Speaker 1: You're listening to Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Messer and
Speaker 1: Bloomberg Quick Takes Tim Stinovic on Bloomberg Radio. A b
Speaker 1: NBEV thinks a lot about E s G. Relies on
Speaker 1: natural resources, as you know, in a big way. No water,
Speaker 1: no beer. Basically it comes down to and that easily
Speaker 1: makes the business case for doing what they do. It's
Speaker 1: incredibly clear. The company has set out a series of
Speaker 1: sustainability goals for They've got a pricing mechanism that incentivizes
Speaker 1: improvement in four key areas. And part of that E
Speaker 1: s G mission is also smart drinking, which is something
Speaker 1: we're gonna talk about. John Blood is chief Legal incorporate
Speaker 1: Affairs Officer at a b n BEV. He's with us
Speaker 1: right now in the Bloomberg Interactive Broker Studio. John, I
Speaker 1: want to get to everything that that Carol just mentioned.
Speaker 1: But given the volatility that we've seen in the markets,
Speaker 1: given the macroeconomic headwinds that we're seeing here in the
Speaker 1: US around the world, rising commodity prices, I'm just wondering
Speaker 1: how somebody in your position as chief legal in corporate
Speaker 1: Affairs officers officer looks out over the landscape and thinks
Speaker 1: about the health of the U S consumer, of the
Speaker 1: global consumer. Everybody just relaxed thing, right, everyone just relaxing.
Speaker 1: Just relax and open a beer, you know, Tim, Look,
Speaker 1: I fill up my gas tank like everyone else, So
Speaker 1: you know, I feel it and I feel for consumers
Speaker 1: as well. And one of the great things about the
Speaker 1: beer category is it's an affordable luxury. You can go
Speaker 1: out this weekend, you can have a stellar artois, right,
Speaker 1: you can go in, you can enjoy yourself. The price
Speaker 1: point is right there. We have a portfolio approach at
Speaker 1: all different price points, so it's really a great luxury
Speaker 1: that you can have in these types of times. I mean,
Speaker 1: one of the thing that I'm so floored with talking
Speaker 1: to you and your senior um executive space is that
Speaker 1: you guys have to understand your supply chaine so well, right,
Speaker 1: because it just if things don't go well, uh, it
Speaker 1: just all breaks down. And you also understand the impact
Speaker 1: of climate change on that supply chain in big way,
Speaker 1: which is why your sustainability initiatives are really impressive and
Speaker 1: you've had them in place for a long time. Having
Speaker 1: said that, how would you describe your supply chains today? Yeah.
Speaker 1: For us. If you think about beer, right, for us
Speaker 1: to take the United States for an example of what
Speaker 1: we sell in the US is brewed here. We're talking
Speaker 1: US farmers. We're talking folks in the US making it,
Speaker 1: distributing it, brewing it, getting it there. So that's but
Speaker 1: that doesn't mean we're not immune to the world, right,
Speaker 1: And that doesn't mean that we also look out and
Speaker 1: say what can we do to plan, what can we
Speaker 1: do to get ahead of things? What tools do we
Speaker 1: have in our toolkit? And because we're a global business,
Speaker 1: we have a business in China, we have a business
Speaker 1: in South America, we have a business in Europe. Talking
Speaker 1: to those folks about what's on the ground is important
Speaker 1: for us as well. I want to hear about what
Speaker 1: you're hearing from the farmers on the ground here in
Speaker 1: the US, because it's been a tough run for farmers
Speaker 1: with fertilizer prices going up, with severe weather in many
Speaker 1: parts of the country shortening this season. What are you
Speaker 1: hearing from barley farmers, from hops farmers, Yes, so for
Speaker 1: barley and hops there. This is something that we try
Speaker 1: to plan out as best as we can. And particularly
Speaker 1: when you take a look at something like organic right.
