Nestlé: Agricultural Material Sourcing Within the Concept of Creating Shared Value (CSV)

Ray A. Goldberg; Lorin A. Fries

Case | HBS Case Collection | December 2012 (Revised August 2013)

Nestlé: Agricultural Material Sourcing Within the Concept of Creating Shared Value (CSV)

Abstract

Corporate Head of Agriculture Hans Jöhr's mind raced in anticipation of the executive board meeting that afternoon. Jöhr recognized the meeting as a key opportunity to strategize far into the future, reexamining how his team's efforts in sustainable agricultural sourcing supported Nestlé's position as the world's leading nutrition, health and wellness company. The company had undertaken to impact three of the world's most urgent challenges—nutrition, water and rural development—and Jöhr's team was fundamental to each of these pillars. Yet the forces changing the global food system were formidable: unprecedented levels of hunger, obesity and chronic disease; land degradation, frequent natural disasters, and critical threats to water supply; population growth by the billions in the coming decades, along with increased urbanization; and a volatile and tentative world economy. In the face of such threats and complexity, how could Hans Jöhr ensure that Nestlé's agricultural raw materials were safe, high quality, of consistent supply, and sustainably and ethically and economically produced? How can the procurement process enable the small scale producer to become a viable partner in the milk production models that Nestlé has developed in the developing world? Further, how could his team excel beyond the company's day-to-day business and enable Nestlé's visions for the future?

Keywords: Agribusiness; Value Creation; Quality; Supply Chain Management; Social Issues; Environmental Sustainability; Problems and Challenges; Growth and Development Strategy; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Health Industry;

Language: English

Format: Print

42 pages

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Citation:

Goldberg, Ray A., and Lorin A. Fries. "Nestlé: Agricultural Material Sourcing Within the Concept of Creating Shared Value (CSV)." Harvard Business School Case 913-406, December 2012. (Revised August 2013.)

Book | 2018

Food Citizenship: Food System Advocates in an Era of Distrust

Ray A. Goldberg

The global food system is the largest segment of the world's economy. As agribusiness-studies pioneer Ray Goldberg suggests, it is also the largest health system on the planet. And it is changing fast. Its size and importance to human, environmental, and economic health means that no system is viewed with as much suspicion by so many people around the globe. Changing societal expectations and scientific and medical advances have made the drivers of the food system—the world's food citizens—realize they must take more responsibility for society's nutritional needs, economic development, and the health of the environment. Goldberg argues that the traditionally commodity-oriented, bargaining relationship between segments of the food system has become win-win, collaborative, and characterized by public and private partnerships. Those who are responding to society's needs are succeeding; those who are not are losing out. The food system's greatest growth area is the developing world, where millions of small-scale producers, workers, and impoverished consumers need help to become part of the commercial food system. In this book, Ray Goldberg interviews the change makers of today's food system: leaders and constructive critics in government, private industry, nonprofits, and academia who provide a panoramic and in-depth look at a revolution in progress.

Keywords: Food; System; Global Range; Health; Environmental Sustainability; Development Economics; Partners and Partnerships; Public Opinion; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Food and Beverage Industry;