{"id":59887,"date":"2026-05-04T16:53:28","date_gmt":"2026-05-04T16:53:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/59887\/"},"modified":"2026-05-04T16:53:28","modified_gmt":"2026-05-04T16:53:28","slug":"nestles-ceo-drinks-8-coffees-a-day-but-says-gen-z-staffers-are-his-secret-to-staying-sharp-by-learning-constantly-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/59887\/","title":{"rendered":"Nestl\u00e9\u2019s CEO drinks 8 coffees a day, but says Gen Z staffers are his secret to staying sharp by \u2018learning constantly\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Millions of professionals power through their workday with copious cups of coffee<\/a>\u2014but most aren\u2019t dropping by the office Nespresso<\/a> machine more often than Nestl\u00e9<\/a> CEO Philipp Navratil<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The leader of the $259 billion Swiss food giant revealed he drinks seven or eight cups of joe a day.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust black. Sometimes with a KitKat,\u201d Navratil recently told<\/a> the New York Times. It\u2019s become so routine in his workday that he said an espresso is \u201ca snack for me,\u201d adding that he\u2019s set no cutoff hour for his caffeine intake.<\/p>\n

And while the Gen Xer is leaning on coffee to fuel his massive company turnaround effort\u2014drinking around three times as much as the average American pouring two to three cups<\/a> a day\u2014Gen Z is really who keeps him on his toes, prompting him to constantly grow in his role. Otherwise, he might as well head out the door.<\/p>\n

Nestl\u00e9\u2019s youngest staffers have taught him the importance of \u201clearning constantly,\u201d Navratil admitted to the Times: \u201cWhen you stop learning, then it is the moment to move on to another job.\u201d<\/p>\n

Navratil joins a vocal cohort of business leaders, including executives from Colgate-Palmolive<\/a> and Stripe<\/a>, who say Gen Z employees are pushing them to be better. Executives are resisting the notion<\/a> that young digital natives are unambitious and too demanding in the workplace. Instead, Gen Zers are stepping into their roles with fresh ideas and an open mindset, while redefining the future of work.<\/p>\n

Nestl\u00e9 didn\u2019t immediately respond to Fortune\u2019s request for comment.<\/p>\n

Navratil\u2019s rise to the top of the food and beverage world <\/p>\n

While the mere thought of downing eight coffees daily might conjure heart palpitations, caffeine has been at the center of Navratil\u2019s career climb.<\/p>\n

Navratil stepped into the top role<\/a> last September after spending his entire two-decade career at the food giant. After earning his MBA in Switzerland in 2001, Navratil joined Nestl\u00e9 as an auditor. Over the next 23 years, he climbed to several leadership positions in Panama, Honduras, and Mexico before assuming the Nespresso CEO role in 2024. Just one year later, he became leader of the entire Nestl\u00e9 lineup, which includes iconic brands like KitKat<\/a>, Nescaf\u00e9, and Gerber<\/a>.<\/p>\n

After years of lackluster sales<\/a>, the company\u2019s stock price is at nearly half of its 2022 peak. Just last February, the packaged foods company reported its<\/a> weakest annual organic sales growth in more than 25 years, driven by consumers cutting back. And for the first nine months of 2025, Nestl\u00e9\u2019s sales fell<\/a> 1.9% to around $82.8 billion, compared with the same period in 2024.<\/p>\n

These sluggish results prompted some tough decision-making from Navratil. Just a month under new leadership, Nestl\u00e9 announced it would cut<\/a> 12,000 white-collar jobs and 4,000 manufacturing and supply-chain roles, reducing its global workforce by 6% over the next two years. The company said in a statement<\/a> some office gigs will be automated as Nestl\u00e9 seeks \u201coperational efficiency.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis way of working will obviously require less people, but it will also speed up the company,\u201d Navratil told the New York Times. \u201cIt will be a growth story about how we use AI to grow faster, to make decisions better, to plan throughout the supply chain to have less stock and less waste.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gen Z employees are pushing their bosses to \u2018do things differently\u2019 <\/p>\n

Navratil isn\u2019t the only business leader recognizing the value<\/a> of young employees.<\/p>\n

The chief human resources officer at $76 billion<\/a> giant Colgate-Palmolive<\/a>, Sally Massey, dispelled the myth<\/a> that Gen Z only brings chaos to the workplace.<\/p>\n

The CHRO credited her young staffers as being ambitious and incredibly tech savvy\u2014critical skills the heritage company is vying for. And to soak in all their new skills, the business\u2019s senior leaders are making a concerted effort to hear out entry-level staffers, exchanging ideas between ranks and generations to create the best action plan possible.<\/p>\n

\u201c[Gen Zers] have grown up with technology. They\u2019ve grown up in a very different way than some of the other generations in the organization,\u201d Massey recently told<\/a> Fortune. \u201cThey bring with them new ideas, new perspectives, curiosity \u2026 They\u2019re pushing us to get better and to do things differently\u2014I think it\u2019s great.\u201d<\/p>\n

Stripe\u2019s head of data and AI, Emily Glassberg Sands, also revealed she\u2019s invested in hiring recent graduates<\/a> to work at the $106.7 billion<\/a> financial services company. The executive singled out Gen Z for being tech savvy and pushing the bar on what can be achieved at the business.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m actually hiring more new grads\u2014now, they\u2019re largely new grad PhDs\u2014but more new grads than ever before,\u201d Glassberg Sands said on the Forward Future podcast last year<\/a>. \u201cBecause they have the cutting-edge skills, and they come in with fresh ideas. And they know how to think, and they know how to use the latest tools.\u201d<\/p>\n

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Millions of professionals power through their workday with copious cups of coffee\u2014but most aren\u2019t dropping by the office…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":59888,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[126],"tags":[33208,986,199,2782,33209],"class_list":{"0":"post-59887","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nestle","8":"tag-gen-xer","9":"tag-gen-z","10":"tag-nestle","11":"tag-philipp-navratil","12":"tag-staffers"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ch\/116517352521706788","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59887","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=59887"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59887\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/59888"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=59887"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=59887"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=59887"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}