Speaker 1: One of the beers that we have is an organic
Speaker 1: brew right called organic Pure Gold, which is a michelob
Speaker 1: Ultra product. And to get someone right to the farmer
Speaker 1: to come in and say, hey, we want you to
Speaker 1: plan organic barley a right, that's gonna take some time. Right,
Speaker 1: we have to work with them. We have to give
Speaker 1: them those long term contracts. And we really see ourselves
Speaker 1: in the industry and you need to look at yourself
Speaker 1: as part of the whole chain. So we feel for
Speaker 1: those farmers. We try to give them those contracts to
Speaker 1: give them the stability going forward to say, particularly the
Speaker 1: organic side, we're gonna work with you in the long
Speaker 1: term so you can transition to that. John, I feel
Speaker 1: like this is so into some of the conversations we're
Speaker 1: just talked with Peter Farcy uh, the CEO of sun Power,
Speaker 1: and just talking about you know, certainly when it comes
Speaker 1: to trade tensions between the U S and China that
Speaker 1: impacts certainly the solar industry UM, but I also think
Speaker 1: about that, you know, what is the responsibility when it
Speaker 1: comes to our global supply chains. You guys have just
Speaker 1: taken the initiatives a lot on your own right to
Speaker 1: make sure you ensure the stability and purity of those
Speaker 1: supply chains. What is though, the government role, especially when
Speaker 1: it comes to things like and I know this isn't
Speaker 1: your wheelhouse, but whether it's semi conductors or water or
Speaker 1: or what have you, because some of this becomes like
Speaker 1: national security issues, and I do wonder is your responsibility.
Speaker 1: You know, I'm sure you're dealing with folks in Washington
Speaker 1: from time to time, so I do under the conversations
Speaker 1: that are coming out or that need to be have,
Speaker 1: that we need to be having when it comes to
Speaker 1: our national supply chains, just coming off of the pandemic. Yeah, well,
Speaker 1: I love this question because it really hits home that
Speaker 1: if you think, as a business executive, you're going to
Speaker 1: solve any of this by yourself, and you're gonna sit
Speaker 1: in your room and you're gonna get a power point open,
Speaker 1: you're gonna plan something out, you're mistaken. You need to
Speaker 1: work with partnerships. You need to work with your stakeholders.
Speaker 1: And the first thing to understand is who are your stakeholders.
Speaker 1: So your stakeholders are national governments, your stakeholders are farmers,
Speaker 1: Your stakeholders are these consumers. But your stakeholders are the
Speaker 1: communities as well where you're looking for these supplies to
Speaker 1: come out of. So if in fact, you're working with
Speaker 1: folks who farm in another country, what are you doing
Speaker 1: with them to make sure that they're planning? How can
Speaker 1: you give them something as simple as maybe financial literacy.
Speaker 1: We have a program where we work with a lot
Speaker 1: of our farmers to say, we want to help you
Speaker 1: become better farmers. But more importantly, we're not going to
Speaker 1: teach you that you're going to learn from other farmers
Speaker 1: in other countries. You're gonna learn from other our farmers
Speaker 1: down the street, and we'll put that together so you
Speaker 1: can understand when the weather changes about what's the best technique.
Speaker 1: You can share that because at the end of the day,
Speaker 1: that community is something that can learn from each other,
Speaker 1: and we can be a vehicle to that. It sounds
Speaker 1: like to that you're not going to necessarily wait for
Speaker 1: government to do all the things. Right. I don't think
Speaker 1: you can, right. I think you need to partner, but
Speaker 1: I don't think you can wait. And by the way,
Speaker 1: you know, waiting for me right, Sometimes right, you wait
Speaker 1: and you sort of look at something. But when it
Speaker 1: comes to things like supply chain activity, right planning, but
Speaker 1: more importantly, talking right, talking to people, reaching out to
Speaker 1: those stakeholders is key. All right, I know you came
Speaker 1: in to talk about smart drinking, and we're gonna get
Speaker 1: to that. We're gonna do a little break, do some news,
Speaker 1: and then we're gonna come back. We with have a
Speaker 1: nice chunk of time because this fits into your e
Speaker 1: s G. The corporate speaking, corporate thinking really over at
Speaker 1: A b in BEP. So we're gonna come back with
Speaker 1: John Blood, he's chief Legal and Corporate Affairs officer at
Speaker 1: A b in BED. I want to get right back
Speaker 1: to our guest because here in our Interactive Brokers studio
Speaker 1: is John Blood still with US chief Legal and Corporate
Speaker 1: Affairs officered A b in BEV. And we were talking
Speaker 1: about kind of the industry and what you're seeing in
Speaker 1: terms of supply chains. But one thing we wanted to
Speaker 1: get to because you are a company that has really
Speaker 1: laid out sustainability goals. We talk a lot about e
Speaker 1: s G getting a reckoning and people wanting transparency as
Speaker 1: part of e s G. Though you guys think about
Speaker 1: safe drinking, talk to us are smart drinking? Talk to
Speaker 1: us about that and how it fits in because, right,
Speaker 1: we're living in a world where there are multiple stakeholders
Speaker 1: and then includes our consumer. Yeah, thanks Karen. When I
Speaker 1: think about smart drinking, right, when I think about what
Speaker 1: we do with our product, right, I think about my family. Right,
Speaker 1: my kids ride their bikes on the street. Right. I
Speaker 1: want to make sure that we have the best programs
Speaker 1: for anti drunk driving, right, I want to make sure
Speaker 1: that we have the best programs for people to remind
Speaker 1: them about smart drinking. Really, what we call social norms marketing.
