Nor is it obvious how to run Nestlé as a coherent global business without losing the ability to adapt its products to local tastes and traditions. There is no global consumer, accepts Mr Brabeck. For instance, Nestlé produces 200 different varieties of Nescafé, its instant-coffee brand, to cater to local palates. Russians love a very thick, strong and sweet concoction of coffee, sugar and milk powder that would make western Europeans gag. KitKat in Japan comes in flavours as fancy as lemon cheesecake, utterly different from the dull combination of chocolate and wafers munched in Britain. As a rule, the simpler the wares, the more they need to be adapted to local preferences. Sophisticated products such as milk powder for premature babies, on the other hand, are the same everywhere.