, Voyager Plant Optimisation and World Class Commercial Platform. In order to reduce costs, I made the certificates for all of these recognitions (Annex III.g.) myself. The most important recognition is the one of the Anheuser-Busch InBev Owner. The Anheuser-Busch InBev Owners program is a global story-telling initiative bringing the Anheuser-Busch InBev Dream, People and Culture to life. It is a showcase for real examples of Anheuser-Busch InBev people putting the Ten Principles into practice

92 This year, there were four elected Owners in the Zone Western Europe: two from Germany and two from the Netherlands. I was responsible for the organization of the visit of the two German Owners. Among other things, I booked their flights and the hotel. I co-organized a brewery visit in Leuven for them and drew up a personal agenda. I included some organizational mails in Annex III.h Practical arrangements The Leadership, Performance and Change Meeting is an event that requires a lot of practical arrangements. Below I will discuss a couple of the arrangements that I made. I made the table groups and the best practice groups. In order to encourage the networking, it was important that the groups were a mix of different functions, levels and nationalities. See Annex III.i. and III.j. for the table and best practice groups. Another important event at the LPC WE was the Best Practice Event. During this event, six people from different departments present their best practice. At Anheuser-Busch InBev, it is very important to constantly think about better ways to do things. This flows from a real sense of ownership. A best practice is a new way of working that has impact, is cost-effective, efficient and is easy to implement. The Best Practice Event was scheduled on the second day of the LPC. The six presenters each had their own presentation room in the hotel. We decided to limit each time slot of the Best Practice Event to 15 minutes: 8 minutes of presentation, 5 minutes of Q&A and 2 minutes to move from one presentation to another. I split the invitees into six groups and set up a simple rotation planning for the event (Annex III.c.). In order to indicate the timing, I made timing signs. With the help of these signs, the presenter can check how much minutes he still has left (Annex III.f.). I also made doorplates with the name of the room and presenter on it (Annex III.d.). Next to this, I also made the certificates for the winners and participants of the Best Practice Event (Annex III.e.)

93 3.3.3 Personal evaluation The organization of the LPC was very complex and required a lot of hard work. It was quite frustrating that this meeting was postponed to the 17 th and 18 th of September. We had to overdo a lot of things and I would not be there anymore during the last preparatory month. Next to this postponement, the organization of the LPC was complicated by the fact that Simon Wuestenberg moved to the Sales Department and Kristien took up a role in the Planning and Performance Management. As a consequence of Simon s move, nobody within the Internal Communication Team Western Europe had ever organized the LPC before. In August, Laurence Andrianne became the new Internal Communication Manager Western Europe but Kristien still kept the lead over the organization of the LPC. This situation caused a bit of frustration from both Kristien s and Laurence s side since they both had a completely different approach. As an intern, I tried to stay neutral and please both of them. I experienced the difficulties of working in a company that wants to be a People Machine. Most of the employees at Zone level are busy with the development of their own career. As a consequence, a lot of them move to another function within one or two years. The risk is that there is no continuity in the operation and organization of events like the LPC

94 3.4 The writing and sending of Flashes Background The use of Flashes is one of the most frequently used communication channels within Anheuser- Busch InBev. A Flash is a relatively short mail with a news flash concerning the organization. This is used to announce all types of news or reminders. There are two templates for a standard Flash: one for the Zone HQ and one for the Senior Leaders. Depending on the message and the target audience, the Flash has to be sent in one or two templates Personal contribution During my internship, I wrote a lot of Flashes. Generally spoken, I wrote two types of Flashes: announcements concerning changes within Anheuser-Busch InBev and reminders concerning ongoing internal processes that required the employees input. For the greater part, the announcements concerning changes were announcements of people who were leaving the company or who took up another function within Anheuser-Busch InBev. First, Kristien briefed me on who was leaving or took up another role. Then, I asked the People Support Managers for the curriculum of the concerned people. Based on the information I gathered, I wrote a short summary of their career within Anheuser-Busch InBev. It was important to mention their biggest achievements and to formulate the changes in a positive way. See Annex IV.b. for a Flash concerning a change. The Flashes concerning the Competency Review Process (Annex IV.c.) or Target Setting Process (Annex IV.a.) had to have a totally different style and tone. These communications had to contain a strong and direct call to action. I learned that this communications needed to be powerful and concise. Because of the fact that employees at Anheuser-Busch InBev receive a mass of s every day, it was important to visualize as much as possible

95 3.5 Presentations Monthly Calls Every month, the Internal Communication Manager Western Europe is responsible for the presentations of Alain s Monthly Call and Marc s Monthly Call. Alain is the Zone President and his call is a business update on all the Functions. Every Vice President has to send his or her input to the Internal Communication Manager Western Europe. The Internal Communication Manager Western Europe has to make a comprehensible, consistent and attractive presentation based on the received input. As a Communication Manager, you also have to make sure that everyone that has to give his input, actually does this. See Annex V.a. for an excerpt of a presentation for Alain s Monthly Call. The same goes for Marc s Monthly call. Marc is the Vice President People & Management; his call is a monthly update and briefing concerning the People & Management Department. When I arrived at Anheuser-Busch InBev, on the 27 th of April, one of the first things that I had to do, was working on the presentation for Marc s Monthly Call. In both July and August, Kristien was on holidays on the day of Marc s Monthly call, so she entrusted this task to me. By making these presentations, I learned to be very perfectionist. Because these presentations were for the most important leaders of the Western European organization, Kristien repeatedly insisted on the importance of the perfection of these presentations. I also had to make sure that I understood everything that was in the presentations, so I learned a lot about Anheuser-Busch InBev and the business by making the Monthly Call presentations. In included the presentation of Marc s Monthly Call of July in Annex V.b

