I know people who worked for various 3G companies, and given that I was in CPG for so long, I've got contacts in the senior management group at Heinz, and at Burger King. 3G would send in consultants to speak with employees. It would essentially run like this: You've been working for Heinz for 20 years, and a 23 year old comes into your office and presses "start" on his phone, beginning the 10 minute count down. He would then sit back and you had to justify why you were essential to the organization. After the 10 min were up, the 23 year old would sit back, nod and thank you for the meeting before leaving. People were in the bathrooms getting sick over it. Consultants would hold impromptu meetings in stairwells to let go departments. They would get around age discrimination in various fuzzy performance related metrics so they could bring in a younger, single working force that worked 13 hour days where time with family was discouraged. As a result, vast swathes of people who had deep knowledge of the company for decades vanished. "Tribal" knowledge and history of products, trials, data, etc...all vanished overnight. Chaos ensued. Heinz lost ketchup share for the first time in recent memory. Wendy's took second place over BK for the first time in various markets. The business saved in profit, but top line atrophied beyond repair. Top investors came out to speak against the practice and said that - sure, profits would look good in the short term - but the sustainability of the business model was irreparably damaged. To my knowledge, Heinz and BK still suffer from performance issues. InBev I'm not sure of. This is not a political argument or anything to do with the ad. It's just chat.
If 3g is ruthless and austere, personally I have no problem with that, but I just note that Warren Buffett aligns himself with them and pretends to be the exact opposite. Just one more reason to dislike ol warren.
I once worked for a large company that also hired an outside consulting firm who sent 23 year old jerks demanding that you justify your extistence. I told the guy "I don't have time for this. Go ahead and fire me." Then he insisted and I told him "F&@k you. Get out of my office". Soon everyone else in the building followed my example. Executive management was pissed. I told them never send anyone else like this ever again. Five weeks later I took the top dozen people, left and founded a start-up