Person
1 episodes · 18 quoted claims
Heineken's brands are sold in over 190 countries, with breweries or large sales organizations in about 80 markets, according to Ronald den Elzen.
“Our brands are sold in over 190 countries in the world, and we have large production facilities, breweries or big sales organization in 80 markets in the world.”
Heineken's local brands include Birra Moretti in Italy, Cruzcampo in Spain, Tiger in Southeast Asia and Tecate in Mexico.
“in many markets we have local brands like Birra Moretti in Italy, Cruzcampo in Spain, Tiger in Southeast Asia, Tecate in Mexico.”
Ronald den Elzen says Heineken is still a family-controlled company and that this shapes an entrepreneurial culture across its management.
“Well, we are still a family controlled company, and I think in the DNA of Heineken and all our management across the world, many more people, you can feel that.”
Ronald den Elzen says he has worked at Heineken for about 30 years.
“I've been here now for 30 years. And look, I would jokingly say Heineken is a hundred and sixty-year-old startup.”
Ronald den Elzen graduated in 1995 after trying to predict the stock market with neural networks, and he says he was not very successful.
“once graduated in ninety five, uh, trying to predict the stock market with neural networks. And I was not very successful.”
Heineken uses predictive models for revenue management and for optimizing consumer promotions in grocery stores and business-to-business trade promotions.
“we are doing quite a bit on these more predictive models around, of course, revenue management, optimization of promotions, consumer promotions in grocery stores, business to business trade promotions.”
Ronald den Elzen says machine learning helps Heineken optimize truck movements and truck loading.
“machine learning is a fairly good tool to optimize logistic movements of trucks and even truck loading, truck movements and truckload”
Heineken collects data from machines in its breweries worldwide to predict machine behavior and optimize output.
“We take data out of our machines in every brewery we have across the globe and try to analyze this and predict behavior of machines and of course optimize the output.”
Ronald den Elzen says Heineken's technology, processes and data definitions remain fragmented because of legacy.
“A hundred and sixty-year startup has a lot of legacy. And I think, like many other large companies like Heineken, we are still quite fragmented in our tech landscape, in our process landscape, in our data definitions.”
Ronald den Elzen says Heineken's market general managers have started to understand that they need to invest in data quality.
“I have never seen before that our general managers, our managing directors in markets, start understanding that they need to invest in the quality of data”
Heineken created a program board, a subcommittee of its executive team, to decide the order of digital and AI priorities.
“creating what we call a program board, which is a subcommittee of our executive team where we try to decide because everything is nowadays interdependent.”
Heineken launched an internal 'F it award' to encourage a culture of trying things and accepting failure.
“And actually, uh, we launched something we called an F it award. Sorry to say it like that.”
Ronald den Elzen says the cost of failure has fallen tremendously, allowing smaller and more numerous experiments.
“the cost of failure is coming down tremendously. You can do much smaller experiments and many more at the same time.”
Ronald den Elzen says machine learning engineers, data scientists, software engineers and cybersecurity specialists have become critical roles at Heineken.
“now also machine learning engineers, data scientists, software engineers, and cybersecurity specialists become very important in the company.”
Heineken builds its AI models in-house so that it owns the code and can maintain it more easily over time.
“we said we want to build in house, we want to own the code. If we have coded it ourselves, it's much easier over time to maintain.”
Heineken deploys each AI model with a decomposer component that shows what has happened in the past.
“when we deploy an AI model, we make three pieces of the model. One is we call it decomposer. Basically, that is looking back what has really happened.”
Heineken's simulator component lets users test spending shifts between brands such as Heineken and Dos Equis and retailers such as Walmart and Kroger.
“Then the second piece we make, we call a simulator. So what if I would put more money on Heineken or more money on Dos Equis or less money on Walmart and more money on Kroger?”
Ronald den Elzen says Heineken's purpose is the joy of true togetherness.
“We have a purpose in the company, which is the joy of true togetherness. I really hope I will never talk to AI and drink a beer with AI.”