Crispin

Business Leadership Review Case Study Series

Crispin Chocolates – Case 2

3:1.2006

Chocolate and Team Dream

This case was written by Eoin Banahan and Lee Cronin, consultants, under the supervision of Professor Pierre Casse, Suez Chair in Leadership, Solvay Business School, ULB, Brussels, Belgium.

It has been prepared as a basis for class discussion and is not intended to Illustrate best practice, or otherwise, in a business situation.

October 2005

Business Leadership Review Case Study Series

Crispin Chocolates – Case 2

3:1.2006

CRISPIN CHOCOLATES

Friedrich Stein looked out through the glass window of his office onto the production floor below. It was November 22nd, 2004, four o’clock in the afternoon but it was Friday, and so the place was empty. The employees who worked on the factory floor always left early on a Friday so the team of cleaners could work their magic. Cleanliness throughout the factory was extremely important. Friedrich got up from his desk, strolled across the room and opened the office door. The open-plan office, with its desks, each piled high with work-in-progress, lay silent before him. The office staff no longer worked beyond 4 o’clock either. Of course it hadn’t always been that way. Indeed, a year previously when Friedrich took up his position as CEO, people used to stay well beyond 7 o’clock in the evening although they didn’t have to. In fact a lot had changed since Friedrich accepted the position of CEO from the company’s founder, Pierre Crispin, a year ago. The old man had shown so much faith in Friedrich; he had told the workforce on the day of his retirement that he felt confident he was leaving the place in capable hands. He told them that Friedrich was the best man for the job and they should all support Friedrich as they had supported him through the years. But those words seemed so hollow to Friedrich now because his people were not so supportive. In fact it seemed as if they were intent on making...