96 3.5.2 Engagement The second kind of presentations that I had to make, were presentations concerning the engagement. Every year, Anheuser-Busch InBev conducts an engagement survey amongst its employees. Alain Beyens, the Zone President, visits all the plants where the engagement was below average in 2009 or where the engagement index had decreased strikingly in comparison to the year before. The purpose of his visits was to organize round tables and listen to the local complaints and problems. For every plant that Alain visited, I had to analyze the results of the engagement survey and summarize my findings concerning that particular plant in a short presentation. Alain used these presentations to start the round tables, because they briefly summarized and discussed the main problems of that particular plant. It was very important to visualize as much as possible. See Annex V.c. for a presentation concerning the engagement results

97 4. Conclusion During my internship at Anheuser-Busch InBev, I learned a lot of things that will be useful for my future career. This varies from certain skills to business insights. Because of the fact that I had very diverse tasks, I developed a lot of different professional skills. At Anheuser-Busch InBev, Outlook is very important. This application includes an client, calendar, task manager and address book. I learned to use Outlook to schedule my day, send meeting requests and book meeting rooms. Next to Outlook, I learned to operate PowerPoint and Excel in a more professional way. My PowerPoint and Excel skills were very basic. During my internship I constantly worked with those two applications. Kristien Abbeel, my mentor, is a very perfectionist person and she constantly taught me little, but very useful things about operating these applications. As an Internal Communication Manager Western Europe, you are in close contact with all the functions and departments within the company. Due to this, I gathered a lot of information, knowledge and insights concerning the operation and structure of a big multinational. When I had to make presentations for Alain s or Marc s Monthly Call, Kristien obliged me not to just incorporate the input of the different departments. She wanted me to understand everything that was in those business updates. Because of this, I spent a lot of time calling or mailing persons in order to ask for further explanation and by doing so, I really got to know Anheuser-Busch and its way of operating. Thanks to this, I gathered a lot of business insights that I surely can use in the future. In this respect, the courses of economics and marketing proved to be very useful. These courses and the guest lectures contributed to a general business insight that was necessary for the success of my internship. When I now look at myself, I can state that through my internship, I have developed in different ways. First of all, I learned to cope with stress, deadlines and responsibility. At Anheuser-Busch InBev, they think big and set the bar high. They think that great people perform better when they are under

98 pressure to achieve results. This also goes for the intern s responsibilities and pressure of work. This competitive and result-oriented spirit was quite a change if you are used to a rather carefree university life. My days at Anheuser-Busch InBev were booked up with deadlines, meetings and conference calls. Nevertheless, it was a real pleasure to notice that my colleagues and my mentor considered and treated me as a full team member. To get things done at Anheuser-Busch InBev, it is important to act very self-assured and hands-on. In the beginning of my internship, I was too much aware of my position as an intern. It was quite overpowering for me to share my desk with Directors. Kristien told me that I had to act as a full team member and as a real Anheuser-Busch InBev Owner. As an intern, I also was expected to think big and set the bar high, for both myself and my colleagues. I had had to impose deadlines to the Communication Managers of the Countries, supervise them and chase them to do things. At Anheuser-Busch InBev, the People & Management Team Western Europe works in an open office, at one big desk, without fixed seats. At times, we sat piled up with more than ten persons at one desk. In the beginning, I found it hard to concentrate because people were constantly telephoning and walking up and down. After a couple of days, I got used to it and started to appreciate the advantages of it. Our team was very diverse, among my colleagues were lawyers, commercial engineers, commercial scientists and psychologists. When I had a problem with Excel, for example, I could simply ask it to one of the other people at the table and in no time, they learned me how to write a macro. This as an example of the cross-functional and time-saving interaction that I learned to make use of. Kristien planned weekly reviews with me. Every Thursday, before going to the bar, we discussed the result of my work, my skills and personal development. She discussed my strengths, weaknesses and the progress I made. Kristien is a demanding and perfectionist person and these weekly reviews were very confronting and informative for me. She told me that I was e very good and hard-working intern. However, she did not want to review me as an intern, but as a full employee of Anheuser- Busch InBev. I learned to use the feedback in a positive way and I considered it as an opportunity to develop. These weekly reviews motivated me to work even harder

99 One of the most important things that I learned during my internship was the fact that you learn things by doing it. You learn on the spot. MTB provided me a solid basis to build my further career on. The subsequent master Multilingual Business Communication turned out to be an excellent preparation to my internship. I did not only improve my language skills, but also learned that the way you communicate a message is crucial. The communication has to be adapted to your target audience. This was very important when I had to write Flashes or make presentations. Next to the communicative aspect of MTB, the courses of economics and marketing proved to be very useful. These courses and the guest lectures contributed to a general business insight that was necessary for the success of my internship. Thanks to the different group projects, I did not only learned how to work in a team efficiently, but also to cope with stress and deadlines. Overall, I can state that the past year of MTB was an extremely interesting and solid preparation for my future professional life. I learned a lot of new things, gathered a lot of insights and I got the opportunity to turn a lot of these things into practice during my internship at Anheuser-Busch InBev

