Joan Bavaria and Multi-Dimensional Capitalism

Geoffrey  Jones; Valeria  Giacomin

Teaching Plan | HBS Case Collection | July 2018

Joan Bavaria and Multi-Dimensional Capitalism

by Geoffrey Jones and Valeria Giacomin

Abstract

This Teaching Plan accompanies the case HBS No. 317-028, “Joan Bavaria and Multi-Dimensional Capitalism.” It provides guidelines for class discussion, as well as a board plan. The case traces the origins of sustainable finance and investor activism through the career of Joan Bavaria, who created Trillium Asset Management in 1981, and went on to found the Social Investment Forum and the Ceres Principles. Ceres launched the Global Reporting Initiative in 1997. The case enables a critical discussion of Socially Responsible Investment and certification for corporate social and environment responsibility.

Keywords: Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Investment; Social Entrepreneurship; Personal Development and Career;

Language: English

Format: Print

11 pages

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Citation:

Jones, Geoffrey, and Valeria Giacomin. "Joan Bavaria and Multi-Dimensional Capitalism." Harvard Business School Teaching Plan 319-008, July 2018.

The case is concerned with Elia Nuqul, the founder of Jordanian-based Nuqul Brothers, a large diversified business group. It shows how Nuqul, a Christian Palestinian whose family was forced to flee to Jordan after the creation of Israel in 1948, built a business in his new home, first in trading and later in consumer products such as hygienic paper manufacturing. The case shows the challenges of building such an entrepreneurial business in a developing region with high political instability. The case is positioned within the wider context of the regional conflict in Palestine and Israel, and it provides a vehicle for exploring the role and responsibility of entrepreneurs, if any, in such conflicts.

Case | HBS Case Collection | April 2018 (Revised April 2020)

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 April 2020.) View Details

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Examines the career of Ernesto Tornquist, a cosmopolitan financier considered to be the most significant entrepreneur in Argentina at the end of the 19th century. Tornquist created a diversified business group, linked to the political elite, which integrated Argentina into the trading and financial networks of the first global economy. Provides an opportunity to understand why Argentina was such a successful economy at this time, and to debate whether its very success laid the basis for the country's subsequent poor economic performance.

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Joan Bavaria and Multi-Dimensional Capitalism

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