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Case Study

GMA Garnet: Partnering for environmental mining

By Benoit F. Leleux and Marta Widz

12 pages

May 2019

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Reference: IMD-7-2075

PERTH, AUSTRALIA, September 2016. Torsten Ketelsen’s history, for the last 30 years, had been deeply intertwined with that of garnet, the hardest industrial sand. He very much created a market for it, then brought GMA Garnet to a market leader position with a 40 per cent global market share. GMA Garnet’s success was based on the exceptional quality of the product and on the company`s complete control over the whole production and distribution cycle, from mining to processing, logistics, shipping and distribution to the final user world-wide as well as reprocessing and recycling. The industrial success story also benefited from the support of its controlling shareholder, Jebsen & Jessen Family Enterprise, a true master of entrepreneurial partnerships. But how did the Jebsen & Jessen Family Enterprise`s overarching legacy, values, governance, business model and growth strategy contributed to the success of GMA Garnet? How will this relationship support or hamper the ambitious goals set for the company’s future? What were the implications of the family firms’ commitment to environmental mining practices and a circular economy in that context?

Learning Objective

Sustainability, circular business models, recycling, managing fast growth, management and ownership succession, venturing, managing partnerships, vertical integration, portfolio diversification, frontier markets, stewardship, values and ethics

Keywords

Family Business, Sustainability, Strategy, Circular Economy, Recycling, Partnering, Governance, Entrepreneurship, Venturing, Trust, Succession, Growth Management, Distribution Management, Vertical Integration

Settings

GMA Garnet Group, Jebsen and Jessen, Materials, Metals and Mining
1990-2018

Type

Field Research

Available Languages

English

Related material

Teaching note, Video

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This case study is part of a series

GMA Garnet: Partnering for environmental mining
Jebsen & Jessen Family Enterprise: A Hong from the cold

This case study is part of a series

GMA Garnet: Partnering for environmental mining
Jebsen & Jessen Family Enterprise: A Hong from the cold

Jebsen & Jessen Family Enterprise: A Hong from the cold

By Benoit F. Leleux and Marta Widz
Case reference: IMD-7-1859 ©2016

Summary

Singapore, Sept 2016. For the Jebsen and Jessen families, Asia had been an adopted land for over 120 years, not counting the years their ancestors,...

Selected for the 2020 Schlesinger Global Family Enterprise Case Competition

Reference IMD-7-1859

Organization GMA Garnet Group, Jebsen and Jessen

Industry Manufacturing, Industrial Goods;Consumer Goods, Luxury Goods and Jewelry;Manufacturing

Available Languages English

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