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What makes Carlsberg special?

To Rasmus, our international graduate in Carlsberg's ELUD department, Carlsberg is not like any other company. Here's why...

If you are on this site, you will most likely be about to finish your studies. Thus, you will most certainly also be facing various job posting, which after you’ve read a few of them, will start to sound similar. Employers these days want “individuals who are able to work independently”, employees that are adaptable to change” and “people who continuously strive for results”. But if the job postings in the end won’t tell you much about the difference between companies, what then can give you a glimpse of what you’ll find after signing a contract? I intent to give you my perspective on why Carlsberg is different from the rest.

For a start, let’s go back to the very beginning. Carlsberg's founder J.C. Jacobsen wanted to pursue perfection regardless of short term gain, and that the brewery should stand as an example to others. His famous 'Golden Words' that we pass almost every day when walking the historic Carlsberg site in Valby, are still a big part of Carlsberg. And it's with root in founder's mentality that we today say: we are brewing for a better today and tomorrow. Now, is this just mumbo jumbo - don’t all companies use fluffy words to describe their purpose? Maybe, but at Carlsberg we do live it. I might not see it every day in my work as a graduate within Export, License and Urban Development, but I do see it in the sustainability goals that Carlsberg are setting, and the execution of these goals, like our carbon-neutral brewery in Sweden. We want to be an example for others, and we are pursuing this to create a better tomorrow.

Most respectable companies have an R&D department, but can they say theirs has changed the world? We can at Carlsberg, where the Carlsberg Research Laboratory has developed groundbreaking discoveries through the years - not just within barley genome research. The PH scale, the pure yeast and many more inventions were developed here. The pure yeast is still today used in most lagers around the world, and I bet you’ve used the PH scale in primary school at some point. What makes Carlsberg special is that these inventions were not kept within the company, but shared with the world. In the end it all comes from beer.

And if a purpose inspiring the industry’s most ambitious sustainable goals, and a Research Lab that has shared amazing discoveries with the world is not enough, Carlsberg has more. Part of the dividends of Carlsberg goes to the Carlsberg Foundation, The New Carlsberg Foundation and the Tuborg Foundation, who respectively support science, the arts, and voluntary communities, like music, sports and much, much more. Thus, for every beer we enjoy, part of the money goes to art and science – cheers!

Carlsberg is not just like any other company. Carlsberg has a purpose, and we have strived for more than 170 years to pursue perfection, and brew for a better today and tomorrow. If that means, sharing discoveries with the world, we’ve done it. If it is focusing on ambitious sustainability goals, we're doning it. Or if it is simply about giving back to society, we have and are doing it. Carlsberg is not like any other company and I am proud to be a part of it.