The Big Question: Learning multiple languages shows you ‘care’, says Nestlé Chairman
The chairman of Nestlé, Paul Bulcke tells The Big Question’s James Thomas “To be part of or to really enjoy being in a country, there is no better way than speaking in the local language.”
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00:00 I'd rather be somebody who inspires than a boss.
00:02 The most difficult language is second one.
00:04 This is not a dash, this is a long distance run.
00:08 Welcome to The Big Question, the series from Euronews where we take a look at the world of
00:18 business, asking the industry's biggest yet simple questions. In this episode, we're joined
00:23 by Paul Bulcker, the chairman of Nestlé, to discuss if speaking multiple languages is an
00:28 important skill for international business. Paul, thank you so much for joining us. It's a pleasure
00:32 to have you. So let's dive straight in. How many languages do you speak?
00:37 Six, if I take Flemish and Dutch as one. French, English, Spanish, Portuguese and German.
00:44 That is impressive because I like to say, you know, I speak three, so I'm like doing pretty
00:50 well for myself, but you've just blown me out of the water there.
00:52 Well, it's not my intention, but look, six languages. First of all, I'm coming from,
00:58 originally from Belgium and there you start definitely with two minimum. And then through
01:04 all the countries I've been having the privilege of living, you take up the language and that's
01:10 how it came. They do say once you have one language, it's easier to learn the other.
01:13 Exactly. The most difficult language is second one. And not only for the knowledge of the language,
01:19 it's also the guts to speak it. And actually a certain healthy arrogance of speaking languages
01:25 comes after the second one, because they say, I've done that already one,
01:29 so the third one is going to work too. And it comes naturally.
01:32 So Nestlé is a global giant. How many countries do you operate in?
01:42 Well, I must say we have products in almost all countries and we have, let's say,
01:48 organization or people and give and take hundred, 50, 160 countries. We have factories in 90, 85
01:58 countries. We are a local, we call it, it's a global company. Yes, but so local. We are very
02:06 decentralized and that allows then also to be part of the country. And I think that's the strength.
02:13 We operate in all these countries because local employees for local consumers adapting the
02:20 flavors towards the local dimension. That's why we operate in so many countries.
02:26 So cast your mind back all the way to the beginning of your time at this company.
02:30 What was your first job at Nestlé and why was that appealing to you?
02:33 Well, first of all, you have to see how did I come in? And actually, my wife and I,
02:38 we know each other when we were very, very, very young coming from the same city. We want to go
02:42 abroad. And I had a friend who worked for the company, Nestlé, and talking about how international
02:49 and what Nestlé was doing and where. And we wanted to have a certain interest for Latin America. So
02:55 and as a result, I called Nestlé and I said, look, I have only a little bit of experience,
03:01 but my wife and I, we are very motivated to go somewhere else. The first interview came over
03:07 here and then, yeah, they sent me to Peru. And that's where it started. Actually, a few months
03:16 being in Europe to learn first what Nestlé is because I was not working for Nestlé at the time
03:21 and to learn also Spanish and then to Peru. And we landed there, my wife and I, together with
03:29 a daughter and a son of six weeks old landing. And that's where it started. And it was a journey
03:37 that has been very enriching ever since and never, never boring. We started Peru and then we went to
03:46 Ecuador. Then we went to Chile altogether, all 17 years and then came over back to Europe and
03:54 Portugal, then the Czech Republic, then Germany and then Switzerland. And now, yeah, 20 years
04:03 in Switzerland. You've worked in Nestlé since 1979. That's over 40 years. You've worked all
04:15 over the world in a variety of roles during this time. Do you think you'd have had such a long and
04:20 varied career had you only spoken one language? No, definitely not. I think the best if you go on
04:26 a journey like I did together with my wife from the onset and to be part of or to really enjoy
04:34 being in a country, there is no better way of speaking a local language. And it's the bridge
04:40 towards connecting well. So since then, you've been responsible for markets in Portugal, Chile,
04:46 Czech Republic, Germany, North America, Latin America. How has your language knowledge helped
04:51 you in each of these roles? If you go to a country in Latin America and speak, you speak Spanish,
04:57 people feel he's part of us. It helps also to understand, to feel much better the informalities,
05:08 the idiosyncrasies. So it makes actually that you work and what you can do and move is even
05:15 more relevant with the right feeling. And I think that's what languages do. It's not only
05:24 able to express yourself. It's much more understanding the feelings and emotions
05:31 much better. And I think it's very important. Also, when you work for a company like Nestle,
05:36 this is linked with consumers. And it is not only linked with language, it's also linked with
05:42 the local habits. So it opens all doors and makes you feel part of it. It creates acceptance
05:49 and it makes you so much more effective. Has it made you more effective at managing your staff,
05:55 for example? Oh, sure. When I lived in the countries. But that's also the company. You see,
06:02 we are, as I mentioned, very local. And so management, leadership, motivation is local.
06:11 Because also consumers, we live from consumers. So you better understand the feelings and the
06:17 expectations of the consumers. I must say on language, I was also in the Czech Republic,
06:22 only two years. And I tried to learn and I could say a few common things like good morning and all
06:31 that at the time. I had to go straight away there and the language is quite different.
