On
Chocolate & Change
History can help us to better understand the dynamics of change and
the complexity of ‘managing’ or ‘engineering’ (planning and
implementing) change processes at all levels through the diffusion of values,
beliefs and desires, artifacts, mental habits and behaviors, through education
and development of children and adults, through managerial interventions in
organizational contexts.
Take for instance some of the key facts related to the History of
Chocolate gathered on a number of websites. As a non-Swiss reader and
particularly if originating from ‘non-sugar-dominated’ eating cultures, you
might wonder what Chocolate has to do with Change. In fact, it’s not really
about chocolate only. It’s about the process of how cocoa beans, the
‘core’ of chocolate, underwent a transformation from being an exchange
currency in ancient South-American civilizations to become a popular European
consumer product (22 pounds per year pro capita in Switzerland). It’s about
the individuals and networks, groups, organizations and communities that enabled
this process to take place over the centuries. It’s about the role of
knowledge and technology in enabling and shaping innovation processes and their
diffusion. About resistance factors such as knowledge retention and exchange,
rivalries, as well as planned and unplanned synergies and collaborations.
600 AD :
The cocoa bean is considered the ultimate status symbol in the
Mayan and Aztec cultures. They use the beans as currency and those wealthy
enough to have an excess of beans use them to make a chocolate drink that gives
them "wisdom and power".
1000AD
Emperor Montezuma, who no doubt possesses more cocoa beans than
anybody else at the time is a "chocoholic." Montezuma, it is reported,
drinks nothing but chocolate, particularly before entering his harem. He
believes that the concoction is a powerful aphrodisiac. The Aztecs believed that
drinking chocolate. which was the undiluted, unsweetened liquor from fermented
cacao beans, would bring great wisdom, understanding and energy. Legend held
that the Aztecs have convinced the dread god Quentzacoatl to leave them in peace
by giving him gallons of chocolate, which was also known as Quetzacoatl.
1492
Columbus was given some of the cacao beans and took them back to
Spain, but he didn't know how to process and ferment them.
1502
Columbus is the first European to discover cocoa beans and
chocolate. But it is the Conquistadors that realize the value of "money
that grows on trees". Hernando de Oviedo y Valdez writes home to tell of
how he was able to purchase a slave for 100 cocoa beans. Later Hernando Cortez
builds a cocoa plantation for the express purpose of growing money in the name
of Spain.
1519
Cortez descended upon the Aztecs and eventually destroyed
Montezuma's armies and his capital. The Aztecs were convinced that Quetzacoatl
had returned as prophesied and they tried to get him to leave by once again
plying him with chocolate.
Things start moving, but knowledge …
1528
Cortez returns to Spain with cocoa beans and the tools needed to
make chocolate. Not that he is particularly fond of the concoction. In fact, he
is said to personally have found the drink distasteful, probably because the
Aztec method of preparation called for flavoring the drink with spices,
including lots of chili. Spanish cooks quickly remedy that by changing the
recipe, replacing the peppers with sugar.
1606
Spain manages to keep the discovery of chocolate a secret for more
than a century. In the meantime, the Spanish cultivate quite a trade in the
popular new beverage as well as cocoa plantations in their equatorial colonies
around the world . It is an Italian merchant , Antonio Carletti, who put in
motion the process that breaks the Spanish monopoly of the chocolate trade.
1615
A Spanish princess married Louis XIII of France and the secret got
out. Chocolate spread from France to England, Italy, Germany, Austria and
Switzerland.
1657
England's first chocolate house opens in London. Its a big hit with
the upper class and soon becomes the place where the elite meet to sip. Cocoa
bean prices are exorbitant and , as the Spanish historian Oviedo, notes :
"none but the rich and noble could afford " to frequent such
establishments. Prices eventually drop and chocolate houses begin to appear
throughout the country, challenging the primacy of coffee tea rooms and even
pubs.
1671
The personal chef to the Duke of Plesslis-Preslin in France watches
as a panful of burnt sugar spills over a bowlful of almonds. One taste and the
Duke is decidedly pleased. He's so pleased, in fact, that he lends his name to
this new confection and so, the "praslin" or "praline" comes
into being. But it took Belgian chocolatiers to perfect this particular treat.
Eventually, the word praline becomes synonymous with a particular type of
Belgian confection featuring a molded shell of chocolate that is filled with
creams, caramels, light ganache and of course, praline.
1674
They're still drinking chocolate throughout Europe, but
enterprising bakers in England begin adding cocoa to their cake recipes making
chocolate widely available in solid form for the first time. Within decades,
solid chocolate becomes available throughout Europe in a variety of forms,
including bars, lifting the status of chocolate from that of a stylish drink to
that of a superb, sweet delicacy.
1697
Belgium is already established as one of Europe's premier centers
for the production of chocolate. When the mayor of Zurich pays a visit to
Brussels, he's so taken with the taste he returns home with news of the savory
concoction, the inspiration for a new Swiss industry and no doubt a personal
supply to savor for some time to come.
