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Leading in turbulent times webinar series: The strain of COVID-19

Keeping supply chains moving

By Carlos Cordon

March 2020

This webinar with Carlos Cordon, IMD Professor of Strategy and Supply Chain Management, appeared live on Friday 27 March, at 11am CET.

It is a challenging time for production – the world is in panic mode and many supply chains are faltering. They are either overwhelmed – think toilet paper producers – or closing down – like car factories. With gaping imbalances between supply and demand, how do we manage this extreme situation?

Professor Carlos Cordon teaches how to keep supply chains moving. He explores the lockdown process and how best to prepare for the resulting production environment, using examples of companies that succeeded in managing imbalances during times of crisis.

To view all webinars, please visit our Leading in Turbulent Times page here.

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Case reference: IMD-2736 ©2026

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The case tracks the development of Slow Forest Coffee, a company launched in 2017 on the belief that when producing food in a regenerative way, everyone benefits. Farmers flourish, nature thrives and the economy prospers. By 2025 Slow had converted almost 600 hectares of degraded monoculture coffee plantations in Laos into booming agroforestry farms, ensuring the preservation of an additional 1,000+ hectares by working with local smallholders. The coffee was roasted, packed and delivered by Slow to offices, hotels and coffee chains across Northern Europe. Thanks to vertical integration and investing in soil health and the whole ecosystem, unlike its competitors, Slow was not impacted by volatile and rapidly increasing coffee prices. The Slow model seemed to be working, both in environmental and financial terms, regenerating nature while yielding healthy, stable returns. A host of ongoing initiatives and matters needed to be discussed at the forthcoming board meeting, including which new customer segments the company should enter, how to adapt and scale marketing communications to support growth, the integration of the newly acquired coffee roaster in Kenya and the expansion of the supply base in the region, not to mention evolving resource needs as the company prepared to enter a bigger league. Slow was indeed buzzing with positive energy.

Reference IMD-2736

Organization Slow Forest

Industry Food Production, Agriculture;Consumer Goods, Coffee

Available Languages English

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Reference IMD-2758

Organization UrbanLuxe Cosmetics (Fictionalized)

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