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