Book review: Chocolate Fortunes
Disclaimer: I received a free review copy of Chocolate Fortunes: The Battle for the Hearts, Minds, and Wallets of China’s Consumers from the publisher, AMACOM.
Again, a very overdue review. I read this one many, many months ago (probably a year now) and meant to write a review the entire time, so here it is. One caveat before I say anything: Lawrence Allen was previously at Hershey and relates some of his story here with a slight bias toward what Hershey was (and wasn’t) doing right in China. I don’t think it’s overly biased in a bad way personally, but I do think some may take objection with that fact.
I really enjoyed this book and think it very worthwhile for any amateur businessperson (i.e. undergraduate business majors or even a high school student interested in business, or anyone without any business training who wants to know more about what it takes to run a logistics heavy and product focused business). Why? Because Mr. Allen doesn’t talk too much about business theories, but uses the 5 chocolate manufacturers as actual example of what worked and didn’t work in the market. Each section devoted to a manufacturer–Ferrero, Cadbury, Nestle, Mars, and Hershey–has quite a bit of details:
