Ayala Corporation: One family’s contribution to nation building

For more than a decade, ESG-linked funds and corporate sustainability strategies have run on the same quiet assumption: spend more on sustainability, and the market will eventually reward you for it. The problem, however, is that this theory is mo...

Few organizational phenomena have been acted upon as quickly—or understood as unevenly—as diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). Over the past decade, DEI—which encompasses the workplace practices and policies aimed at promoting diverse represent...

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.

Advance inclusion metrics beyond visibility. Learn to distinguish genuine belonging from everyday self-editing and translation effects.

For years, executives were sold a compelling idea: doing good would also mean doing well. Surveys suggested that consumers were increasingly willing to pay more for products seen (or marketed) as better for the planet. Consultants reinforced the m...

Learn how leaders can manage difficult DE&I conversations effectively with six practical strategies to foster understanding and progress.

Explore key techniques to keep DE&I dialogue constructive in hostile settings, including asking questions, reframing language, and knowing when to exit.

Learn how leaders can beat the D&I backlash by building strategic cohesion, avoiding performative inclusion and driving business performance.

Discover why customer value, not sustainability alone, drives purchasing decisions and how businesses can scale sustainable innovation.

Tarkett is accelerating circular flooring by using radical cross-industry collaboration and ecosystem partnerships to make material reuse viable at scale.