1712
By the turn of the 18th century, chocolate makes its way back to
North America. In little more than a decade, Boston apothecary shops are
advertising and selling chocolate imported from Europe. Soon, Massachusetts sea
captains are bringing back cargoes of cocoa beans, and the chocolate trade
blossoms.
1728
Back in Europe chocolate factories are springing up but they use
the same age old labor intensive methods to grind and churn their products.
1753
Carolus Linnaeus named the cacao tree, Theobroma cacao, which meant
"food of the gods, chocolate."
1765
American colonists crave chocolate and the demand prompts James
Baker and John Hannon to start their own industrial revolution by building a
chocolate factory that uses water power to mechanize the production process.
Their company, today known as the Walter Baker Company, is one of the oldest
still operating in the US
1772
Leave it to the Marquis de Sade to rekindle the old chestnut about
chocolate being a powerful aphrodisiac. He gives a ball in Marseilles and, as
author Louis Petit de Bachaumont writes"'into the dessert he slipped
chocolate pastilles so good that..no one failed to eat some. It proved to be so
potent that those who ate the pastilles began to burn with unchaste ardor and to
carry on as if in the grip of the most amorous frenzy." The story may be
mythical , but the infamous Marquis was arrested soon after the ball was over.
1792
The Swiss, who today consume more chocolate per capita than any
other nation (22 pounds, compared to 11 pounds per person in the US),are still
trying to master the art of making chocolate. So, when the famed German author
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe embarks on a tour of Switzerland, he takes no chances
and packs his own chocolate and chocolate pot for the journey.
1815
Dutch chocolate maker C.J. van Houten patented an inexpensive
method for pressing the fat from roasted cacao beans. The center of the bean,
known as the"nib" contains an average of 54 % cocoa butter, which is a
natural fat. Van Houten's machine, a hydraulic press, reduced the cocoa butter
content by nearly half. This created a "cake" that could be pulverized
into a fine powder known as"cocoa". Van Houten treated the powder with
alkaline salts so that the powder would mix more easily with water. Today, this
process is known as "Dutching". The final product, Dutch chocolate,
has a dark color and a mild taste.
1819
One hundred twenty two years after the mayor of Zurich brought
chocolate back with him from Brussels, the Swiss develop a knack for making
chocolate and Francois Louis Cailler opens the first Swiss chocolate factory on
Lake Geneva. Not to be outdone, six years later Philippe Suchard builds his own
machine, including the world's first chocolate mixer, and starts making his own
confection.
1847
If
J.S. Fry & Sons of Bristol, founded in 1728, is not the
oldest chocolate factory in England , it certainly is its most enduring and
innovative. In fact, one son, Joseph, had the ingenuity to purchase and install
a steam engine in his factory in 1789, soon after Watt invented the machine. A
grandson, Francis, and a great grandson, another Joseph. carry on the tradition
of innovation by adopting Van Houten's process and press and discovering a way
to combine cocoa powder, sugar and cocoa butter to make the first real chocolate
bars.
The power of Synergies & Technology: Moving towards global popularity
1876
The Swiss Daniel Peter was trying to add milk to chocolate to
produce a smoother chocolate. However, you can't add water to chocolate, it
makes the chocolate shrink and separate and generally disintergrate. Milk has
water in it. Daniel Peter met Henri Nestle' . Nestle' had perfected the
manufacture of condensed milk , so he and Peter added milk solids to chocolate
and produced the world's first milk chocolate, as well as starting the Nestle'
Company. Chocolate was still available only as cocoa or as a liquid at that
point.
1879
It was Rodolphe Lindt who thought to add cocoa butter back to
chocolate. Adding the additional cocoa butter, which is essential to the modern
manufacture of chocolate, helps the chocolate set up into a bar that will
"snap" when broken as well as making it melt ont the tongue. Once they get started, the
Swiss quickly show the world just how much they love their chocolate . They are
the first to add powdered milk to the process and they refine the chocolate
making art by introducing a "conching" machine that gives chocolate
confections a smooth, creamy texture.
The US markets, and beyond …
1895
America's love affair with chocolate heat up when Milton S. Hershey sells his first Hershey Bar in Pennsylvania using modern, mass-production techniques that make the product less expensive and thus available for mass consumption.
The result will be a collective ppt presentation “On Chocolate & Change”. A sweet, as well as potentially insightful and useful compensation for the sometimes bitter ‘reality’ we experienced during the EIS Simulation!
 |
If you are interested in joining ongoing RESEARCH projects at CALT related to the EIS Simulation or start new ones, just contact Professor Angehrn. |
| |
If you are interested in TESTING or USING the EIS Simulation, contact Catherine Nielsen by e-mail: catherine.nielsen@insead.edu. |