Skip to Main Content
HBS Home
  • About
  • Academic Programs
  • Alumni
  • Faculty & Research
  • Baker Library
  • Giving
  • Harvard Business Review
  • Initiatives
  • News
  • Recruit
  • Map / Directions
Faculty & Research
  • Faculty
  • Research
  • Featured Topics
  • Academic Units
  • …→
  • Harvard Business School→
  • Faculty & Research→
Publications
Publications
  • June 2022
  • Case
  • HBS Case Collection

Michelin’s Green Gold Bahia Program: Leaving With Grace

By: Sandra J. Sucher, Shalene Gupta and Susan J. Winterberg
  • Format:Print
  • | Language:English
  • | Pages:21
ShareBar

Abstract

In 2015, the top management of French tire-maker Michelin, was evaluating Michelin’s approach to divesting its rubber plantations ten years after incorporating a novel strategy.
In 2004, Michelin had a Brazilian rubber challenge. Its Bahía plantation had been hit with the South American Leaf Blight fungus, the same fungus that destroyed Henry Ford’s dreams of industrializing rubber production, and the plantation’s productivity had dropped. Bahía had to go. That much was clear. But how to do it? From the Michelin headquarters in Clermont-Ferrand, the rubber plantations of Bahía Brazil seemed half a world away. Still, Michelin, then led by Édouard Michelin, great-grandson of Michelin’s founder, was founded with a deep belief in the importance of treating its employees and the environment fairly. Michelin embarked on an ambitious plan to divest the plantation while practicing corporate social accountability. However, in doing so, it had to understand the needs of its plantation workers, its environmental impact, while also considering its own needs as a business. Now, Michelin had to evaluate how well the company had done with its Bahía program, if there was anything that could be improved in its divestment process, and whether or not the plan, or elements of it, was something Michelin should consider using again in the future.

Keywords

Divestment; Supply Chain Management; Natural Resources; Corporate Accountability; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Rubber Industry; Auto Industry; Brazil; France

Citation

Sucher, Sandra J., Shalene Gupta, and Susan J. Winterberg. "Michelin’s Green Gold Bahia Program: Leaving With Grace." Harvard Business School Case 322-132, June 2022.
  • Educators
  • Purchase

About The Author

Sandra J. Sucher

General Management
→More Publications

More from the Authors

    • January 2023
    • Faculty Research

    LCA Action Planning: Responsibility and Accountability

    By: Sandra J. Sucher and Marilyn Morgan Westner
    • December 8, 2022
    • Harvard Business Review (website)

    What Companies Still Get Wrong about Layoffs

    By: Sandra J. Sucher and Marilyn Morgan Westner
    • August 2022
    • Faculty Research

    Women in the Saudi Arabian Workforce

    By: Sandra J. Sucher, Fares Khrais, Shalene Gupta and Menna Hassan
More from the Authors
  • LCA Action Planning: Responsibility and Accountability By: Sandra J. Sucher and Marilyn Morgan Westner
  • What Companies Still Get Wrong about Layoffs By: Sandra J. Sucher and Marilyn Morgan Westner
  • Women in the Saudi Arabian Workforce By: Sandra J. Sucher, Fares Khrais, Shalene Gupta and Menna Hassan
ǁ
Campus Map
Harvard Business School
Soldiers Field
Boston, MA 02163
→Map & Directions
→More Contact Information
  • Make a Gift
  • Site Map
  • Jobs
  • Harvard University
  • Trademarks
  • Policies
  • Accessibility
  • Digital Accessibility
Copyright © President & Fellows of Harvard College