Distribution
channel transformation
Information
Security
Digital
Media
Report of the Supervisory Board
What could happen
In order to maintain position and profitability,
our customers are consolidating, either through
acquisition or through buying alliances. This
concentrates increased buying power into fewer
hands. Next to this, digital disruption is creating
new routes to customers and consumers,
increasing the value and power of owning
customer and consumer data.
Recent developments
New buying alliances are being negotiated, and
cross border acquisitions continue. The major on-line
retailers are moving to an omni-channel strategy,
owning on-and-offline retail. The race to win the
customer through B2B platforms is on. Electronic
point of sales systems are increasingly used to
collect and leverage customer and consumer data.
What are we doing to manage this risk
HEINEKEN will continue to invest strongly in building
brands, and the importance of strong brands only
increases in the face of retail disruption. We are
implementing a comprehensive set of commercial
digital initiatives to optimise our current business,
to build digital customer business and develop new
business models to fulfil unmet needs and build
new Routes to Market.
What could happen
HEINEKEN's business increasingly relies on IT,
both in the office environment as well as in
the industrial control domain of our breweries.
Failure of systems or security incidents may
lead to business disruption, loss of confidential
information, breach of data privacy regulations,
financial and reputational damage.
Recent developments
Online threats keep growing and become more
sophisticated and potential consequences are
more punitive and destructive in nature. Exposure
to cybercrime is increasing and regulations place
stricter security requirements on data processing.
What are we doing to manage this risk
HEINEKEN regularly updates its information
security strategy to ensure proportional adaptation
of capabilities in response to evolving risks.
Security Operations and Information Security Risk
Management departments maintain a global
cybersecurity framework to address continuity,
integrity and confidentiality risks, and perform global
monitoring of HEINEKEN's IT landscape, focusing on
enhancing the resilience of the IT infrastructure and
increasing employee security awareness.
Explore Further:
Deliver top line growth, pages 10-15
Financial Statements
Sustainability Review
Heineken N.V. Annual Report 2019
Other Information
What could happen
On social media, concerns related to HEINEKEN
or any of its products, even when unfounded,
could impact the Company's reputation and the
image of its products. HEINEKEN may not be
able to control information or respond in a timely
manner to reputation threats, which could affect
its brand equity and income-generating capacity
at scale and at pace.
Recent developments
Social media crises increasingly happen via private
channels (e.g. WhatsApp) and cannot always be
tracked. Malicious attempts to spread false material
becomes ever more sophisticated with substantial
spend behind it.
What are we doing to manage this risk
HEINEKEN has set up continuous monitoring of key
social media platforms, in several languages, along
with employee training in digital communication.
Our incident response system includes a digital
dashboard and a dedicated crisis communication
team. Learnings from media crises are used to drive
continuous improvement.