100 5. Bibliography 5.1 Printed sources - Argenti, P.; Forman, J., The power of corporate communication. New York (McGraw-Hill) Bos, M.; Mastenbroek, J., Communicatie in organisaties. Cultuur, stijl en leiderschap. Alphen aan den Rijn (Samsom) Boulogne, G. ; Groenendijk, J., Crisiscommunicatie. Alphen aan den Rijn (Samsom) Kotler, P.; Keller, K.; Robben, H.; Geuens, M., Marketingmanagement. De essentie. Amsterdam (Pearson Education Benelux) Mucchielli, A., Communication interne & management de crise. Paris (Les Editions d Organisation) Putte, M. Van, Interne communicatie: van theorie naar praktijk. Bussum (Uitgeverij Coutinho) Reesink, R. (red.), Vat krijgen op interne communicatie: een diagnose-instrument. Alphen aan den Rijn (Samsom) Riepl, W., De Belgische bierbaronnen. Het verhaal achter Anheuser-Busch InBev. Roeselare (Roularta Books) Schoemaker, H.; Vos, M.F., Communicatiemanagement voor organisaties. Utrecht (Uitgeverij Lemma) Vloeberghs, D., Interne communicatie. Een kijk op de functies van communicatie in organisatieverband. Leuven (Centrum voor Communicatiewetenschappen)

101 5.2 Digital sources - Anheuser-Busch InBev, Annual Report (20/08/2009). - Anheuser-Busch InBev, Corporate website. (20/08/2009). - Business Dictionary.com. (20/08/2009) - Carlsberg Group, Annual Report (20/08/2009). - Diageo, Diageo at a glance. (20/08/2009). - Heineken, Annual Report (20/08/2009). - Nashavandi, A.; Malekzadeh, A., Acculturation in Mergers and Acquisitions. (15/08/2009). - SABMiller, Company snapshot. (20/08/2009). - Schweiger, D.; Denisi, A., Communication with employees following a merger: a longitudinal field experiment. (15/08/2009). - Weber, Y.; Shenkar, O.; Raveh, A., National and Corporate Cultural Fit in Mergers/Acquisitions: An Exploratory Study. (15/08/

102 6. Annex I. Rollout of the new Anheuser-Busch InBev Principles and Competencies a. High Level Process

103 b. Consolidation of the tenders

104 c. Translation and corrections by Internal Communication Managers of the countries

105 d. Corrections by K-Creation Sander In bijlage de door Anja Schulz goedgekeurd Duitse versies van de 10 principles. Bezorg jij deze ook weer aan K-Creation ter controle? Mvg Inge Nauwelaerts. Hallo Sander, Wij hebben post-it notes in pdf bijgevoegd. Het gaat meestal over word breaks. Groeten, Best Regards, enjoy your day. Dirk Vande Putte Account Manager K Creation & Production Boulevard General Wahis 16c B-1030 Brussels Belgium Phone: Fax: Mobile : dirk.vandeputte@kcp.be Visit our website

106

107 Luc (Antilope) e. Follow-up of the process Kan jij Sander meedelen hoe lang het duurt om hun drukwerk te drukken, na de goed voor druk Sander, Correcties van K-Kreation op de Duitse versie vrijdag ontvangen, correcties op de Franse (via Post) net binnen, worden asap uitgevoerd. (zie stand van zaken hieronder) Ik laat ondertussen de accounts voor iedereen maken om de goedkeuring op Insite te kunnen laten gebeuren. Stand van zaken 08/06/09_1: ENG : OK VOOR DRUK IT : OK voor Inbev, correcties van K-Creation verwerkt 03/06 DU : OK voor Inbev, correcties van K-Creation ontvangen 05/06, nog te verwerken door Antilope FR : 3 de correcties ontvangen 08/06/09, nog te verwerken door Antilope NL : 2 de correctieronde verwerkt en pdfs g ed 04/06 Mvg Inge Nauwelaerts Luc (Antilope) Kan jij Sander meedelen hoe lang het duurt om hun drukwerk te drukken Inge

108 Van: Laridon, Sander Verzonden: maandag 8 juni :20 Aan: Inge Nauwelaerts Onderwerp: Ten Principles drukwerk (AB InBev) Dag Inge, Even om te checken: heb je mijn mails met opmerkingen K-Creation ivm Duitse versies vrijdag ontvangen? Correcties op Franse versies via de post ontvangen? Verder: tegen woensdagavond zouden we deze fase uit het proces graag afronden. Desnoods laten we goedkeuring door K-Creation vallen, zodat we snel kunnen overgaan tot online en formeel goedkeuren en printen. Hoeveel tijd hebben jullie precies nodig om te printen? Dit omdat we een deel van dat materiaal tegen 29 juni nodig hebben. Met vriendelijke groeten, Sander Laridon Internal Communication Western Europe Anheuser-Busch InBev nv/sa Brouwerijplein 1, 3000 Leuven, Belgium Tel +32 (0) Visit us at

109 f. Order and delivery of the material Hallo, i have received the material. Gruss Birgit Eckardt InBev Germany Holding GmbH

