Caravela announces its ‘One Caravela’ strategy
Image: Caravela Coffee
CaraveIa Coffee has announced its One Caravela strategy, an approach that finds its nearly 25-year-old coffee export and import enterprise returning to its founding roots of agility, efficiency, speed, and a recommitment to its ability to add value throughout the coffee chain.
This transformation, designed to increase stakeholder transparency and trust, will improve the company’s ability to source more and better coffees from fewer producer suppliers, while providing roaster customers with a comprehensive yet curated selection of the finest coffees from Latin America.
“Climate change, migration, price volatility, rising costs, inflation, and uncertain market demand are just some of the challenges that require Caravela to better meet the needs of our producer suppliers and roaster customers,” said Alejandro Cadena, co-founder and CEO, “In the ever-evolving landscape of the specialty coffee industry, each harvest brings forth new challenges, introducing constant uncertainty, and growing threats to daily operations. To navigate this dynamic environment, we must embrace agility and autonomy to unlock creativity and innovation at every level of the organisation.”
“Faced with uncertainty, many businesses retreat into themselves and slow down any dramatic changes in priority. However, history shows us that it is exactly in these conditions where brave new thinking, bold empowerment and agility thrive,” offered Jacqui Green, Caravela’s board chairperson, “The capability of Caravela’s leadership team to embark on the transition to self-management is a testimony to the trust, passion and joint focus on value creation for all stakeholders. I am excited to support Alejandro, Giancarlo and Team One Caravela at this step-off point into a wonderful new self-governing world.”
Self-management relocates leadership from individual senior-level roles to networked teams, enabling every Caravela team member to make well-informed and self-regulated decisions capable of positively impacting their respective spheres of influence. This transformative approach delivers five distinct benefits to our team members:
- Individual Empowerment: Self-management provides each employee with greater autonomy, allowing freedom in decision-making that impacts both their work and the broader scope of the company.
- Professional Development: Opportunities for growth that were previously inaccessible are now available through self-directed learning. Employees can identify and engage in challenging and fulfilling projects to advance their professional journeys.
- Enhanced Collaboration: Effective self-management enhances team collaboration, fostering trust among colleagues and facilitating more efficient and effective interdependence.
- Increased Adaptability: In a world of constant change, self-management enhances the company’s agility, enabling rapid responses to shifting needs in producer relations, customer requirements, and market dynamics.
- Accelerated Innovation: Autonomy fuels exploration of novel ideas and approaches, encouraging creative thinking and improvement of processes, practices, and products.
“It’s brilliant to see Caravela’s bold leaders recognise the gains to be made from shaping their culture towards greater self-management in service of their purpose-driven mission,” offered author, conflict diplomat, and trusted advisor, Cath Bishop, providing an outside-in perspective. “Empowering and trusting their colleagues further will allow Caravela to develop the agility, autonomy and decision-making required to optimise performance in these challenging times.”
At the core of the One Caravela strategy is our recognition of the need to generate, sustain, and responsibly distribute real value across the specialty coffee chain. “For the past 23 years, Caravela has worked to link highly-skilled coffee farmers with high-quality coffee roasters, aiming to develop long lasting, mutually beneficial relationships,” reflected Giancarlo Ghiretti, co-founder and CFO, “One Caravela doubles down on this effort by focusing on added value and empowering all team members to become relationship builders.
As we approach our 25th anniversary, this commitment to transformation is a declaration of our desire to establish a more dynamic and efficient industry, furthering our commitment to make coffee better for all.”