06:36 But then I must say all what I said about having languages, I felt not having it.
06:40 You see, I got to reverse to speaking to a sales force, a group of people who normally
06:47 are motivating speech with a translator is totally different than just having the same language.
06:56 And you can talk and motivate and rally the people with a true translator, totally different. So you
07:03 really feel far away. Do you think it's more advantageous to learn maybe a very widely spoken
07:11 language like English or even, you know, French or Spanish, which lots of people speak, but maybe
07:17 it's more competitive because lots of people speak it? Or do you think it's better to maybe
07:20 try and learn a more niche language, which might make you more valuable, but maybe you'll have
07:25 fewer opportunities to use it? Well, it depends on what you want to do. If you want to go
07:30 internationally and with this exposure of different countries and all that you have,
07:35 it's quite handsome and useful to speak English because that's where you have the most
07:41 possibilities of connecting. If you are going to a country to stay, well, then not a bad thing to
07:48 learn the language, whatever big or small. Actually, the language I always wanted to speak
07:55 was Italian because of the noise, the aesthetics, the physics, the sound. And I learned Latin at
08:04 school. So you've been halfway there already. No, no, no, no, no. But I never was there to live.
08:12 But I'm sure after two or three months, we're gone flies, you see, because again, one language
08:19 helps the other language, you see, small or big languages. It's what do you want to do with it?
08:24 So I do feel where you're engaging and then you have interest to learn that language.
08:29 So I guess a big question here is we need to think about Europe as this dense,
08:35 varied linguistic landscape. So for someone wanting to work across the continent in business,
08:42 how important do you think it is for them to speak more than one language?
08:46 It's very important. You can say, well, I do it in English all and you're going to go along with
08:52 that. It's going to work. No, I, as I said before, if you if you have somebody who, who actually the
09:00 interest of learning is already breaching a lot with the local people, because you say, I do care.
09:06 I do an effort to be part of your country or your culture. Because is there another,
09:14 is there another expression of culturally what people are or regions or than the language?
09:21 And it matters. It helps. You can always get along with English, maybe in Europe. I think so.
09:28 But it is so much more of engaging, trying to speak the language or speaking the language
09:36 after a while. So it's like, yeah, in my eyes, a very clear thing.
09:48 So thinking back through your whole career, are there any other advantages you've gained,
09:52 you'd say, from speaking more than one language?
09:54 Speaking several languages helps you to really feel at home very fast when we travel. And you
10:02 hear and you connect so much easier. So social context in general, not only go into a country
10:06 and live there, but in general, that helps to to yet to connect and so much easier. And the kids,
10:14 the richness is also that you have your children and their children. They do speak by the nature of
10:21 the family, several languages from the onset. And there is no better way of learning languages when
10:27 you're very young. I mean, you're like a sponge and you see it. And so that's also a little bit
10:33 of a collateral benefit that because of our languages, the family, it has it has translated
10:40 into the whole family. And you have had a very long career at Nestle. So what is the secret to
10:52 a long and happy career? Enjoying it. Seeing it as a journey, loving what you do. So that actually
11:00 career is not really hard work. It is just part of your life and and that passion for you, for what
11:07 you do in a company that you can identify with, for the values and that you feel, hey, you feel
11:15 naturally good in there. And that combined then with your private life, in my case, having moved
11:20 to all these countries and kids and et cetera, and finding the right balance. In my case, also my
11:26 spouse and my wife, she was partner in crime, if you want to make this possible. We work quite hard,
11:34 but but but it's not work. It's part of a journey, part of your life, motivated, fulfilling. So
11:42 love what you do, like what you do. If you don't like what you do,
11:46 try to find ways of liking it or try to find something that you like.
11:52 Before you became chairman, you were CEO at Nestle. So do you have a particular
12:03 management philosophy or how did you try and be a good boss?
12:06 Good boss. What is boss? What is leadership? I'd rather be somebody who inspires than a boss. I
12:12 mean, to start with, when the rubber hits the road, somebody who leads then and say,
12:16 yeah, that's what we're going to do. We have to make decisions and all. And then also, I think
12:21 I've always said, never work for your boss. That sounds very strange, but work for the people
12:29 working for you, work with your colleagues. And we hope we can give you a boss that understands
12:35 that dynamics and knows to value you. Because if you work for your boss, you condition actually
12:41 yourself too much to one person. And actually, you have only one boss. It's your company,
12:46 the health and well-being and success of your company. And so and knowing that as a boss
12:52 helps you to be different as a boss. So I think that's the right way to see it.
12:58 So this brings me nicely to my final question. So you started as a marketing trainee at Nestlé
13:03 and then you climbed all the way up. So what advice would you give to other people starting
13:09 from the bottom and climbing up to the senior rank? First, know that this is not a dash. This
13:15 is a long distance run. And don't condition your professional happiness with the end station.
13:20 I want to be the CEO. There's only one. Condition your happiness with the journey.
13:28 Enjoy the journey and then see, love what you do, do it well. And but don't be anxious
13:35 always of the next step. Enjoy the now. Absolutely. It's been a pleasure.
13:39 Paul Volcker, Chairman at Nestlé. Thank you so much for joining us.
13:42 Thank you.
13:48 [BLANK_AUDIO]