Transformation of Groupo Bimbo

1. Transformation of Groupo Bimbo Don Roberto Servitje, CEO From a local Mexican startup bakery in 1945 to the largest baking company in the world doing over $10.7 billion in 2011

2. Economic and Social Responsibility • “Social Transformation begins with how the company looks at people.” • “It is all about the people!” • Respect the employees, customers, suppliers and competition as people • Increase efficiency so you can pay employees better. • Only charge what you have to; don’t gouge the customers. • Eliminate bureaucracy to increase productivity • Goals-Highly Productive but fully Human • Everyone asked to work hard and be productive • Dreams of potential for all employees • Strong family values with trust, respect and goodness • “A company will be what its people are and the people will be what its managers are. • Managers are role models, so recruitment and selection of appropriate managers is fundamentally necessary.

3. Proud and Enthusiastic Participants • Training and dedication and desire to learn • Stories from employees • A wife of a 40-year employee asked Don Roberto for a brand new vanilla colored driver uniform because her husband wanted to be buried in it. • Another 40-year employee asked to meet Don Roberto upon retirement to tell him thank you. He was hired as a sweeper with only a 6th grade education, taught how to bake, then supervise. He thanked him because he has five grown children, all with professional degrees, the same wife, many lifelong friends, and $300,000 in company shares. • Mandatory Retirement age used to be 60-was not evolving with the growth of life expectancy, so in 1985, he worked with the unions to raise it to 67 plus. This allowed workers better economic stability later in life. • One time they had an excess of 1,000 employees due to the economy. He utilized the excess to launch an entire new line of sweet pastries they previously did not have the capacity to launch. They did not lay off anyone. • 65 years as a company and they have never had a strike. • During tequila era, had an excess of 5,000 employees and he sent them abroad in teams to learn the newest technologies. He did not lay anyone off.

4. Mexico’s Culture to United States • Introduction of Bimbo philosophy to US companies purchased • Invited top 60 executives with their wives to a three day and night retreat in Mexico • Wives were included in all meetings, meals, and receptions • Ate great food, drank, played music, danced, laughed • “One wife came up to me after the retreat and thanked me. She said her husband has worked in the industry for 25 years and she never knew what he did, was never part of his work life and did not get to experience it with him before.” • “What do Mexican Companies bring to US Companies?” Question asked by a Harvard Business student. • “We don’t bring new technology, science, marketing, or production ideas, we bring concepts of human values.” • We bring tough love-rules that have to be respected, goals that have to be met, but we love and respect our people as family.

5. Social Climate • Companies influence Social Climates • Companies are the models for the communities in which we live; family, schools, and churches • “The question isn’t, How can you afford to be socially responsible as a company and be profitable? The question is, How can you be profitable if you are not socially responsible?” • Don Roberto Servijte, CEO