Category: Fortune

The Other Side of Carbon Trading

Fortune ran this piece of mine on carbon trading in Uganda.

You can find it here as well as archived below:

August 30, 2007
The Other Side of Carbon Trading
Planting trees in Uganda to offset greenhouse-gas emissions in Europe seemed like a good idea – until farmers were evicted from their land to make room for a forest.

By Stephan Faris

Planting trees in Mount Elgon National Park in eastern Uganda seemed like a project that would benefit everyone. The Face Foundation, a nonprofit group established by Dutch power companies, would receive carbon credits for reforesting the park’s perimeter. It would then sell the credits to airline passengers wanting to offset their emissions, reinvesting the revenues in further tree planting. The air would be cleaner, travelers would feel less guilty and Ugandans would get a larger park.

But to the farmers who once lived just inside the park, the project has been anything but a boon. They have been fighting to get their land back since being evicted in the early 1990s and have pressed their case with lawsuits.

Continue reading “The Other Side of Carbon Trading”

Behind the Turn Around at Fiat

This story on the turnaround of the Italian car company Fiat was the cover story in Fortune Magazine. It’s archived below.

May 8, 2007
Behind the turn around at Fiat
Yes, a car company can be fixed. Look at Fiat.

By Stephan Faris

Luca De Meo, head of the Fiat car brand, was given his job after just one interview. It was a hot Turin summer day in 2004, and Sergio Marchionne, the new CEO of the Fiat Group, was prowling the company’s holiday-drained halls. “In Italy the CEO of the Fiat Group is a kind of mythical personage, somewhere between Pope and Prime Minister,” says De Meo, 39. “He knocked on the door and said, ‘What do you do?'”

Fiat was a wreck – it would lose more than $1 billion that year – and Marchionne, just arrived from Switzerland’s SGS, the world’s largest goods-inspection company, was looking for a team to strip it clean and hammer it into shape. De Meo was in charge of the group’s Lancia brand at the time, and during the two hours they talked, he felt as if he were being X-rayed. “Marchionne has a real ability to read people’s psychology,” says De Meo. “Three months later he said, ‘You have to run Fiat.'”

Continue reading “Behind the Turn Around at Fiat”

Starbucks vs. Ethiopia

This article on a trademark battle between Starbucks and the government of Ethiopia appeared in Fortune Magazine and is archived below.

February 26, 2007
Starbucks vs. Ethiopia
The country that gave the world the coffee bean and the company that invented the $4 latte are fighting over a trademark, says Fortune’s Stephan Faris.

By Stephan Faris

To produce a pound of organic sun-dried coffee, farmers in the southern Ethiopian village of Fero spread six pounds of ripe, red coffee cherries onto pallets near their fields. They sun the fruit for 15 days, stirring every few minutes to ensure uniform dryness, then shuck the shells.

Last season, that pound of coffee fetched farmers an average price of $1.45. Figuring in the cost of generator fuel, bank interest, labor and transport across Ethiopia’s dusty roads, it netted them less than $1. In the U.S., however, that same pound of coffee commands a much higher price: $26 for a bag of Starbucks’ roasted Shirkina Sun-Dried Sidamo.

Continue reading “Starbucks vs. Ethiopia”

Ferragamo’s Step

This article on the handover of a family-run fashion business appeared in Fortune and is archived below.

January 22, 2007
Ferragamo’s Step
The family-owned Italian shoe business, now in its third generation, tries on its first outside CEO.

By Stephan Faris

Last summer Wanda Ferragamo ordered a special gift for her 22 grandchildren and 23 great-grandchildren. The fashion-family matriarch took a plastic Weeble, the egg-shaped doll that wobbles but doesn’t fall down, and had it recast as foot-tall artisinal silver statues. Hand-soldered lace curled around 45 bellies. “My Dears,” read the inscribed dedication, “regain your balance and continue straight on the path of principles and moral rectitude shown to you.”

Continue reading “Ferragamo’s Step”

Sarmi’s Army

This article on Italy’s innovative postal system ran in Fortune. It’s archived below.

June 21, 2006
Sarmi’s Army
Poste Italiane’s CEO and his 150,000 foot soldiers are making money on everything but delivering the mail.

By Stephan Faris

The town of Percile, northeast of Rome, has two groceries, a snack bar, and a tourist booth. Medieval houses climb a hill of overlapping archways and cobblestone footpaths. With only 260 residents, most of them retirees, the town hasn’t attracted a newsstand, much less a supermarket or a bank. But it does have a post office.

For Poste Italiane, outposts like the one in Percile are at once its greatest liability and its greatest asset. Postal companies are by nature spread thin, and the Italian state monopoly is no exception. With 150,000 employees and 14,000 offices, the company says its mail operations lose hundreds of millions of euros a year. But those same offices provide the backbone of a company that offers everything from investment plans to vacuum cleaners.
Continue reading “Sarmi’s Army”

Emperor of TV

This story on what the left might do to Silvio Berlusconi’s companies ran in Fortune. It’s archived below.

April 7, 2006
Emperor of TV
Italy’s Silvio Berlusconi is fighting for his political life — and the fate of his media empire may hang in the balance.

By Stephan Faris

One evening this winter the Italian talk-show host Enrico Mentana played a clip for his guest, Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, in which Oscar-winning actor Roberto Benigni mocked Berlusconi’s five-year reign.

The Prime Minister was clearly irritated by the attacks. But as the show’s director prepared to broadcast Berlusconi’s fidgets and frowns, his media handler intervened. Without asking permission, he climbed onto the set to warn his boss that the cameras would soon be rolling. When they did, Berlusconi was all smiles.

Continue reading “Emperor of TV”

Meet the New Disney

This article on the Chinese video game giant Shanda ran in Fortune and is archived below.

Oct. 6, 2005
Meet the New Disney
Shanda, China’s hottest online-game company, is betting that it can become an entertainment giant.

By Stephan Faris

It was the first crime of its kind in China: Last year a 40-year-old man used a real knife to stab to death a younger man who had borrowed his virtual sword from an online videogame and sold it for $870. There are no laws in China protecting virtual property, so Qiu Chengwei, the man whose sword had been stolen, got no help from the police.Instead he tracked Zhu Caoyuan to his one-room apartment in Shanghai and, in the presence of Zhu’s girlfriend, plunged a knife into his heart.

Continue reading “Meet the New Disney”