What will we do without chocolate?
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Can chocolate be saved?
Some 70% of cocoa, the raw material for chocolate, comes from West Africa where global warming is driving extreme weather—excessive and untimely rain or drought—and jeopardizing the livelihoods of cocoa farmers by decimating their crops. February 2025 was no different as yields plunged for a third year. Other factors reducing cocoa yields include mealybug infestations, smuggling and illegal mining. [See source.]
Without a more sustainable approach to cocoa cultivation, the future looks grim. In fact, cocoa may well face “an “existential threat” largely because of increasingly dry conditions in cacao-producing regions.” [See source.] This would be terrible, of course, for the millions of farmers in the tropical band who rely on cocoa cultivation, but what would it mean for chocolate’s millions of avid consumers? [Read more.]
Industry Insights - Defense - May 2025
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Does the world really want war?
Why has the number of defense industry executives increased so dramatically (+26% — more than 8 times the all-industry average) in the past year? What’s going on?
After the Berlin Wall fell in 1989, the world hoped briefly that peace would replace the cold war. Europe settled into the arms of a protective America, and neither China nor Russia had yet demonstrated their military ambitions. In fact, the START treaties and related arms limitation agreements came into force successively after 1994 [see source] suggesting that major nations were actually serious about reducing armaments and securing a lasting peace.
Whatever they intended at the time, the major powers continued to develop their military capabilities. The hope for lasting peace faded almost imperceptibly as regional conflicts in Africa, Eastern Europe, and in many other hot spots began to tick up. [Read More.]
Industry Insights Worldwide - April 2025
In this report we will be looking at the major differences and similarities between macrogeographic regions across the world based on data available from LinkedIn to see who works where and what they primarily do at work with a focus on the executive level.
We have chosen an infographic style of presentation to keep the text to a minimum and allow readers to draw more of their own conclusions. Commentary is intended only to draw attention to some of the key points along the way. [Read More.]