Podcast appearances and mentions of Roberto C Goizueta

Peter Roberts, Professor of Organization & M anagement at Emory University's Goizueta Business School, was founding academic director of Social Enterprise @ Goizueta. He joined The Goizueta Effect Podcast to explore the vast inequities between growers and retailers/roasters, how historical movements like colonialism and slavery have shaped the origins of this industry, and what role climate change and the pandemic are playing today. He also delves into how consumers, roasters, and retailers can work together to balance the scales. Peter also serves as the academic director of specialty coffee programs for The Roberto C. Goizueta Business & Society Institute.His research focuses on how the behavior and performance of organizations evolve over time. His current projects focus on social entrepreneurs and accelerators, microbusiness development, and the global specialty coffee industry. He has been featured in the Harvard Business Review, Forbes, Bloomberg, Food and Wine, and Salon. The Magnitude of the Coffee Industry By the Numbers  In 2019, roughly two-thirds of American adults drank coffee every day.  Over the past 30 years, the specialty coffee market has expanded exponentially and now accounts for up to 40% of all coffee consumed.   In 2020, the coffee market was valued at more than $102 billion.   With 25 million families around the world responsible for growing coffee, the economic and social impacts of this industry are broad and deep.   Evolution of the Coffee Industry The global coffee industry has always been characterized by stark contrasts. Retailers, roasters, and importers often do very well financially, while those who grow coffee struggle to break even.  This is not a new phenomenon. The coffee industry only exists because of colonialism and slavery. Originally, coffee was not grown in Central and South America, but when Europe and the United States started consuming inordinate amounts of coffee, coffee plants and people were brought from Africa.  In the late 1800s, formal slave owning and colonialism went out of fashion. At this point, global markets kicked in, and coffee became a lucrative way for middlemen, such as roasters and sellers, to maintain low coffee grain prices.  Major brands like Folgers and Maxwell House dominated the first wave of coffee consumption, then Peet's and Starbucks and Caribous set up a second wave of coffee. Recently, the third wave of coffee has become popular, which is the movement focusing on small, micro lot-oriented, and direct-trade roasters.  While coffee has often been lucrative for retailers and roasters, most coffee producers in the world are not able to cover the cost of production. From Bean to Cup Consumers often assume that all the magic happens in a coffee shop. However, the people that work on coffee farms, or in beneficios, pour a lot of skill, talent, work, and time into the production of coffee. Before coffee is roasted, it's a bean. Before that, it's a cherry. And prior to this, it's on shrubs. Before the beans are ready to be harvested, the grower cares for the plant for at least three to four years. Often, at least 25 sets of hands play a role in shaping a single pound of coffee.  Coffee growers handle much of the heavy lifting and shoulder much of the risk. However, the payoff is not even. On the retail end, $15-$20 is a reasonable per-pound price for specialty coffee, but the median price that coffee growers receive is just $2.60.   Specialty Coffee Production Exchange grade coffee or commercial/commodity coffee has fairly low standards for quality, which allows for many defects. However, specialty coffee must secure a grade of at least 81, which involves cupping and scrutinizing all of its elements. This product cannot feature green beans that would change its flavor profile. The coffee has to be picked, processed, and sorted multiple times. The world of specialty coffee involves high quality expectations. All of that extra work needs to be paid for. The Effect of Climate Change on Coffee Growing Coffee production is impacted by many external forces, including climate change. In the next 20 years, 60-70 percent of the land that currently grows coffee may become ill-suited for cultivation.  For instance, in Nicaragua just a decade ago, coffee farmers set their watches by when the weather changed from wet to dry to determine when it was time to pick coffee. Now, the weather is variable, which makes it difficult for farmers to grow. Economic and social mobility proves difficult for coffee farmers who don't have hefty savings. If we don't start valuing the work that goes into coffee, paying the people that do the work, accounting for some of the investment and risk, we may not have enough coffee to satisfy demand in 10 or 20 years. Rural communities are oriented around growing and selling coffee, so their economy is built around their core industry. Farmers who are looking ahead to an unsure future can invest in climate change adaptation, using concepts such as shade-grown coffee, which shifts conventional agriculture back to growing coffee in forests. Organizations such as The Nature Conservancy are exploring coffee growing as a form of reforestation. If we can figure out how to pay farmers for growing excellent coffee the right way, there is a built-in incentive for people to reforest, contributing to both adaptation and mitigation of climate change. The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Buying Patterns, Growers, and the Coffee Industry The initial shock of the COVID-19 pandemic hit the coffee industry as hard as the general public. The industry had several concerns: If people go back to drinking coffee at home, then would they stop drinking better-produced or specialty coffee? What happens to local retailers and coffee shops? What price would consumers be able to pay? Like many products, the industry also faces multiple supply chain issues. For instance, without shipping containers for coffee coming from certain suppliers, coffee can't reach consumers quickly and its quality decreases. Industry leaders also worry about workers' and farmers' health and safety as they grow the coffee.  However, “the new normal” did introduce a few silver linings such as subscription services. As people missed specialty coffee, producers realized that people would be willing to spend more to have better coffee to brew at home. Therefore, subscription services and online sales of the specialty shops did fairly well during the pandemic. Nonetheless, the industry is still uncertain about how the specialty coffee industry will settle down over the next few years.  Coffee Movements Create a More Equitable System Many movements over the years including fair trade and direct trade have helped drive progress in the coffee industry, but they have introduced challenges as well. Today, organizations like Fair Trade, Rainforest Alliance, and Smithsonian's Bird Friendly certifications are working in the right direction. The unbalanced marketplace always puts downward pressure on prices including what the farmer gets, so the next step in the world of specialty coffee is getting consumers to pay for it. What we need is a larger share of what we spend on coffee to continue to flow back to coffee-producing countries and growers. How You Can Engage in Conscious Consumerism When addressing the issue of disparity in the coffee industry head on, the majority of the onus is not on the consumer.  Consumers have actually been paying dramatically more for coffee over the last 30 years, but the benchmarking New York C-price is lower now than it was 30 years ago. So even though consumers have been paying more for the things that producers do, we haven't figured out how to enable and empower producers to recognize their value and effectively negotiate better prices. That being said, it's important for more people to get more excited about paying more money for coffee. When looking at the wine industry, consumers are willing to spend a lot of money for a glass of wine in a restaurant or a bottle of wine in a bottle shop, and the same needs to happen for coffee. Consumers need to appreciate quality coffee and good farm stories.  While the consumer problem is being addressed, the producer problem is not. We, as consumers, expect that if you pay more, the money goes back to producers in the appropriate ratios, and the farmer gets paid. However, in the 1940s, producing countries took home about 40 percent of what consumers paid for coffee; now, it's less than 10 percent further evidence that the problem lies with empowering the producers. Educating Growers and Buyers – The Specialty Coffee Transaction Guide  The challenge in the coffee industry is that the only green price that people track is the New York C-price. The pricing for specialty coffee is still following a very low and volatile commodity C-price, but it needs better reference prices. That's where the Specialty Coffee Transaction Guide comes in. Through a partnership between Goizueta Business School and more than 80 roasters, importers, exporters, and cooperatives, the group has developed a low, medium, and average price for different kinds of coffee. The guide allows specialty coffee producers and buyers to have a critical reference point for transactions.  It also allows policymakers and advocates to determine whether coffee prices are even covering the cost of production, then use that information to drive necessary change.  In addition, many retail and roasting organizations are pledging to be more transparent and make market information widely available. For example, Onyx Coffee tells consumers everything about the producer, including what they paid for their coffee.  Goizueta's Grounds for Empowerment Program The mission of Goizueta's Grounds for Empowerment program is to provide women specialty coffee growers the business know-how, market connections, and investment funds that will allow their farms to reach full economic potential. With the help of a diverse group of advisors, including Goizueta leaders and students, farmers participate in a series of workshops and gain unique perspectives on topics like storytelling, social media, cost of production, and relationship management. Producers are also empowered with information to recognize the value of their coffees and make plans to secure prices consistent with these valuations. Participants leave with a stronger vision for the future of their farms, and with plans and connections to achieve more prosperous and sustainable businesses. To learn more about Goizueta Business School and how principled leaders are driving positive change in business and society, visit www.goizueta.emory.edu.  

What do the terms “Black,” “African American,” “BIPOC” and “Latinx” mean to people? And how can workplaces take into consideration how these terms are used and perceived? Dr. Erika Hall, assistant professor of organization and management and faculty adviser at The Roberto C. Goizueta Business & Society Institute, joins the podcast to discuss her research on racial terminology and the implications these words have.

Wes Longhofer, Executive Academic Director at The Roberto C. Goizueta Business & Society Institute, joined The Goizueta Effect Podcast to discuss business and the critical role it plays in driving societal change.  His work has been funded by the National Science Foundation and featured in the Washington Post, American Sociological Review, and American Journal of Sociology. Most recently, Longhofer co-authored Super Polluters: Tackling the World’s Largest Sites of Climate-Disrupting Emissions. The Role of Business in Driving Societal Change  Business and capitalism are tremendous engines of prosperity and innovation. Organizations provide much-needed jobs and countless goods and services that undoubtedly make our lives better.  We're also living in an incredibly challenging time. Climate is in crisis. There's mounting inequality. Political polarization seems to be at a peak. Not to mention an ongoing pandemic that's shown us the power of business to urgently create a vaccine, but also raises important questions about the equitable distribution of it.  Recognizing the role of business in driving positive social change begins with acknowledging that there is no business without society. Too often, we think of markets as existing outside of people and the society that comprises them, but no market can exist without a society that sets the rules of the road, without a government that sets up things like property rights, or without an environment that provides natural resources that, if exploited, will threaten the ability of the market to function. If we start by recognizing that business exists in society and that markets are designed for and in the interest of people, then, we can begin to think about how to reimagine business. This view will help us as we work to redesign markets to serve both more of society and the natural world. It's about recognizing business not just as economic actors, but as civic and environmental actors as well.  Stakeholder Capitalism Stakeholder capitalism is messy. Primary stakeholders of a firm include employees, customers, investors, the firm itself, and the community in which the firm is located. That only scratches the surface. There's also government, the media, social movements, competitors, and the earth itself. So how do you make sense of this and which stakeholders matter the most? The classic professorial answer…it depends.  The History of Corporate Responsibility  Throughout history, there is a constant push and pull between business and society - from the expansion of the railroads, to the growth of U.S. steel, to the creation of the automobile. In the post-World War Two period, there was this idea that companies would provide jobs, not just for a few years, but for an entire career. They would provide opportunities for mobility over the life course. They would give you pensions. They would employ not just you, but a lot of your friends. A handful of large corporations really shaped and defined not just business in America, but civic life as well.  As the years progressed, the U.S. began to see momentous social movements and transformative public policy that raised awareness of things like civil rights and environmental degradation. Investors began to look at the old way of companies and decided they were not very profitable. In the late 1970s and 1980s, investors decided it might be better to break up those companies. They identified managers as a problem because companies were trying to do too much. Organizational scholars called this the garbage can theory of decision-making - you throw a bunch of strategies at the wall with ill-defined goals. Some said, "Well, maybe managers should just focus on maximizing profit rather than getting involved in all these other distractions." Very quickly, the idea of the company started to change. Employees started to spend less time at any one company, ownership became more centralized, companies began to invest more in financial markets and less on their own assets and R&D, and managers were compensated for maximizing profit. Companies began to view societal issues, like pollution, as externalities. Purpose-Driven Organizations Today  Today, a number of organizations are embracing purpose as part of their culture and their brand.  Patagonia's the obvious one that comes to mind. They have a deep commitment to sustainability in their supply chain. They work with industry partners to establish certifications that help verify that sustainability. They use their platform to take bold social and political stances that are aligned with their mission. In doing so, they make it easier for competitors to also be more sustainable. Another example of a company with purpose embedded throughout the company is Ben & Jerry's. They took, perhaps, one of the boldest stances on racial justice last summer by outlining specific steps that need to be taken to dismantle white supremacy. Chris Miller is their activism manager, which is not a position that you oftentimes see in a company's org chart. He previously worked at Greenpeace. Chris has described how the marketing department of Ben & Jerry’s gives him greater reach than an NGO ever could. How Social Movements Drive Organizations Accountability is key. It's one thing for a company to make a statement on a social issue, but many movements now want to know if these organizations really mean it. Are they putting resources toward that issue? Are they thinking about their own biases and practices that may have played a role in creating the very problem that these movements are concerned about?  How Purpose Impacts Purchasing Behavior A recent Nielsen report shows that 43% of consumers would prefer to spend more on products and services that support worthwhile causes. Millennials seem particularly interested in this idea, but aren't the ones actually buying these products. Instead, research suggests most sales are driven by older women. Despite the availability of options, a number of obstacles get in the way of shopping your values. A big challenge is a lack of information. There's a lot of greenwashing or just bad marketing that misstates the environmental benefit of a product. Habit comes into play as well, particularly for cheap products. There's also research that suggests that when we make a moral decision on our purchasing, we're more likely to offset that decision by doing something immoral later. The classic study shows that shoppers who take their own grocery bags to the grocery store are more likely to fill it with junk food. The issue of identity and social class represents another complication tied to purchasing with purpose. Sustainable products are usually more expensive and they're not available to everyone. 

Dr. Fadlo Khuri. Khuri is the 16th president of the American University of Beirut and professor of medicine (hematology and medical oncology) at the Faculty of Medicine and Medical Center. Prior, he was professor and chairman of the Department of Hematology and Medical Oncology, Emory University School of Medicine where he held the Roberto C. Goizueta Distinguished Chair for Cancer Research. Moderated by Howard Koh, Professor of the Practice of Public Health Leadership.

Fadlo Raja Khuri, MD Professor and Roberto C. Goizueta Chair Department of Hematology & Medical Oncology Deputy Director, Winship Cancer Institute Emory University

Fadlo Raja Khuri, MD   Professor and Roberto C. Goizueta Chair Department of Hematology & Medical Oncology Deputy Director, Winship Cancer Institute Emory University