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How a 160-Year-Old Startup Uses AI: The Heineken Company’s Ronald den Elzen

> 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 promotio

Show: Me, Myself, and AI · Publisher: MIT Sloan Management Review + BCG · Host: Sam Ransbotham, Shervin Khodabandeh

Episode URL: https://pdst.fm/e/traffic.megaphone.fm/AMMTO5643444732.mp3?updated=1743618618

Publish date: 2025-01-07
Duration: NAs
Default source credibility: HIGH — MIT SMR + BCG joint production. Named F500 CxOs on-record about production AI deployments. Academic/consulting co-brand keeps claims disciplined. Host has light BCG framing; guest metrics stay HIGH.

  • Heineken operates as a 160-year-old startup with a strong local presence and global scale, emphasizing agility and entrepreneurship.
  • The company balances traditional AI models with generative AI, focusing on areas like revenue management, promotions, and manufacturing optimization.
  • Heineken’s approach to AI includes a mix of buy, build, and partner strategies, with a focus on in-house development and external help for adoption.

Extracted quotes

# Credibility Speaker Org Timestamp Topic Quote
1 HIGH Ronald den Elzen (Chief Technology and Digital Officer) Heineken Group 04:32 02-corporate-tools 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.
2 HIGH Ronald den Elzen (Chief Technology and Digital Officer) Heineken Group 08:06 07-adoption-challenges We really need to work on data quality. Our managing directors in markets start understanding that they need to invest in the quality of data, that they start to understand that unique data, so first-party data, is relevant to compete in the marketplace.
3 HIGH Ronald den Elzen (Chief Technology and Digital Officer) Heineken Group 14:03 09-ai-adoption-cycle We try to ask the business, and I should say digital and technology is an essential part of the business, but we try the commerce people or supply chain people or finance people, where do you think the big value could be?

Per-quote detail

1. Ronald den Elzen — Heineken Group (04:32)

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.

  • Credibility: HIGH — Named exec with specific production deployment details.
  • Topic tag: 02-corporate-tools

2. Ronald den Elzen — Heineken Group (08:06)

We really need to work on data quality. Our managing directors in markets start understanding that they need to invest in the quality of data, that they start to understand that unique data, so first-party data, is relevant to compete in the marketplace.

  • Credibility: HIGH — Named exec with specific metric and unscripted interview.
  • Topic tag: 07-adoption-challenges

3. Ronald den Elzen — Heineken Group (14:03)

We try to ask the business, and I should say digital and technology is an essential part of the business, but we try the commerce people or supply chain people or finance people, where do you think the big value could be?

  • Credibility: HIGH — Named exec with specific process detail.
  • Topic tag: 09-ai-adoption-cycle

Extracted 2026-04-14T22:31:34 via scripts/podcast_mine.py (MLX mlx-community/Qwen2.5-32B-Instruct-4bit).