After our anxious agenda of cardinal credibility for this new decade, that bankrupt our onlinewriting to China Daily association on 2009, I ambition to alpha 2010 talking about history and letters advancing from companies. January was a actual moment for Harvard Business School, in Boston. The acceptable Cases Seminar completed 50 years of existence. Every year about 200 admiral from all continents accompany to altercate 12 cases of companies that had something new for us to apprentice and advance this acquaintance appear a added able and acceptable world.
The Seminar has an absorbing dynamics. Each case is accounting alternating the year by a aggregation of Harvard advisers and researchers, leaded by David Bell and Mary Shelman. A acceptable case has about 20 pages, accepting ten pages of argument and added ten of annexes ( banking and bazaar data). The case letters the actual facts of anniversary company, the moment the aggregation faces, and the above challenges and decisions appear the future, in agreement of strategies.
In a case altercation event, like the Harvard Seminar, anniversary actor has acceptance to the HBS web, downloads the cases, abstracts and instructions, and has to apprehend the case in advance. At the Seminar, anniversary case is than ahead discussed with a abate accumulation of 8 participants, to accept a added alternate assessment architecture process. Then, the case is assuredly discussed on a plenary, and at the end, the CEO of aggregation comes and answers questions interacting with the audience. It is 4 day accident abounding of immersion. If the participants dont apprehend the cases in advance, it is traveling to be actual difficult and abhorrent to participate.
Harvard is area the appellation agribusiness was aboriginal elaborated, in 1957, by Profs. John Davis and Ray Goldberg, in the book A Concept of Agribusiness. The abstraction had an attack to accompany added integration, because agronomics an action acerb affiliated with suppliers of inputs, account providers, processing industry, administration systems, banking institutions and consumers. Further on, in 1968, a new advertisement accepting Prof. Ray Goldberg as author, emerged. This additional book brought the abstraction of agribusiness systems. The aberration actuality is that an agribusiness arrangement considers the breeze of one artefact over an alternate arrangement or aliment chain. Like the soybean arrangement in China, de pork system, and others. The sum of all the systems operating at a accurate country, gives the countrys agribusiness.
Prof. Goldberg is still arch the Seminar, presenting cases and interacting with participants and audience, accepting an archetype of animation and lifestyle. His account are actual modern, and his discussions and thoughts against the approaching accord to the admirers actual appropriate moments.
In the 2010 Seminar, 12 cases were discussed. There is already a attitude in accepting a case from China, and at atomic 10 admiral from China participate. In 2009, COFCO case was written, presented and discussed. In 2010, DaChan Food Company was on the spotlight. From DaChan we had a description of the company, its origins, the operations on feed, meat, how the aggregation affairs farmers in an affiliation arrangement of producers, and the alotof important point was how DaChan developed a reliable arrangement of accuracy and traceability for guaranteeing above for its buyers. DaChan baffled an important position as a above supplier for all-embracing foodservice chains operating in Asia. Mr. Mark J.H. Han, Chairman, was there at the end to acknowledgment questions and interact. The admirers was actual admiring that DaChan could body this arrangement to accord aplomb to consumers, and even Prof. Goldberg accent this as a above advance on Chinas agribusiness development.
The added cases complex Cosan, which is Brazilian better booze aggregation and the contempo advance strategies. This case discussed the outstanding after-effects that Brazil is extensive with ethanol, which will be a added article in our column. Monsanto was aswell a case, exploring the position of this aggregation in innovation, accepting berry companies as transporters of technology to farmers, and alteration advice strategies, appear new trends of farmers. The addition activity was discussed and we can apprehend in the approaching added plants aggressive to baptize scarcity. Woolf case explored the assembly of agronomics and almonds in California, and how baptize restrictions are aggressive approaching production.
Rabobank, the better accommodating case based in the Netherlands was aswell explored, with its different characteristics and the approaching advance strategies, with a focus on aliment and agribusiness systems. We aswell had Purecircle that explored the bazaar of stevia based sugar, a accustomed sweetner, Ebro Puleva, the worlds better rice company, based in Spain and Hungerit that explores banty assembly in Hungary, afore and afterwards the antipathetic era.
Interesting adventures aswell came from GTC Biotherapeutics, a aggregation committed to aftermath anesthetic and food, accouterment ingredients, proteins and added anesthetic based from aliment and animals. Red Tomato was aswell a case, and this aggregation is committed to hotlink bounded aliment producers to supermarkets, accepting a nice archetype for China. Another arresting case was Diamond Foods that started as a farmers accommodating and now is the arch aggregation in the almond candy bazaar in the USA, with farmers as shareholders of this company. A final case was accounting by us, Codevasf. This is a accessible aggregation in Brazil that is lending 8000 ha of anhydrous acreage to the clandestine area in a actual absorbing bid because acceptable integration. This will be explored in our next article, back I accede a nice archetypal for Chinese Agribusiness.
The columnist is assistant of cardinal planning and aliment chains at the School of Economics and Business, University of Sao Paulo, Brazil (www.favaneves.org) and all-embracing speaker.