110 People & Management c/o Brauerei Diebels GmbH & Co. KG Brauerei-Diebels-Str. 1 D Issum Von: Laridon, Sander Gesendet: Donnerstag, 23. Juli :29 Betreff: Delivery DPC Material Dear, Could you let me know asap if you have received the new AB InBev Dream People Culture Material? Thanks in advance! Kind regards, Sander From: Laridon, Sander Sent: woensdag 8 juli :27 Subject: Delivery DPC Material Dear, I m mailing you to inform that the Dream People Culture Material will be delivered at the beginning of week 30 (week of 20 th July). Please make sure that someone is available to receive the material. Thanks in advance! Kind regards, Sander Laridon Internal Communication Western Europe Anheuser-Busch InBev nv/sa Brouwerijplein 1, 3000 Leuven, Belgium

111 II. World Environment Day a. Organization of the breakfast / welcome event at Zone HQ Leuven i. Bike engraving Geachte heer Onze dienst werkt hiervoor samen met de stadswachten die de graveeracties uitvoeren. Onlangs graveerden ze trouwens jullie dienstfietsen. Deze datum is in principe nog mogelijk. Meestal is het omwille van andere taken eerder op de morgen moeilijk te beginnen voor 9.30u. Ze zouden wel de verdere voormiddag kunnen graveren. Is dit in orde voor jullie? Met vriendelijke groeten Kris Lippens 016/ Beste Bedankt voor uw aanvraag. Ik verzend uw mail naar de verantwoordelijke van de graveeracties, Kris Lippens. Hij zal met u contact opnemen. Met vriendelijke groeten Johan Tuerlinckx Preventiedienst

112 Van: Laridon, Sander [mailto:] Verzonden: woensdag 20 mei :22 Aan: Preventiedienst Leuven Onderwerp: Fiets graveren Beste, Met AB InBev plannen we in het kader van World Environment Day op 5 juni (vrijdag) een Bike to work-actie voor alle werknemers. Deze dag is de start van een campagne rond duurzame mobiliteit (fietsen en carpoolen). Op 5 juni organiseren we in de voormiddag een Bike to work-event. Alle werknemers worden aangespoord om met de fiets (of carpool) te komen. Op de site van Brouwerijplein 1 in Leuven organiseren we een ontbijt, tombola (waar we fietsen, fietsweekendjes etc weggeven) en dies meer voor de deelnemers. Graag hadden we ook een standje gehad waar de deelnemers hun fiets kunnen laten registeren door deze te graveren. Via de website leuven.be kwam ik op dit contactadres terecht. Zou u me hiermee verder kunnen helpen? Wie moet ik contacteren, wat zijn de praktische details etc? Met vriendelijke groeten, Sander Laridon Internal Communication Western Europe Anheuser-Busch InBev nv/sa Brouwerijplein 1, 3000 Leuven, Belgium Tel +32 (0) From: Laridon, Sander Sent: dinsdag 26 mei :13 To: ABBEEL, Kristien; Wuestenberg, Simon Subject: Graveeractie en Bike Check Up Simon en Kristien, Beide acties heb ik vast gelegd, tussen 8u en 10u à 10u

113 Ivm de graveeractie vroeg de verantwoordelijke of er toevallig niemand van ons donderdag 4 juni rond 19u30 de graveermachine kan gaan ophalen in de Mechelsestraat Dat toestel wordt voor 19u nog gebruikt en anders krijgen ze dit moeilijk om 8u bij ons. Groeten, Sander Laridon Internal Communication Western Europe Anheuser-Busch InBev nv/sa Brouwerijplein 1, 3000 Leuven, Belgium Tel +32 (0) Visit us at Anheuser-Busch InBev nv/sa - Grote Markt / Grand' Place 1, 1000 Brussel/Bruxelles - RPR/RPM Help save paper - do you need to print this ? ii. Bike repair Dag Sander, Een antwoord op jouw vragen: Toekomen: 7.55 u. (3 personen) Anderen dingen nodig? : Elektriciteit indien mogelijk Betaling: wij sturen achteraf factuur. Succes morgen. Groet, Jos Vandikkelen Velo

114 ----- Original Message From: Laridon, Sander To: ; Sent: Thursday, June 04, :29 AM Subject: Fiets Check up Beste Jos, Morgen gaat onze Bike-to-work-actie bij AB InBev door, waarop we de bike check up van jullie gereserveerd hebben. Met deze mail wou ik nog even checken of alles in orde is. - Hoe laat komen jullie mensen precies toe? Adres is dus Brouwerijplein 1 (aan de vaart) - Hebben jullie nog anders iets nodig? - De betaling regelen we morgen ter plaatse? Alvast bedankt! Met vriendelijke groeten, Sander Laridon Internal Communication Western Europe Anheuser-Busch InBev nv/sa Brouwerijplein 1, 3000 Leuven, Belgium Tel +32 (0)

115 b. Tombola registration form

116 c. Carpool registration form

117 d. Flyer World Environment Day

118 e. Posters World Environment Day

119

120 f. Tombola registration form

121 g. Action Log World Environment Day

122 h. Reminder with the picture of BeNeLux Mancom in cycling jerseys Beste collega, Vandaag is de laatste dag dat je je kunt inschrijven voor Bike to Work. Als je vrijdag, 5 juni per fiets, carpoolend of met het OV naar het werk komt, kun je genieten van een gratis onbijt in GHQ! REMINDER: Zorg dat je je aangemeld hebt en dus geregistreerd staat als deelnemer want dan maak je ook nog eens kans op één van die mooie prijzen zoals een gloednieuwe fiets, Jupiler Blue jersey's of een (fiets) weekendje weg! De winnaars van deze prijzen worden vrijdag, 12 juni bekend gemaakt. Aanmelden? Meld je nog snel aan via de voting buttons in de uitnodiging van Belgium, Internal Communications of stuur direct een mail naar Belgium, Internal Communications (zie