Speaker 1: This is something where you're not just in the old
Speaker 1: days of like, hey, we're going to raise awareness, right,
Speaker 1: that's ten twenty years ago. This is evidence based programs
Speaker 1: that give people actionable advice. Now it's simple action, a
Speaker 1: little advice. It'll be things like hydrate between drinks, have
Speaker 1: a non alcohol beer with the beer, eat before and
Speaker 1: while you drink. Simple things like don't drink if you're pregnant,
Speaker 1: plan to have a ride home. Those are the social
Speaker 1: norms advertising that's away from drink responsibly. Drink responsibly. We
Speaker 1: do want people to drink responsibly, but we need more
Speaker 1: than that today. You need to be more action orient
Speaker 1: what prompted that change because drink responsibly is something that
Speaker 1: I remember going back, you know, decades at this point
Speaker 1: when it comes to marketing. What changed this to actionable advice?
Speaker 1: What was that pivotal point? Two things to him. One
Speaker 1: is the science, right, when we work with academics, they
Speaker 1: tell us this actionable advice, this social norm advice can
Speaker 1: make a difference. And the second is about five years ago, right,
Speaker 1: we were looking at our programs and we said, we
Speaker 1: have all these smart drinking programs around the world, and
Speaker 1: we think they were We've been doing them for years.
Speaker 1: And then we asked ourselves, does anyone have any data
Speaker 1: if they work or not? Have we has anyone tested this?
Speaker 1: And how do you test it? And that's where the
Speaker 1: process started. We wanted to test it. We wanted to
Speaker 1: make it evidence based, and by the way, we share
Speaker 1: the evidence with all those who want to look. We
Speaker 1: have a foundation that does it. We work at the
Speaker 1: academics whoever wants to look and look at it. We
Speaker 1: test the programs and go with the ones that have
Speaker 1: the biggest and best impact. What's the biggest piece of advice,
Speaker 1: you know, for our kids. The guy grew up in
Speaker 1: a family where older parents. I don't know, like different era,
Speaker 1: Like there was alcohol in the house and I had
Speaker 1: my first drink with my parents, you know, at a
Speaker 1: relatively young age, for better for worse. But I and
Speaker 1: I and I am responsible about drinking today. But like,
Speaker 1: what is how do we approach this with kids? Yeah,
Speaker 1: and this is a fascinating question because if you take
Speaker 1: a look at the US and you take a look
Speaker 1: at the rest of the world, right, there are cultural norms. Right,
Speaker 1: there are laws as well. Of course we tell kids
Speaker 1: do not drink. Right when the law says, whatever it is,
Speaker 1: that's the law, you need to enforce it. However, right
Speaker 1: when we deal with alcohol, right, when we deal with
Speaker 1: what we call these social norms, it's so important right
Speaker 1: that when we deal with it, we remember that alcohol
Speaker 1: is often part of the special and beer in particular
Speaker 1: is part of those meaningful moments in life when someone says,
Speaker 1: let's grab a beer. Right there in part talking about
Speaker 1: the beer, but they're talking about the social connection. Oftentimes,
Speaker 1: when someone says let's grab a beer, they want to
Speaker 1: have a meaningful interaction with you, right, They want to
Speaker 1: have a real conversation, They want to be together and
Speaker 1: sort of balancing that in the right way is what
Speaker 1: you really need to talk to everyone about. Right, you
Speaker 1: need to talk to them about this is how you
Speaker 1: respect the product. This is how you enjoy the product
Speaker 1: by treating it the right way. And that's what smart
Speaker 1: drinking is all about, reminding people. It's like nudging them right.
Speaker 1: Social norms also is about some people might think, Oh,
Speaker 1: on Thursday night, my friends go out and they drink
Speaker 1: six or seven beers. You know what, when you look
Speaker 1: at the data, it's not the case, right there, drinking
Speaker 1: one or two. When you remind people of that, you
Speaker 1: can then nudge and change the social norms so people
Speaker 1: behave differently. And that's what social norms is all about.
