2008 Business Teacher Conference Report - Divine Chocolate

Everything I had read about Divine Chocolate and its inspirational MD Sophi Tranchell suggested that we were in for a treat at the Business Teacher Conference 2008. However, even I was taken by surprise by the sheer energy and passion exuded by Sophi as she got our conference off to a stunning start. Here are a few personal observations and a download link for Sophi’s excellent presentation on Divine Chocolate…

The Divine Chocolate story is both fascinating and directly relevant for business teachers. Here is an example of a social enterprise that has taken on the big three global chocolate producers (Nestle, Cadbury’s and Mars) and, perhaps against the odds, has survived and now prospered in a highly competitive market. There is so much to draw from the rich business information contained both in Sophi’s presentation and also Divine’s superb website.

Fairtrade coffee provided CafeDirect was the trailblazer for fairtrade-based social enterprises. However, I sense the Divine Chocolate is the rising star of the sector. And in chocolate (which tastes great by the way) Divine can be a wonderful case study platform to help us examine many aspects of real-life business. For example,

- The crucial significance of a strong sense of mission & clear objectives
- The importance of branding and retail distribution
- How commercial partnerships can help a small business grow rapidly in the face of significantly larger competitors (e.g. Christian Aid, Oxfam & Comic Relief - in the case of Divine).
- How strong PR can create a seachange in consumer and supplier behaviour (e.g. Stock the Choc campaign)
- Business organisation & structures (e.g. share ownership, sharing profits via dividends)

Above all, I noted that the Divine Chocolate story reminds us of the importance of sheer passion and persistence in making a business a success.

Following on from Harriet Lamb’s excellent presentation at the Economics Conference, it was great to learn so much about Divine from Sophi. There were many questions from the audience (we could have taken many more had time permitted). However, I felt that Sophi had inspired the teacher audience, hopefully to spread the word about Divine and buy some bars the next time they are in a stockist.

Here is the link to Sophi’s presentation.