123 Outlook) Bedankt voor je deelname aan World Environment Day & JOIN US!

124 i. Pictures World Environment Day

125 j. Press coverage World Environment Day Het Laatste Nieuws Het Nieuwsblad

126 III. The organizatioin of the Leadership, Performance and Change Meeting Western Europe a. Action log

127 b. Agenda

128 c. Rotation system BP Event

129 d. Doorplates BP Event

130 e. Certificate BP Event

131 f. Timing BP presentations

132

133 g. Certificates recognition

134 h. Organization of the recognition of the Anheuser-Busch InBev Owners Many thanks for your help, Sander. Please keep me updated with dates and facts once you know more. I will then finalize my personalized programme in German language for the Thomas and Paul. They will feel more comfortable when they get something upfront and know what will happen the two days. Kind regards, Martina

135 Von: Laridon, Sander Gesendet: Dienstag, 4. August :27 An: Schouten, Martina Betreff: RE: Invitation InBev Owners Paul & Thomas to LPC WE Hi Martina, I do not have an answer to all of your questions yet, but I would like to give you an update of what we know at this moment: - Ok for Paul Janzen. - The costs are indeed covered by us. - Hilde is on holidays, but I will ask Carine (Alain s assistant) to book the flight for Thomas Mucha. - The reception, followed by the recognition ceremony will start at 19h (September 17 th ). If possible, he should arrive between 18h and 19h. - Brewery visit is planned on the 18 th of September, in the morning. I don t know the exact length of the visit yet. I can t reach John Gysels at this moment. I will get back to you as soon as possible with the exact timing of the brewery visit. I will send you a personalized agenda with all the info for Thomas & Paul during the following days, i.e. as soon as I get all the details concerning the brewery visit. Hope this helps. Kind regards, Sander Laridon Internal Communication Western Europe Anheuser-Busch InBev nv/sa Brouwerijplein 1, 3000 Leuven, Belgium Tel +32 (0)

136 From: Schouten, Martina Sent: dinsdag 4 augustus :43 To: ABBEEL, Kristien Subject: WG: Invitation InBev Owners Paul & Thomas to LPC WE Hi Kristien, Unfortunately, I have not received a response from you yet. As regards transport I learnt that Paul Janzen will go by car together with Ulrich Balzer (Plant Manager Issum). Thomas Mucha would like to fly from Hanover. Since I assume that costs will be covered by a cost center in Belgium, I would suggest that flight booking will be done by Hilde so that the fare goes automatically on the right cost center. I have looked up following options: or Can you, furthermore, please let me know when the recognition ceremony will take place and who would be the local contact for the gentlemen when they arrive or have any questions? Also, I would like to know for what time the brewery tour is planned in Leuven on September 18th and how long it will take. I am about to set up an itinerary for the owners with as much information as possible. Many thanks for your help. Kind regards, Martina

137 Von: Schouten, Martina Gesendet: Montag, 27. Juli :48 An: ABBEEL, Kristien Betreff: AW: Invitation InBev Owners Paul & Thomas to LPC WE Kristien, Can you please give me an idea about the planned programm so that we can look for flights before they get more and more expensive? How about the costs for travel and accomodation of the owners? Will these be covered by a people cost center in Belgium? Many thanks for keeping me informed. Kind regards, Martina Von: Schouten, Martina Gesendet: Donnerstag, 23. Juli :52 An: ABBEEL, Kristien Cc: Scheffler, Sigrun; Reuter, Christel; Lustig, Stefan; Balzer, Dr. Ulrich; Stueckle, Harald Betreff: WG: Invitation InBev Owners Paul & Thomas to LPC WE Hi Kristien, Sorry for the delayed response but the InBev Owners have been on holiday the last weeks. I am pleased to inform you that both, Thomas Mucha and Paul Janzen, accepted the invitation and will come over to Belgium in September. In order to organize a nice package for them let us please align on the programm (what is planned when, timings etc) so that I can arrange for the travel bookings. Many thanks. Martina From: ABBEEL, Kristien Sent: donderdag 9 juli :55 To: Lustig, Stefan Cc: Schulz, Anja; Van Roy, Karin Subject: FW: Invitation InBev Owners Paul & Thomas to LPC WE Hi Stefan,

