“Darling, I’ve got a present for you: I’ve been given the sack!”
In a statement, Anheuser-Busch InBev said that three-quarters of the jobs to be cut would disappear from Anheuser-Busch’s North American headquarters in St. Louis. The brewer also said it would leave 250 U.S. positions vacant and eliminate an additional 415 contractor positions. The majority of jobs cuts will occur by the end of the year, with the remainder scheduled for 2009.
The redundancies will cost the company USD 197 million before taxes, mostly in severance payments and pension benefits.
Readers will have worked out on the back of an envelope that the total number of salaried jobs eliminated at Anheuser-Busch runs to 2,300. That is nearly 40 percent of the brewer’s St. Louis work force of 6,000.
When it comes to leanness, Anheuser-Busch was as lean as it could be. No surplus staff could be found on its books. That is why the job losses will hurt badly: foremost those soon to be without a job.
But the company as a whole will suffer too.
The new bosses of Anheuser-Busch admitted as much in their memo to their employees dated 8 December 2008.
“We know this will be very difficult – many good workers who are trusted and valued in the organization will not remain. We respect and are grateful for their many contributions. They are, and always will be, a part of this company’s legacy of quality – we have long said, once a member of the Anheuser-Busch family, always a member.
In the coming days, your managers and people representatives will be meeting with employees to advise them of their status. We appreciate your utmost professionalism and esteem extended toward each of your colleagues during this period of transition. We also thank you for remaining focused on results and in managing through this uncertain and unfortunate time. The spirit of this company – which comes from its people – has never been more evident than it is now.”
The memo’s last sentence is particularly telling: “The spirit of this company – which comes from its people – has never been more evident than it is now.”
What’s the spirit of this company? Downtrodden? Frustrated? “My-shirt-is-nearer-to-me-than-thou?” Or resilient? Like “when the going gets tough the tough get going”?
Which leaves us wondering: who is responsible for all this?
Just for the record – and to prevent you from pointing fingers at the wrong people – it was the old guard at Anheuser-Busch that initiated the job-cutting scheme earlier this year in an effort to ward off InBev’s takeover.
Perhaps Anheuser-Busch’s new managers would have been better of dropping the memo’s last sentence. The memo would not have rung any less true, but it would have rung less condescending.
In the long and ultimately sad takeover saga of Anheuser-Busch, if there is one thing that InBev’s executive suite has lost, it is its sense of timing. Initially, it was spot on. Now it seems to have gone missing. Why publicise the job cuts before Christmas?
One taboo that should never be broken reads: Don’t announce unpopular measures in the weeks before Christmas when everybody wants to get suzzled on eggnog, overeat on shortbread and snog behind the filing cabinet at office parties.
Unluckily, InBev decided to dispense with conventional wisdom. It announced the job cuts just three weeks after the USD 52 billion deal closed. This may be the way you are supposed to handle things these days. Act quick and decisively. Leaving people dangling and demoralised may just make things worse. Besides, wouldn’t you want to know before you shopped that you will soon be without a job?
Still, timing, sensitivity, the human touch – what we once called “the decent thing to do” – seem to have fallen by the wayside.
Perhaps these values hail from times gone by when takeovers were done differently (unless memory is proving unreliable and nostalgia irrational).
InBev has said repeatedly that the takeover of Anheuser-Busch has facilitated its ascent to number five consumer products company. But, honestly, is that really an achievement being a big consumer products company? What about the spirit of the company? What about the people? What about personalities? Does anybody know the man behind Dash washing powder? Or Pampers nappies? And if there were a Mr Pampers, would you care to know about him?
Beer and brewing have always begged to be different. For as long as many of us can remember, beer and brewing have managed to live off the charisma of its personalities. In the U.S. names like Coors, Busch, Koch, Grossman and Alvarez immediately spring to mind. They have given beer the lores no TV commercial can ever replicate.
No doubt, U.S. consumers will still be drinking beer once the Coors and Busches have fully withdrawn from the limelight. Nevertheless, this begs the question: will they still be passionate about their beer?
Here’s to passion and beer. May they not part their ways.
