What Happens When the Bean Counters Step In?
/Stan replied to my previous post, and you can read his entire comment at that entry -- but I want to highlight something he wrote:
I worry, since they've been a great supporter of the Halltertau hops region, about what happens to the hops growers there when the bean counters step in.
He's referring here to Anheuser-Busch InBev, which is now in the hands of bean counters par excellence. Stan's right to worry, as are those hops growers. Indeed, one of my fears during the Great Takeover was that A-B will go the way of other great breweries that have been destroyed by bean counters -- the classic example being, of course, the spectacular collapse of Schlitz Brewing in the 1970s.
I console myself with this thought: People at A-B have read and studied my book (that's not intended to be boastful; it's fact), and so they know about what happened at Schlitz. Maybe they can persuade Brito to read that section of that chapter. (*1) Time will tell
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*1: A used copy of the book, of course, because he'd never agree to, ya know, buying a new copy. Although the library at ABI is still intact and it contains several copies. So the guy has no excuse.