Brazil's Natura, a multi-brand cosmetics group, has taken several measures to safeguard the livelihoods of its thousands of employees and millions of sales representatives during the COVID-19 health and economic crisis. The company has also made strides in its efforts to increase digital sales. Now the purpose-driven group must decide whether to vocalize its opposition to private companies buying COVID-19 vaccines to inoculate their employees before priority groups in Brazil's public health system.
Velong is a supplier of kitchen equipment and backyard grills for major global brands and store brands of large western retailers. In light of the Covid-related disruptions to the global supply chains, and the evolving trade tensions between China and the Western countries, Velong’s global customers were pressuring the company to move 30% of its manufacturing from China to other locations. Velong was considering a number of countries to shift its manufacturing – India, Vietnam, Trukey and Mexico. At present, none of these countries seem to be able to match the cost structure and manufacturing quality that the company is able to achieve in China. Velongs c0-founders, Jacob Rothman and Iven Chen, need to decide soon how to forumlate a strategy to deal with the challenge.
Founded by CEO Steve Barnard in 1983, California-based Mission Produce was a leading supplier of Hass avocados with a global sourcing, marketing, and distribution network and $892 million in 2021 sales. Barnard had been influential in the global avocado trade’s transformation in recent decades. For instance, Mission’s use of ethylene gas ripening for avocados had allowed it to supply consistently ripe avocados to the U.S. market for the first time. Moreover, Mission had established an early presence in key avocado-growing countries, including Mexico and Peru, as they were on the cusp of gaining access to the U.S. and other key import markets. Barnard believed Mission’s scale, global presence, value-added offerings, and vertically integrated model gave it many advantages in the maturing avocado market. Yet, he recognized the challenges Mission would face in the years to come. In its supply network, these included political instability, declining cost advantages, and the high cost of land in California. Perhaps most of all, water scarcity and cost were mounting concerns with no obvious fix. Mission recently entered the mango category, which, in the U.S., shared notable traits with the 1990s avocados market: mangos were a relatively minor U.S. product that many consumers did not know how to prepare, and their ripeness was variable at retail. Like avocados, mangos could be ripened with ethylene gas in destination markets, but they were more easily damaged during handling and had a shorter shelf life post-harvest. Some observers speculated (though Barnard disagreed) that the avocado market had passed its peak. Still, Barnard believed Mission could continue expanding by leveraging its top-tier service to customers, consistency of fruit quality and supply, and continued diversification of supply and sales. Would avocados remain a desirable business over the long term? What could Mission do to improve its competitive position, reduce risk, and promote demand? Should Mission try to transform the mango category as it had avocados?
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Maria Fernanda Miguel is the Christopher P. Torto Executive Director for the Latin America Research Center (LARC). Her responsibilities include leading research activities for the LATAM region, and providing programmatic support to different areas of HBS including admissions, executive education, and immersion programs. Fernanda is based in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Prior to joining Harvard Business School, Fernanda was a Senior Director and Leader for LATAM Business Development at Merck and senior consultant at McKinsey & Co., serving as global Practice Manager for the Business Technology Office Health Care Practice.
She holds a degree in economics from the Argentine Catholic University, an MBA from Harvard Business School, and a Master of Research from University of Bath.
Fernanda has been very active in non-profit activities, including fund rising at the Fundación Acción Hemato-oncologica – Argentine National Academy of Medicine, and acting as advisor to the Board of Directors of the Hospital Garrahan.