138 It was nice to meet you in Munchen. I think the brewery visit went very well. Everyone left a positive feeling! I am writing you to invite the InBev owners in your team. As you know we would like to invite Paul Janzen and Thomas Mucha to the Western Europe LPC in September. We would like to know if Paul and Thomas are available on the new date, September 09. The idea would be to invite them to the dinner on the first night (17 th of September), and the next day (18 th of September) offer them a tour in the Leuven plant (Karin is organizing this). Recognition of the Owners will take place on the first night (17/9) during the dinner. Attached you find the letter signed by Alain, Ludo, Jens and Marc to invite them. Please hand over the letter attached or send it to them by mail. As soon as they have confirmed, we will arrange all practical details (transport, hotel, agenda etc) (Anja, can you provide Stefan with a translation of the letter?) Please confirm the presence of Paul and Thomas to me by July 17 th. Thank you. Kind regards, Kristien Kristien Abbeel Internal Communication Manager WE Anheuser-Busch InBev nv/sa Brouwerijplein 1, 3000 Leuven, Belgium Tel +32 (0) , Fax +32 (0) , Mobile +32 (0) Visit us at Anheuser-Busch InBev nv/sa - Grote Markt / Grand' Place 1, 1000 Brussel/Bruxelles - RPR/RPM Help save paper - do you need to print this ? Dear Sander, I suggest that Thomas Mucha spends the day in Brussels and does some sightseeing and/or shopping and since Paul Janzen will arrive in the morning as well (car pooling with Ulrich Balzer who needs to attend the rehearsals for Best Practice) they could go together

139 As far as I know it is their first trip to the Belgian capital so there is enough to explore... Do you know whether there are organised tours by bus or walking tours through the city center which they could join - ideally in German language? We should book such a tour for them, starting let's say 10:30 or 11:00 am. So they can still check-in before and have a coffee and croissant. With regard to the brewery tour in Leuven do you have somebody in the plant who is multilingual and could do the tour in German language? As far as the knowledge of English is concerned I think that Thomas' level is basic. Paul understands and speaks virtually no English. I know the language barrier makes it not easier to organise the programme, but I am sure we will manage... :-) Any questions? Please give me a call. Mit freundlichen Grüßen / Best regards, Martina Schouten Assistant to Dr. Stefan Lustig / Arthur van Och / Henning Meyer!nBev Germany Holding GmbH Tel. +49 (0)421/ Fax +49 (0)421/ martina.schouten@inbev.com Pflichtangaben gemäß 35a GmbHG / 125a HGB können über folgenden Link abgerufen werden: Von: Laridon, Sander Gesendet: Montag, 10. August :24 An: Schouten, Martina Betreff: Program Thomas Mucha & Paul Janzen LPC Dear Martina, I m mailing you concerning the LPC for the German ABI Owners. Last Friday, I sent you the e-ticket for Thomas Mucha. He arrives quite early, at 8h20 in the morning. The LPC officially starts at 16h45, but the reception and recognition only at 19h. So there is a lot of time between his arrival and the start of the LPC

140 Do you have any suggestion of what he would like to do during these hours? He can come directly to the hotel and visit Brussels or work a little bit in the hotel or he can come to our HQ in Leuven if he would want to work a little bit here. Then another question: what is their level of knowledge of the English language? On the first day, the presentations (before the recognition) are in English. And would they be interested in these presentations (business update, Leveraging Zone for Off-trade etc ). Or do you think that, for instance, Paul Janzen is not interested in these things? Thanks in advance! Kind regards, From: Andrianne, Laurence Sent: donderdag 6 augustus :55 To: Laridon, Sander Subject: RE: Invitation InBev Owners Paul & Thomas to LPC WE Ja je hebt volledig gelijk. Dan moet hij maar naar ghq komen werken de eertse dag en met iemand meerijden naar de lpc From: Laridon, Sander Sent: donderdag 6 augustus :27 To: Andrianne, Laurence Subject: RE: Invitation InBev Owners Paul & Thomas to LPC WE Carine is er even niet. Ivm brouwerijbezoek: - Dan zouden er twee aparte brouwerijbezoeken moeten zijn, want de andere Duitse owner komt pas tegen s avonds. Geen idee of het mogelijk is voor degene die dat organiseren. Nu, dat lijkt me nog het minste. - Wat ik wel denk, is dat het misschien aangenamer is als ze met twee trein op kunnen en rondleiding + middagmaal kunnen krijgen Ik vraag Carine vlucht even op te zoeken als ze terug is. Groeten, Sander Laridon Internal Communication Western Europe

141 Anheuser-Busch InBev nv/sa Brouwerijplein 1, 3000 Leuven, Belgium Tel +32 (0) Visit us at Anheuser-Busch InBev nv/sa - Grote Markt / Grand' Place 1, 1000 Brussel/Bruxelles - RPR/RPM Help save paper - do you need to print this ? From: Andrianne, Laurence Sent: donderdag 6 augustus :55 To: Laridon, Sander Subject: RE: Invitation InBev Owners Paul & Thomas to LPC WE Zouden wij hem dan misschien de brouwerijbezoek de dag zelf kunnen laten doen? En een vlucht terug naar hannover op dinsdag ochtend?? Welk zijn dan de vluchtopties? From: Laridon, Sander Sent: donderdag 6 augustus :02 To: Andrianne, Laurence Subject: RE: Invitation InBev Owners Paul & Thomas to LPC WE Laurence, Enkel dan nog de volgende: Dan komt hij wel al om 8u20 in Brussel aan Sander Laridon Internal Communication Western Europe

