Like a lot of global companies, Anheuser-Busch InBev has a wide array of meeting technology at its disposal. But the massive brewing company only recently discovered its most effective tool: a simple wooden box.
Called the iBox, it sits at the center of the conference table. Before meetings start, executives mute their smart phones and deposit them in the box. The box slams shut and the meeting commences, freed from the distractions of texts, emails, and instant messages.
Phones “are an addiction,” says David Almeida, AB Inbev’s chief people officer. “It’s disrespectful, and it undermines the purpose of the meeting.”
Executives elsewhere have tried to banish laptops and devices at the occasional meeting, and Christopher Nolan is among the film directors who have banned them from their sets. But making it a formal corporate policy is rare. And the speed with which AB InBev adopted its box is particularly unusual.