W orking in Peru in the early 1980s, as the Shining Path guerrillas cast an ever longer shadow over the country, Paul Bulcke got into the habit of forming close-knit, supportive relationships with his Nestlé colleagues. Nearly three decades later, that reputation as a team player in a company wary of prima donnas helped the quietly spoken Belgian succeed Peter Brabeck to become chief executive of the Swiss food company.

For outsiders, the chatty, charming Paul Polman - who subsequently left Nestlé to become chief executive at Unilever, one of its key competitors - had been the obvious choice. Within Nestlé, however, Mr Bulcke's undemonstrative style and solid record over 30 years spoke for themselves.

The 54-year-old still finds it hard to answer the question of why he was chosen. "I'm trying always to simplify things," he suggests over lunch at Nestlé's headquarters in Vevey, overlooking Lake Geneva to the French Alps. "And I try to align people behind common purposes . . . I love working in teams."