142 Anheuser-Busch InBev nv/sa Brouwerijplein 1, 3000 Leuven, Belgium Tel +32 (0)

143 i. Table groups

144 j. Best Practice Event Groups

145 k. Consolidated registration form

146 l. Invitation mail Western European Zone Leadership,Performance and Change Brussels,June 29-30,2009 Dear, I m writing to invite you to the Western European Leadership, Performance and Change meeting on June 29 and 30 in Brussels. The aim of the meeting is to further cascade the messages from the Global SLC earlier this year, but also to look back at H1, layout the plans to deliver in H2, share best practices and recognize extraordinary actions and people. This LPC is the platform to better understand the challenges we are facing, and to support each other in formulating the right answers to them. A detailed agenda and meeting details will be sent to you over the following weeks. We are already looking forward to welcoming you the 29 th of June, at 4 PM at the same hotel as last year, Husa President Park Hotel in Brussels (see attached map for more coordinates). The meeting will end the 30 th at 4PM. Please make sure to fill in the attached registration form and send it back to Kristien Abbeel before May 15 th. Please note that we highly encourage room sharing. This meeting is our next step towards achieving success in the challenging Western European market this year. I know WE can do it! Kind regards, Alain Beyens Zone President Western Europe

147 IV. Flashes a. Target Setting process Briefing Bands V-VII Managers: Target Setting process & Target Values Dear Band V-VII manager, On June 26 the Target Setting process for the second half year was kicked off. Today, only 22 % of bands V-VII have approved their targets in Southern Europe. For those that have not yet approved their targets, please take immediate action! If your line manager has not yet initiated the process, urge him to do so this week. If your line manager has set your targets (incl target values) in Sharp, but he / she has not scheduled a meeting with you to discuss them, don t hesitate to book the meeting yourself. If you as manager have direct reports, you are responsible for setting their targets as well, including the target values. Attached you will find an updated version of the target catalogue which takes into account the remarks and questions we received during the past weeks. All bands V-VII managers have time until July 30 th to approve their targets so please don t leave this for the last moment. If your team can deliver against their targets, this will contribute directly to your own target achievement! As soon as your targets are set, you can start building your action plans to achieve your targets for HY2! In case you have any questions regarding the target setting process, please contact your People Manager. We count on you to make it happen! Kind regards, Patrick Mougin People Director Southern Europe Europe Chris Cools Business Unit President Southern

148 b. People on the move Dear colleague, Changes in Finance Western Europe We would like to inform you of a number of changes in the Western Europe Zone Finance team which will take effect from September 1 st Roberto Schuback will take the role of Director Zone Control & Treasury. In order to further integrate the workings of the Zone Control and Treasury teams, we will combine the two activities under the leadership of this newly created position. Roberto joined Ambev in Brazil in 1994, and has been working in Western Europe since He has held several positions ranging from Sales, Treasury and IBS, taking him to his last appointment as Finance and IBS Director in the UK. He will succeed Steven Beersmans, currently Director Zone Control, and Karen van den Driessche, currently Director Zone Treasury. Steven Beersmans joined the company in He has been filling the role of Director Zone Control since July During that period he has been instrumental in improving the quality of our closing process, increasing the internal control mindset and building visibility and focus on CF & CWC together with Treasury and the countries. Before that he traveled extensively in several audit positions with a focus on commercial processes and risk management. We are exploring together with Steven other opportunities within the organization. Karen Van den Driessche, currently Director Zone Treasury, has accepted a position in the AB InBev Global Treasury team based in Leuven. In that role Karen will take on responsibility for a number of cash management activities across the world as well as continuing to support Western Europe on strategic treasury matters. Karen has been with AB InBev for just over a year having

149 joined from Coca-Cola Enterprises where she held the position of Treasury Manager Europe. Roberto will be working closely with Karen in the months ahead to identify how to best leverage the Global treasury team in adding value to zone treasury activities while at the same time removing complexity at both the country and zone level. Please join us in thanking Roberto, Karen and Steven for their hard work and contribution to the business, and in wishing all three of them success in their coming challenges. Kind regards, Tom Dewaele People & Management Director Support WE Graham Staley VP Finance Western Europe

150 c. Competency review process Dear colleague, Reminder: Competency Review! Thanks to all of you who have already submitted their competency reviews and to all those who have begun the process. For all others, if you have not initiated the process, it is vital that you do so now. Action now: Line managers: In case you did not start the process in SHARP yet, please do so immediately. Check your planning and make sure you have enough time to complete the competency review process in time and for all your direct reports. For team members bands I-VII: In case you have not yet received a meeting invitation from your line manager, don t hesitate to request it. Remember, utilise the Competency Review Toolkit which was developed to help you both get the maximum benefit from the discussion. Current status: reviews still need to be started reviews that were started have not been completed yet Preferably, complete the Competency Reviews before going into the peak Holiday Season!!

151 Should you experience any technical problems, please contact the helpdesk. In case you have any questions regarding the review process, please contact your Learning & Development responsible, Kaat Standaert. Let's make it happen! Kind regards, Marc Croonen VP People & Management WE Keep up-to-date with AB InBev news by visiting inside.abinbev.com. If you would like to comment on a story or if you have any ideas on how we can improve our communications to you, please the Internal Communications team in your country. Thank you

