Tony’s Chocolonely: Changing the Industry by Selling Chocolate

This case follows the evolution of Tony’s Chocolonely (Tony’s)—a Dutch chocolate brand dedicated to eradicating child and forced labour in the chocolate industry supply chain—focusing specifically on the tensions inherent in any sustainable entrepreneurship. From its humble origins as a journalist’s protest over the use of child and forced labour, Tony’s grew into a globally recognized, sustainable brand with a mission to change the chocolate industry and abolish the worst forms of labour abuse. Along the way, Tony’s faced critical decisions where it had to balance conflicting social, environmental, and financial goals across the individual, organizational, and systemic levels—including in its own value chain. Tony’s chief executive officer (CEO) Douglas Lamont must make two key decisions about how to best address these labour practices: 1) what premium should be paid to cocoa farmers to support their livelihoods and thereby remove the need to resort to child and forced labour; and 2) whether to keep working with the Swiss chocolate producer Barry Callebaut AG, which had recently been accused of supporting forced labour in its own supply chain. Was it possible to change the system in the chocolate industry?

The case is suitable for undergraduate and graduate levels, particularly in sustainability courses and sustainable or social entrepreneurship courses. It also fits in well with general strategy and management courses as a way of adding a sustainability focus.<br><br>The case allows students to learn about the complexity of sustainable entrepreneurship, especially the existence of intractable tensions. Students will assess the individual and organization-level trade-offs that might be necessary to create system-level change. After working through the case and assignment questions, students will be able to<ul><li>understand that sustainability tensions occur across the individual, organizational, and systemic and industry levels;</li><li>analyze a business situation to identify the tensions and the levels at which they occur;</li><li>assess an organization’s financials as part of making recommendations for how to manage such tensions; and</li><li>make integrated decisions about how an organization can maximize its ability to accomplish its social mission.</li></ul>

• Sustainability
• tensions
• systems change
• sustainable entrepreneurship
• social entrepreneurship
• chocolate
• cocoa