Follow up of EIS Simulation Session
Chocolate & Change
History can help us to better understand the dynamics of change and the complexity
of ‘managing’ or ‘engineering’ (planning and implementing) change processes at all levels
through the diffusion of values, beliefs and desires, artifacts, mental habits and
behaviors, through education and development of children and adults, through
managerial interventions in organizational contexts.
Take for instance some of the key facts related to the History of Chocolate
gathered on a number of websites. As a non-Swiss reader and particularly if
originating from ‘non-sugar-dominated’ eating cultures, you might wonder what
Chocolate has to do with Change. In fact, it’s not really about chocolate only. It’s
about the process of how cocoa beans, the ‘core’ of chocolate, underwent a
transformation from being an exchange currency in ancient South-American
civilizations to become a popular European consumer product (22 pounds per year pro
capita in Switzerland). It’s about the individuals and networks, groups, organizations
and communities that enabled this process to take place over the centuries. It’s
about the role of knowledge and technology in enabling and shaping innovation
processes and their diffusion. About resistance factors such as knowledge retention
and exchange, rivalries, as well as planned and unplanned synergies and collaborations.
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The Origins: A totally different context
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600 AD :
The cocoa bean is considered the ultimate status symbol in the Mayan and
Aztec cultures. They use the beans as currency and those wealthy enough
to have an excess of beans use them to make a chocolate drink that gives
them "wisdom and power".
1000AD
Emperor Montezuma, who no doubt possesses more cocoa beans than
anybody else at the time is a "chocoholic." Montezuma, it is reported, drinks
nothing but chocolate, particularly before entering his harem. He believes
that the concoction is a powerful aphrodisiac. The Aztecs believed that
drinking chocolate. which was the undiluted, unsweetened liquor from
fermented cacao beans, would bring great wisdom, understanding and
energy. Legend held that the Aztecs have convinced the dread god
Quentzacoatl to leave them in peace by giving him gallons of chocolate,
which was also known as Quetzacoatl.
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First Steps : Things get serious, as Money
grows on Trees
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1492
Columbus was given some of the cacao beans and took them back to Spain,
but he didn't know how to process and ferment them.
1502
Columbus is the first European to discover cocoa beans and chocolate. But it
is the Conquistadors that realize the value of "money that grows on trees".
Hernando de Oviedo y Valdez writes home to tell of how he was able to
purchase a slave for 100 cocoa beans. Later Hernando Cortez builds a cocoa
plantation for the express purpose of growing money in the name of Spain.
1519
Cortez descended upon the Aztecs and eventually destroyed Montezuma's
armies and his capital. The Aztecs were convinced that Quetzacoatl had
returned as prophesied and they tried to get him to leave by once again
plying him with chocolate.
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Things start moving, but knowledge …
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1528
Cortez returns to Spain with cocoa beans and the tools needed to make
chocolate. Not that he is particularly fond of the concoction. In fact, he is
said to personally have found the drink distasteful, probably because the
Aztec method of preparation called for flavoring the drink with spices,
including lots of chili. Spanish cooks quickly remedy that by changing the
recipe, replacing the peppers with sugar.
1606
Spain manages to keep the discovery of chocolate a secret for more than a
century. In the meantime, the Spanish cultivate quite a trade in the popular
new beverage as well as cocoa plantations in their equatorial colonies around
the world . It is an Italian merchant , Antonio Carletti, who put in motion
the process that breaks the Spanish monopoly of the chocolate trade.
1615
A Spanish princess married Louis XIII of France and the secret got out.
Chocolate spread from France to England, Italy, Germany, Austria and
Switzerland.
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Penetration and First Innovations: Elites and
Accidents
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1657
England's first chocolate house opens in London. Its a big hit with the upper
class and soon becomes the place where the elite meet to sip. Cocoa bean
prices are exorbitant and , as the Spanish historian Oviedo, notes : "none
but the rich and noble could afford " to frequent such establishments.
Prices eventually drop and chocolate houses begin to appear throughout the
country, challenging the primacy of coffee tea rooms and even pubs.
1671
The personal chef to the Duke of Plesslis-Preslin in France watches as a
panful of burnt sugar spills over a bowlful of almonds. One taste and the
Duke is decidedly pleased. He's so pleased, in fact, that he lends his name
to this new confection and so, the "praslin" or "praline" comes into being.
But it took Belgian chocolatiers to perfect this particular treat. Eventually,
the word praline becomes synonymous with a particular type of Belgian
confection featuring a molded shell of chocolate that is filled with creams,
caramels, light ganache and of course, praline.
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Going Global: England, Belgium & Switzerland,
and the US
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1674
They're still drinking chocolate throughout Europe, but enterprising bakers
in England begin adding cocoa to their cake recipes making chocolate widely
available in solid form for the first time. Within decades, solid chocolate
becomes available throughout Europe in a variety of forms, including bars,
lifting the status of chocolate from that of a stylish drink to that of a
superb, sweet delicacy.
1697
Belgium is already established as one of Europe's premier centers for the
production of chocolate. When the mayor of Zurich pays a visit to Brussels,
he's so taken with the taste he returns home with news of the savory
concoction, the inspiration for a new Swiss industry and no doubt a personal
supply to savor for some time to come.