152 V. Presentations a. Alain s Monthly Call: excerpt from June

153

154 b. Marc s Monthly Call: excerpt from July

155

156

157

158 c. Engagement: excerpt from Samlesbury brewery

159 VI. Communication of the new corporate identity a. Brito s message: communication of the new company, its name and logo (17/11/2009) Dear Colleagues, It is my pleasure to announce that we have completed the historic combination of our two great companies, Anheuser-Busch and InBev, creating the world s leading brewer. Effective today, we will be known as Anheuser-Busch InBev. I want to thank each and every one of you for helping pave the way to making the very first step of this dream a reality whether you helped plan for the integration or ensured that our businesses continued to operate as usual despite the distractions. Anheuser-Busch InBev is one of the world s top-five consumer products companies and our business spans across 30 countries, holding a number one or two position in over 20 markets. Our combined annual revenue exceeds 26 billion Euros (or 36 billion USD), on a pro-forma basis for We have an impressive portfolio of over 200 brands including our global flagship brand Budweiser along with Stella Artois and Beck s; fastgrowing multi-country brands like Leffe and Hoegaarden; and strong local jewels such

160 as Bud Light, Skol, Brahma, Quilmes, Michelob, Harbin, Sedrin, Cass, Klinskoye, Sibirskaya Korona, Chernigivske and Jupiler, among others. Our leading global distribution network enables us to deliver these brands to consumers around the world. Anheuser-Busch has become a wholly owned subsidiary of Anheuser-Busch InBev, and will remain headquartered in St. Louis, MO, along with our North American Zone. Our global headquarters will remain in Leuven, Belgium. By going to you will have access to our new company website. Our new corporate image brings in the best of both comnanies; the combined name and the eagle will be our strong, new identity. Our dream is to become the Best Beer Company in a Better World, and today marks a decisive step towards reaching this goal. Both Anheuser-Busch and InBev have strong histories in corporate citizenship, and it is imperative that, as Anheuser-Busch InBev, we continue to explore ways to minimize our impact on the environment, promote responsible drinking, and serve as responsible citizens in the communities in which we operate. We will incorporate the best of InBev and Anheuser-Busch into these efforts. To guide all of us in the pursuit of this dream, we have developed a set of principles for Anheuser-Busch InBev, which you can view by visiting welcometoabinbev.com in summary, these principles reflect that, whether we came from InBev or Anheuser-Busch, we are a company of owners, who earn our business every day. We lead by example and take a common sense approach to our business. We thrive in an environment that values meritocracy, informality, and candor. Integrity, hard work, quality and consistency are the keys to building our company. As we look to the future, we must now work together to accomplish what we envisioned when we announced this transaction back in July. Our priorities for the next couple of years will be as follows: integrate our two companies, deliver on the announced synergies and quickly deleverage our capital structure. We will continue to invest in our brands to ensure their long-term strength and sustainability. We see significant opportunities to internationalize Budweiser, by utilizing our expansive international footprint. We will strengthen the positioning of our European brands in the U.S. by leveraging Anheuser-Busch s unparalleled expertise in this market. In the spirit of our culture, we will learn from each other, identify and share best practices and seek opportunities for efficiencies so that we can better serve our customers and consumers

161 The main strength of our new company will be our people. I have great confidence in the strength of our people. We have talent and determination at every level of this organization, and I know that we will all do what it takes to pull together - learn from one another, respect each other, and, through hard work, build this great new company of ours. Strong leadership will be key as we strive to achieve our longer-term goals. As previously announced, Luiz Fernando Edmond will lead the North American region (NA) as Zone President North America. Luiz is an outstanding executive who brings tremendous experience from his most recent role as Zone President Latin America North (LAN) and AmBev s Chief Executive Officer. Luiz has been in the company for 18 years. Dave Peacock will assume the position of President of Anheuser-Busch and lead the U.S. organization. He has demonstrated his capabilities, leadership and professionalism during his 16 years at Anheuser-Busch and has been a vital part of the integration planning process. Joao Castro Neves will replace Luiz in LAN; Joao was CFO of AmBev before spending the last 2 years leading our Latin American South Zone (LAS) where he over-achieved in both years versus the budget. Joao has been in the company for 12 years. Bernardo Paiva will assume LAS after having led NA for one year. Before that he was the VP of sales in Brazil for 3 years. He is a strong leader, with a strong background in sales execution and has been in the company for 17 years. I am also pleased to officially welcome August A. Busch IV, former CEO and President of Anheuser-Busch, to the Anheuser-Busch InBev Board, where he will be a valuable source of insight and support. We have many challenges ahead of us considering the current economic climate and the complexity of this integration. It will not be easy and we know from experience that there will be bumps in the road. However, given our industry, our culture and our people, we are confident that we are well-equipped to meet these challenges head-on. Not only has the beer business historically shown resilience in tough times, but we also have the advantage of operating with the best people, a lean structure and with great geographic diversification between emerging and developed markets. I speak for our entire management team when I say that we are honored to be part of Anheuser-Busch InBev. The tremendous opportunities this combination brings to all of us, as well as to our consumers, partners and shareholders, are powerful and motivating. So, once again, my thanks to all of you for making this happen, and continuing with us on our journey to build the Best Beer Company in a Better World. I look forward to sharing news with you as we continue to make progress

162 All the best, Brito b. Invitation to welcome drink (20/11/2008) Cheers! Welcome to Anheuser-Busch InBev! To celebrate the official beginning of Anheuser-Busch InBev here at GHQ we invite you to a drink tonight! The drink will start at 5pm in the GHQ restaurant and you will get the chance to drink Bud and enjoy some real American snacks! We want to thank all of you for your enthusiasm, contribution and hard work to make this historical moment happen. See you there! People Western Europe

163 c. Briefing Zone Internal Communication Managers

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