Nestlé, Shared Value and KitKat Diplomacy

The case revolves around the decision on March 23, 2022 by Mark Schneider, the chief executive of Swiss-based Nestlé, to withdraw the emblematic Kit Kat chocolate bar from sales in Russia in response to the invasion of Ukraine in the previous month, although not its infant food and medical/hospital nutrition, and other businesses deemed essential to the local population. The decision is set against Nestlé’s long tradition of neutrality that enabled it to operate in countries regardless of their political system and human rights policies, as well as the corporation’s more recent embrace of Michael Porter’s shared value paradigm. The case facilitates discussion of the usefulness of the shared value concept, and more broadly provides a vehicle to debate the ethical role and social responsibility of transnational corporations in contexts in which international norms are blatantly flouted.