Change the rules of the Game
[Music]
i’m speaking to you from
colombia i am at the moment in bogota
and have just finished an exploration
of the pacific coast of colombia
when we talk about management we need to
reflect about
how we are going to change the way
we take care of our supply chain
of our wanes and means of securing
raw materials transformed into final
products
and what to do with all the waste
streams the energy consumption
the packaging we have indeed established
a system
that today is not at all taking care of
the environment
we are considering the environment as
a commons which is to be exploited by
everyone
we consider it a dump site we consider
it a place where we can genetically
engineer
and put whatever chemicals we desire if
it has the minimum of approval
procedures behind it
we have established a business model
that is
actually pillaging destroying the
environment
and even as we are getting more and more
conscious about the need to take care of
the living systems in which they
depend unfortunately more and more
are we still continuing with business
models
that as a model are destructive
it is not good enough to simply
substitute
a petrochemical with a biodegradable
ingredient we have to be
sustainable and sustainability is more
than biodegradation
that new approach requires a new
competitive
framework a framework whereby our
priority
is not efficiency is not being the
cheapest
is not being the most competitive
because you dominate the market and you
have an
impact on your distribution system that
permits you through
financing to have the leverages that
excludes others access to the market
what we’re in need of is a system
whereby
we are offering in the first place value
to everyone the search for efficiency
and management
has to be complemented in the first
place
by the search for more value and value
with what we have second
business can not merely be about
efficiency
and value we have to have a third
element which is critical
if we want to have a sustainable
environment and that
is resilience efficiency
value and resilience as we have learned
in the past
12 months if there is no resilience we
come to lockdowns if we have lockdowns
we have destructions of economic systems
and especially the entrepreneur the
small to medium-sized enterprise
will not have the ways and means to
overcome
political decisions that are inspired by
panic and not inspired by real needs
of our communities to be able to respond
to what they have as a challenge
the challenge we have is that half of
the world is under consuming
and the other half of the world is over
consuming
but both halves both under consuming and
the over consuming
are still expecting the earth to produce
more
we need to have a business model whereby
we are doing
much more with what the earth is already
producing
and let me come back to a very simple
example that i’m working here
in colombia coffee when you have a cup
of coffee
unfortunately very few people realize
that what you are
ingesting as a coffee is the soluble
component of a bean
which is only 0.2 of the biomass
of the coffee cherry coffee cherries
were traditionally
farmed under the canopy of a forest
there are not mono cultures
in the sun coffee
is a commodity 10 million tonnes are
produced every year but very few people
realize that
when you are taking up a cup of coffee
the soluble part of the cherry that was
the harvest only represents
0.2 percent 99.8
is wasted how is it ever possible
that we have a production and a
consumption model
where 99.8 is wasted
i would say it’s a miracle that actually
coffee farmers have been able to survive
and the world market prices today are so
low
but the margins of the coffee sellers is
so high
and the remuneration for those who are
the influencers
is a multiple of what the coffee farmers
themselves earn
those who are the icon of known brands
earn more than what the coffee farmers
earn
this is simply a scandal of a model and
i don’t
care what kind of a supply chain
management and sophistication in the
price setting
and in the marketing and what the
consumers want and the smells and the
odors
i am only caring about one thing
is that first of all coffee was already
200 years the reason of
slavery the reason of deforestation
but the situation of the farmers has
hardly
improved today the regions where coffee
is being farmed
are regions in underdevelopment regions
with malnutrition because we were so
obsessed
with always producing more coffee with
genetics and chemistry
that we wanted to increase the output
per hectare
so that the farmers when the prices are
rock bottom low like today
have nothing else to earn and nothing to
eat
an ecology of a rain forest
where normally you would have everything
you need to eat
has been diminished to an efficiency
game
whereby productivity dominates
this is what we have to change and this
is what we’re changing right now
we are turning coffee back into
agroforestry
where we’re not only taking the harvest
for the bean
but we’re taking the whole coffee cherry
as a nutrition and it’s obvious because
research has indicated that the best
superfood
the highest concentration of
antioxidants in the world
is actually what we’re throwing away
from the coffee bean
how is this ever possible that
intelligent organizations
with grand names like nestle with grand
names like starbucks
never considered to pop the cascara
the mucilage of the coffee which has
more
antioxidants than any of the other
superfoods in the world
i’m bringing out a new book called
coffee solutions
and in the book coffee solutions we
demonstrate that the superfood
that is thrown away today generates
a multiple of the revenues of what
coffee is generating today
only using the bean and this is exactly
the challenge that we are facing
are we ready to have an economy where
the supply chain is looking at the
cluster
at all the opportunities in the
portfolio of the bean
the harvest and how can we transform
that
into an opportunity not just to pay a
fair price to the farmer
but how can we transform that into a
transformation of an economy
a coffee economy whereby the revenues
are such
that we can regenerate the forest
today we can accept an efficiency of
barely
750 kilograms per hectare instead of
the five tons with the chemistry and the
genetics
but the 750 kilograms of coffee
we will use the whole harvest and we
generate 10 times more value
that means on the whole we’re doubling
the revenue
and the revenue that is being doubled is
partially being used
to regenerate the forests so that we not
only have
the coffee but inside that forest in the
right regions
we could also have the cacao and the end
result
is a new product a product that is full
of antioxidants
that of course has a good doses of
caffeine
that is not only good for your health
it is good for the farmer but it is good
for regenerate forests
ladies and gentlemen management for
sustainability requires
a change in business models that means
we need to stop
thinking as core business with a core
competence
we need to look at the ecosystem and
identify
all the opportunities and then proceed
with design of the products
whereby we deliberately increase the
revenues
generated at the farm if we are
succeeded in generating more revenue at
the level of the farm
we will be able to bring wealth revenues
stability peace to regions where today
drugs and gorilla are still dominant
factors
and instability that doesn’t permit us
to really enjoy
the quality of life and offer the
dignity
that is really necessary in order to be
the custodians of the ecosystem
i hope that several of you will have a
keen interest
study coffee solutions study the
opportunities that we have
and make that into your platform
for imagining your businesses your
opportunities
so that you can become also the
entrepreneurs
for the common good i wish you success
you