Situation Analysis

The case is based in the late 70’s of the past century, when after the baby boom and the appearance of third world countries (Less Developed Countries – LDC’s) mothers in general were unable to feed their children with all the needed nutrients that a normal child must have, this is basically why the infant formula was created.

The infant formula was created by companies in the pharmaceutical industry and Nestlé. Nestlé easily got a high market share in the industry. The general health problems in the aftermath cause a great impact on babies. The number of sick babies increased all the time after the Second World War, because there weren’t the needed minimum required measures of neatness for babies, like sterilized nipples, clean water, clean environments, etc. So breastfeeding wasn’t enough to keep a baby healthy over those years.

The infant formula seemed to be a good solution providing the enough amounts of nutrients for a baby. The problems started after the meeting of infant-feeding practices in 1970 and 1972, Bogota and Paris, where a resolution was made: “The report concluded that breast milk was the best food for infants and, if in sufficient supply, would satisfy the need of a child up to 4-6 months. In cases where breastfeeding was insufficient or impossible, the use of nutritional substitutes was encouraged”.

The debate created some years before these meetings and the years after seemed to be an ethical issue, of whether if babies must be fed with the infant formula or with the breast milk. The objective of infant formula was misunderstood as a way of replacing the breast milk, most companies including Nestlé, published some policies about is as the one showed in the exhibit 4 of the article {Harrison, N. (1990). Nestlé Alimentana S.A. - Infant Formula (Abridged). Harvard Business School Publishing } where Nestlé