How does a schoolboy soccer player reach the top of the global food business?

The former chief executive and chairman of food group Bunge, with head offices in New York, was having dinner one evening with a customer whose business had been taken over by a Brazilian firm.

Alberto Weisser, who had guided Bunge from a regional operation to a global player, with some 400 facilities in over 40 countries, asked his friend how he was getting on with the Brazilian workers.

The customer said the Brazilian were like the Irish, always smiling, great fun to be with but one should never get on their wrong side.