Big Brew-Haha! The Battle Of The Beers

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Despite the plaudits Miller's advertising has won, Adami's real talent lies in execution. Several months after he arrived, Adami dropped several of Miller's flavored malt beverages, sold off one brewery and added 200 new positions in sales and marketing. Around the industry he is known as a methodical thinker and cost cutter who asks lots of questions — the kind of executive who can tell you the production rates of every Miller plant, broken down by line and by shift, and will immediately dispatch help to markets he believes are underperforming. "Norman is a great field general," is how his boss, SABMiller CEO Graham Mackay, puts it. And though Adami can come across as blunt, his colleagues say he eventually gains the fierce loyalty of his employees. "For the first year, you'll curse the day he arrived. But by the second year, you'll notice how much has changed," says Mitch Ramsay, SAB's communications manager for Africa and Asia, who worked with Adami in the late 1980s.

Given his background at South Africa's entrenched, virtual monopoly brewer, Adami knows how hard it is to unseat the top dog. "We certainly haven't declared victory," says Adami, adding that his reclamation project, especially around the still flagging Miller Genuine Draft brand, has only begun. But if he can sustain the momentum, and Miller can become more of a legitimate contender, then Adami will really have reason to celebrate — and not just to rally the troops — by tossing back a cold one in one big gulp.