Malcolm Gladwell

So you have essentially a city.

Pretty much.

And if you look at that universe of 85,000, is there anyone in that universe who is not touched by what you're doing?

Presumably that's one of the things that the people you're working with at IBM can tell you.

They can give you a sense of how quickly others have adopted

some of these technologies.

Just a pragmatic approach to sort of... I'm curious about Heineken's specific question, which is, so here you have a...

legacy brewer based in the Netherlands, 160 years old.

If I were to say, I want you to take an entirely new job, I want you to do what you're doing, but I want you to do it for an American company in a completely different industry that's 30 years old, maybe a company that makes vacuum cleaners.

30 years old in America.

How much of what you're doing, I guess what I'm trying to say is, are there things that are particular to Heineken that have made your job sort of challenging or interesting or that just wouldn't be an issue in another environment?

So it's a good question.

I will politely reject the offer, but I'll tell you why I'll reject it.

You're going to be in Nebraska.

They're making just one kind of vacuum cleaner.

Well, I went to school in Iowa.

Yeah.

This is one of the oldest and most successful commercial cultures in the world.

a tiny country that's been astonishingly successful.

I'm curious about innovating in that kind of environment.