Anheuser-Busch has something for everyone. There is blue collar Budweiser and sophisticated Stella Artois. There are play-it-again Super Bowl ads and never-again morning reckonings. The undisputed king of sports marketing, Anheuser-Busch has produced pop culture landmarks with rhythmic frogs croaking “Bud-Weis-Er” and stately Clydesdales bonding with devoted Dalmatians.
However, product quality and advertising prowess aren’t why Michael DuTot joined Anheuser-Busch after graduating from Georgetown University’s McDonough School this spring. In business school, he has examined business school through a Jesuit lens. This involved evaluating companies according to their ethics and values, particularly in areas like environmental care, social responsibility, and governance. Here, he says, Anheuser-Busch stands out.
SHIFTING THE DEFINITION OF SUCCESS
Michael DuTot, Georgetown University (McDonough)
“I most admire Anheuser-Busch because of its consistent, transparent, and full-faith efforts to build a better world. For example, during the COVID-19 pandemic, Anheuser-Busch used excess alcohol waste from non-alcoholic beer production to manufacture hand sanitizer. More recently, Anheuser-Busch chose to forgo running Super Bowl ads for Budweiser and, instead, used the money to fund vaccine awareness. These efforts give a glimpse into the culture of AB; a culture of giving back to our communities, protecting our earth, and bringing people together.”
This triple bottom line — people, planet, and profit — is a popular theme when you ask the Class of 2021 about their favorite companies. Forget the divide-and-conquer world of yore, where CEOs measured success by profit margins, customer share, and shareholder satisfaction. Today, business majors admire companies that level barriers and build bridges, bringing more people in and leaving zero sums out. For them, a firm’s product and purpose feed into each other. As a result, the most admired companies are those that adapt processes to foster preservation and use profits to fund social movements. Carving out a lucrative niche is just the start. In business schools, students are looking to join companies that make a difference.
This spring, P&Q profiled 100 Best & Brightest business majors from 49 top programs. These are the types of students who’ll someday be building the most transformative companies on the planet. So which companies serve as the inspirational blueprints for the firms they’ll be leading tomorrow? From Amazon to Yeti, here are the companies that tomorrow’s leaders are watching today.
“I admire Procter & Gamble because they fully invest in their employees and in the community. One of the oldest companies in the Fortune 500, P&G’s 183 years of learning have culminated in their current success and growth of the company. I love that company leaders are able to integrate the company’s rich history with modern innovation to deliver the most value to their stakeholders. P&G utilizes a people-first approach, and there is no deviation from their purpose, values, and principles. From delivering over 17 billion liters of fresh water to communities in need to standing up for equity in the workforce, it is clear that P&G will continue to pave the way of business for decades to come.”
Brennen Feder, University of Arizona (Eller)
“I really admire theSkimm. We are living during a time where we are constantly bombarded with information, and news stories can feel overwhelming. I appreciate their dedication to fact-based reporting that only highlights crucial information in an easy-to-read format. Not to mention, the company was founded by two women!”
Alexandra Pirsos, Elon University (Love)
Zakiyya Ellington, University of Georgia (Terry)
“Gravity Payments. The founder and CEO, Dan Price, is known for having reduced his executive salary to ensure a $70,000 minimum wage for the company’s employees. I think this is a good example of understanding what a true minimum living wage should be and the role the country’s top earners, usually executives, should play in combatting income inequality.”
Zakiyya Ellington, University of Georgia (Terry)
“The company that I admire most is Netflix, a business that we discussed frequently in my OIM class with Professor Nora Junaid. What astonishes me most about Netflix is that the company was able to avoid becoming obsolete, like some of its competitors, and completely reposition its business strategy. Netflix’s original business model was a DVD rental business by mail. While their business grew, they watched companies like YouTube dominate the streaming industry. Netflix was able to quickly follow industry trends and remodel its business into a streaming service company. Afterwards, Netflix enhanced their strategy and started creating content, through its production of Netflix original television shows and movies. I significantly admire the company’s bold, risk-taking abilities. Netflix was incredibly successful as a DVD business, but they took the chance and transformed their business, while keeping most of their customers in the process. Furthermore, I applaud Netflix for its collaborative filtering abilities in order to maximize the consumer experience by monitoring their media preferences. Lastly, I admire any company that upholds its commitment to corporate social responsibility. Amid the COVID-19 pandemic and social justice movements of 2020, Netflix donated over $100 million to both workers in the television/film industry and Black communities. Additionally, CEO Reed Hastings donated $120 million to historically Black colleges and universities.”