1712
By the turn of the 18th century, chocolate makes its way back to North
America. In little more than a decade, Boston apothecary shops are
advertising and selling chocolate imported from Europe. Soon,
Massachusetts sea captains are bringing back cargoes of cocoa beans, and
the chocolate trade blossoms.
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Technology steps in – and de Sade’ dinners…
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1728
Back in Europe chocolate factories are springing up but they use the same
age old labor intensive methods to grind and churn their products.
1765
American colonists crave chocolate and the demand prompts James Baker
and John Hannon to start their own industrial revolution by building a
chocolate factory that uses water power to mechanize the production
process. Their company, today known as the Walter Baker Company, is one
of the oldest still operating in the US;
1772
Leave it to the Marquis de Sade to rekindle the old chestnut about
chocolate being a powerful aphrodisiac. He gives a ball in Marseilles and, as
author Louis Petit de Bachaumont writes: "into the dessert he slipped
chocolate pastilles so good that no one failed to eat some. It proved to be
so potent that those who ate the pastilles began to burn with unchaste
ardor and to carry on as if in the grip of the most amorous frenzy." The
story may be mythical , but the infamous Marquis was arrested soon after
the ball was over.
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The Learning Curve & the Dutch Treat
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1792
The Swiss, who today consume more chocolate per capita than any other
nation (22 pounds, compared to 11 pounds per person in the US),are still
trying to master the art of making chocolate. So, when the famed German
author Johann Wolfgang von Goethe embarks on a tour of Switzerland, he
takes no chances and packs his own chocolate and chocolate pot for the
journey.
1815
Dutch chocolate maker C.J. van Houten patented an inexpensive method for
pressing the fat from roasted cacao beans. The center of the bean, known
as the "nib" contains an average of 54 % cocoa butter, which is a natural
fat. Van Houten's machine, a hydraulic press, reduced the cocoa butter
content by nearly half. This created a "cake" that could be pulverized into a
fine powder known as "cocoa". Van Houten treated the powder with alkaline
salts so that the powder would mix more easily with water. Today, this
process is known as "Dutching". The final product, Dutch chocolate, has a
dark color and a mild taste.
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The Swiss again, and the Brits
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1819
One hundred twenty two years after the mayor of Zurich brought chocolate
back with him from Brussels, the Swiss develop a knack for making
chocolate and Francois Louis Cailler opens the first Swiss chocolate factory
on Lake Geneva. Not to be outdone, six years later Philippe Suchard builds
his own machine, including the world's first chocolate mixer, and starts
making his own confection.
1847
If J.S. Fry & Sons of Bristol, founded in 1728, is not the oldest chocolate
factory in England , it certainly is its most enduring and innovative. In fact,
one son, Joseph, had the ingenuity to purchase and install a steam engine in
his factory in 1789, soon after Watt invented the machine. A grandson,
Francis, and a great grandson, another Joseph. carry on the tradition of
innovation by adopting Van Houten's process and press and discovering a
way to combine cocoa powder, sugar and cocoa butter to make the first real
chocolate bars.
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The power of Synergies & Technology: Moving
towards global popularity
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1876
The Swiss Daniel Peter was trying to add milk to chocolate to produce a
smoother chocolate. However, you can't add water to chocolate, it makes
the chocolate shrink and separate and generally disintegrate. Milk has water
in it. Daniel Peter met Henri Nestle' . Nestle' had perfected the
manufacture of condensed milk , so he and Peter added milk solids to
chocolate and produced the world's first milk chocolate, as well as starting
the Nestle' Company. Chocolate was still available only as cocoa or as a liquid
at that point.
1879
It was Rodolphe Lindt who thought to add cocoa butter back to chocolate.
Adding the additional cocoa butter, which is essential to the modern
manufacture of chocolate, helps the chocolate set up into a bar that will
"snap" when broken as well as making it melt ont the tongue. Once they get
started, the Swiss quickly show the world just how much they love their
chocolate . They are the first to add powdered milk to the process and they
refine the chocolate making art by introducing a "conching" machine that
gives chocolate confections a smooth, creamy texture.
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The US markets, and beyond …
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1895
America's love affair with chocolate heat up when Milton S. Hershey sells
his first Hershey Bar in Pennsylvania using modern, mass-production
techniques that make the product less expensive and thus available for
mass consumption.
---------------------------------------------------------What does the story of the emergence and diffusion of chocolate over the
centuries and each individual event tell us about managing change in
organizations? Send back the attached ppt presentation (download it from
http://www;insead.edu/eis/C&C.htm) with YOUR annotations (hand-written
or hand-typed at rachel.royer@insead.edu ). Add an annotation every time
an event or set of events triggers an interesting association with what you
consider worth knowing or understanding in managing change, based on your
experience and insights.
The result will be a collective ppt presentation “On Chocolate & Change”. A
sweet, as well as potentially insightful and useful compensation for the
sometimes bitter ‘reality’ we experienced during the EIS Simulation!
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My Slide (for whatever you might want to add)
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