Profits and Sustainability

G.  Jones

Book | 2017

Profits and Sustainability: A History of Green Entrepreneurship

Abstract

This book explores whether profits and environmental sustainability are compatible through the lens of a global history of green entrepreneurship between the nineteenth century and today. It tells the story of the extraordinary and often eccentric men and women who defied convention and imagined that business could help save the planet rather than consume it. The social and religious beliefs that drove many of these individuals are explored as the book explores how they overcame huge obstacles to execute their strategies in industries as diverse as renewable energy, organic food, natural beauty, eco-tourism, recycling, architecture, and finance. The pioneering efforts to build certification schemes and environmental reporting are examined, alongside the contested relationship between green business and governments. The struggles of entrepreneurial pioneers have rarely proved profitable, as they were forced to compete with conventional businesses that ignored negative environmental externalities and were often subsidized by governments in the United States and elsewhere. Yet the book shows that these entrepreneurs contributed significantly to the growth of environmental awareness among consumers, business leaders, and others. However the Earth's environmental health has continued to deteriorate. If combining profits and sustainability has proved challenging in the past, and remains so today, the book argues that one reason was how they have both been defined.

Keywords: Environmental Entrepreneurship; Green Business; sustainability; Entrepreneurship; Ethics; Business History; Religion; Environmental Sustainability; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Banking Industry; Beauty and Cosmetics Industry; Consumer Products Industry; Alternative Energy Industry; Financial Services Industry; Food and Beverage Industry; Green Technology Industry; Tourism Industry; Africa; Asia; Europe; Latin America; North and Central America; Oceania;

Format: Print

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Jones, G. Profits and Sustainability: A History of Green Entrepreneurship. New York: Oxford University Press, 2017.

This case examines the entrepreneurial career of Momofuku Ando, the Taiwanese-born Japanese entrepreneur who pioneered instant boodles with his Chicken Ramen (1958) and Cup Noodle (1971) products. It begins by reviewing his many previous unsuccessful ventures, including two jail terms, during the turbulent era of the 1930s, World War II, and postwar Japan. Following the development of Cup Noodle, Ando and his company Nissin began globalizing the product, beginning with the United States, Brazil and Southeast Asia. The case enables a discussion of the factors behind his many entrepreneurial failures, and his eventual success in the food industry. It looks at the social and economic changes which provided the context for his subsequent development of a successful business in instant noodles, and its globalization. The case also provides an opportunity to discuss the responsibilities of the food industry for the health of consumers. Although instant noodles were cheap and convenient, the high sodium content posed potential health risks, while the packaging of Cup Noodle had an adverse environmental impact.

Case | HBS Case Collection | April 2018 (Revised November 2019)

Coco Chanel: From Fashion Icon to Nazi Agent

Geoffrey Jones and Emily Grandjean

This case describes the career of the iconic French fashion designer Coco Chanel who created a transformational business during the first half of the 20th century. Beginning in her early adulthood, Chanel leveraged relationships with acquaintances, friends, and romantic partners to build her fashion business and legendary luxury brand based on understated elegance. Chanel’s famous “little black dress” was accompanied by many other innovations including the use of jersey as material for daytime clothing and her development of the Chanel No. 5 perfume. The case pays close attention to the importance of Chanel’s networks among the cultural elite and European high society. It explores how she embraced the rise of Anti-Semitism among many members of the upper class at that time. During World War II, Chanel lived in the Ritz Hotel in Paris in occupied France, where she entered into a romantic relationship with a high-ranking German intelligence officer. Subsequently, Chanel herself became an intelligence operative for the Nazis. The case ends with Chanel in Switzerland in 1945 after she departed France following the Liberation of Paris by Allied forces. This case can be used to explore multiple issues including creating and building an iconic fashion brand, entrepreneurship, and ethical responsibility of business.

Keywords: Business History; Biography; Entrepreneurship; Relationships; Brands and Branding; Ethics; Fashion Industry; Apparel and Accessories Industry;

Citation:

Jones, Geoffrey, and Emily Grandjean. "Coco Chanel: From Fashion Icon to Nazi Agent." Harvard Business School Case 318-139, April 2018. (Revised November 2019.) View Details

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Profits and Sustainability: A History of Green Entrepreneurship

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