Matthew Kassler, University of Massachusetts-Amherst (Isenhart)
Aditya Darshan Gandhi, Carnegie Mellon (Tepper)
“I admire Berkshire Hathaway most because of the company’s long-term value-based investment philosophy that focuses on value creation and capital gain and its compelling, distinctive, and authentic culture and strategy. Berkshire Hathaway’s philosophy of buying stock as an owner, not as a speculator, is commendable since it involves rigorously analyzing the economic prospects of the business, the management in charge of running it, and the acquisition price to be paid without any regard for the time or price for sale of the business to be acquired.
I think highly of how Berkshire Hathaway and its CEO, Warren Buffet, focus on buying companies that make great products, have strong competitive advantages, and can provide an investor with consistent returns over the long-term, rather than being distracted by prices or recent movements of stocks. Since the price of a stock, on any given day, is mostly dictated by the whims of the market, Warren Buffet ignores short-term movements in stock prices and focuses on a company’s operations and underlying value. My investment decisions are motivated by Warren Buffet’s advice to “be fearful when others are greedy and greedy only when others are fearful” and hold onto one’s money when money is cheap and spend aggressively when money is expensive. Moreover, I appreciate Warren Buffet’s thumb rules of investing in companies that pay dividends and reinvest their earnings into growth. This means investing in seemingly commonplace companies that build products consumers require. Even more, his philosophy involves never investing in businesses that are too complex to fully understand or investing because it is considered a bargain or expected to grow.
Furthermore, I hold in high regard that Berkshire Hathaway’s success can be attributed to more than pure economic value like price and performance. By sharing his values, passion, emotion, and identity with Berkshire Hathaway’s shareholders every year through his annual letter to shareholders, Warren Buffet has established and maintained an emotional and psychological contract with Berkshire Hathaway’s customers and shareholders. In addition to Berkshire Hathaway’s stellar and consistent track record of outperformance (compounded annual gain of ~20.3% versus the S&P 500’s ~10.0% from 1965-2019) and success, I respect that even in a world of constant change and fast-moving markets, the company doesn’t change its strategies and practices in response to external forces. Particularly, I value how Berkshire Hathaway is confident about the ideas in which it believes, the culture it has created, its connections with customers, and its willingness to stick to its strategies even as the world around them is in turmoil.”
Aditya Darshan Gandhi, Carnegie Mellon (Tepper)
“I really admire theSkimm. We are living during a time where we are constantly bombarded with information, and news stories can feel overwhelming. I appreciate their dedication to fact-based reporting that only highlights crucial information in an easy-to-read format. Not to mention, the company was founded by two women!”
Alexandra Pirsos, Elon University (Love)
Andrew Fedun, Lehigh University
“I admire NextEra Energy for its long history in America’s electric grid development as well as its efforts to accelerate the crucial transition towards clean energy. Since the company’s inception in 1925, NextEra Energy has contributed to iconic advancements in the applications of electric power. For example, NextEra supported NASA’s Apollo 11 mission in 1969 by constructing the Cape Canaveral Plant, helping to put the first astronauts on the moon. Fast forward to the present, and NextEra is now the largest producer of renewable energy in the country and their annual stock performance has outpaced the broader utilities sector for each of the past six years. They exemplify how environmental progress and financial success can work together in tandem. I admire the optimism and forward-thinking that NextEra Energy represents.”
Andrew Fedun, Lehigh University
“A true integrator, Southwest Airlines consistently combines cost leadership and product quality in a way few international firms have ever managed. Particularly, I admire their commitment to their employees and the communities they serve, and I would argue that Southwest maintains one of the greatest operations worldwide. Southwest demonstrates the importance that customer and employee well-being means to the creation of a successful product, and they leverage it beautifully. It provides the most efficient, cost-effective, and enjoyable experience within the industry, driving itself forward not with a bottom-line focus but with a strong corporate culture that bleeds through into their passengers as well. Their numerous industry innovations (fuel hedging, thirty-minute turnarounds, and fleet management) continuously prove the advantages of challenging industry standards and seizing opportunity and competitive advantage wherever possible. Sure, they take risks, but they are also the only airline expanding their route base amidst the ongoing pandemic.”
Tyler Ancona, Notre Dame (Mendoza)
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