Speaker 1: What about when it comes to drunk driving? Right now,
Speaker 1: because annhezer Bush has decided to ride campaign has partnered
Speaker 1: with Uber, and I think back to just my own
Speaker 1: experience in my twenties, and I lived in the mountains
Speaker 1: and there was no Uber, there was no lift. There
Speaker 1: was a huge problem where I lived when it came
Speaker 1: to drunk driving. Uh, there was this terrible joke that
Speaker 1: you know, to be a local and veil you needed
Speaker 1: to have a c L surgery and a D u I,
Speaker 1: because then you really lived there. And I wonder how
Speaker 1: much Uber and lift and ride hilling has changed this
Speaker 1: because it is so easy to find a ride. You know,
Speaker 1: it is all about sort of embracing the moment. Right.
Speaker 1: When technology gives you something that allows you to nudge
Speaker 1: society towards a healthier pattern, towards a social norm that's positive,
Speaker 1: you need to embrace it. And that's why we're so
Speaker 1: happy with Uber and Mothersn' getting drunk driving right as
Speaker 1: part of that program of decide to ride, right, saying
Speaker 1: to folks, you know what, there is a solution, and
Speaker 1: it's very important to remember to him as well. When
Speaker 1: we talk about decide to ride, it's not just oh hey,
Speaker 1: you get a free ride home or you get a
Speaker 1: discount ride home. It's about the mindset of I'm gonna plan,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna plan to ride. And I love your generational
Speaker 1: approach here because if you talk to the three year olds, right,
Speaker 1: it's almost instinctual now like, well, no, I'm gonna use
Speaker 1: uber the why would I take the rid? Why would
Speaker 1: I do this? And it's a different mindset because I'm
Speaker 1: a little older than you, Tim, but I remember that
Speaker 1: attitude even worse. And what social norms about is nudging
Speaker 1: is changing the way people behave in act and that
Speaker 1: mindset is super powerful and that's why you see drunk
Speaker 1: driving numbers over the last ten years coming down. You know,
Speaker 1: it's interesting, what do you okay, I'm just this is
Speaker 1: very random. But like cars making, you know, you can't
Speaker 1: start the car that you have to blow into like
Speaker 1: a car, do you think that's a good thing? You know,
Speaker 1: we a part of this process technology. Think about how
Speaker 1: transformative it can be, but think about how that could
Speaker 1: take it to another level. You can't start a car
Speaker 1: if you blow a certain alcohol level. Like, how do
Speaker 1: you guys feel about something like that? So when you
Speaker 1: see about the powers of technology right now, we've seen
Speaker 1: some research on everything from when you touch a steering wheel,
Speaker 1: it will be able to measure your blood alcohol level
Speaker 1: through your skin to sensors in the car. Look, one
Speaker 1: thing that we had a B ANDB of love right
Speaker 1: is embracing technology to solve problems. And man, if we
Speaker 1: get if we get the right technology to solve it
Speaker 1: and we measure everything about there. We talk about all
Speaker 1: the different elements of privacy rights and all those types
Speaker 1: of things but that's an exciting and exciting time when
Speaker 1: technology can really make a jump leap. Wow, that's very exciting.
Speaker 1: I am like blown away. It's really interesting and I'm
Speaker 1: I'm optimistic in a world that's very dark that you say,
Speaker 1: like things are getting better when it comes to like
Speaker 1: drunk driving. Right, we're seeing statistics some of the work
Speaker 1: that you guys are doing. It's making a difference just
Speaker 1: at about thirty seconds, yeah, you know exactly, and also
Speaker 1: around the world as well, right, So you know you
Speaker 1: have the US issues, right, but you know, being able
Speaker 1: to go to a country and run the first anti
Speaker 1: drunk driving campaign to have a brand embrace that is
Speaker 1: really for me the exciting part of being about a
Speaker 1: global company, and it's amazing that it's the first in
Speaker 1: some countries, right considering it's certainly been a chronic problem
Speaker 1: for a while. So I think this is an important issue.
Speaker 1: We have so many important issues that are really dominating
Speaker 1: our world right now. I mean, we talk a lot
Speaker 1: about opioids, we talk about guns, but let's not forget
Speaker 1: that the amount of people who lose their lives right
Speaker 1: still because it's something like drunk drivers. Um, John Blood,
Speaker 1: thank you for stopping by. We really appreciate it. Next
Speaker 1: time we're going to do an n A segment's chief
Speaker 1: Legal Incorporate Affairs officer at a b NBAD fourteen Stanific.
Speaker 1: I'm Carol Masster. Have a good and safe evening. This
Speaker 1: is Bloomberg