It seemed like such a clean break, like snapping off a piece of a Kit Kat bar.

Last week, Nestlé, the $244 billion food conglomerate behind some of the world’s most beloved candy and coffee brands, announced that its CEO, Laurent Freixe, had been dismissed for violating the company code of conduct after just one year on the job.

An investigation had confirmed reports that he was having an inappropriate relationship with a direct report, the company said . Nestlé, a category laggard whose share price has been slipping, had already installed a new CEO, Philipp Navratil, an internal hire who previously led the company’s Nespresso business. The subtext of the press release was clear: Nothing to see here.

Despite the lack of kiss cams and celebrity hijinks , however, the story has cont

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