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Marilyn Anthony and Neha Mittal, professors at the Fox School of Business at Temple University discuss their case Tender Greens: Can They Keep the ‘Green’ Promise in Beef Sourcing?
Marilyn and Neha share their approach to writing Tender Greens, an operations case that deals not only with supply chain issues, but sustainability, strategy, ethics, and managing stakeholder interests. In our conversation, we discuss the importance of storytelling, how to build trust with case subject organizations, and writing cases with online delivery in mind. We conclude our discussion with Marilyn and Neha’s experience as an Ivey Publishing co-brand partner and how Fox’s case writing initiatives support Temple’s overall strategy.
Transcript
Thank you for joining us for decision point from IV publishing at the Ivy Business School. In this episode we talked to professors, Nihal and Marilyn, Anthony both from the Fox School of business at Temple. University Nehan Maryland, walk US through their case tender Greens. Can they keep the green promise and beef sourcing and operations case that deals not only with supply chain issues but sustainability strategy, Ethics and managing stakeholder interest? In our conversation, we discussed the importance of story telling how to go trust with the case. Subject: Organizations and writing cases with online delivery in mind. We conclude our discussion with Nehan Marylyn's experience as an Ivy, publishing, Co, bran partner and how Fox's case writing initiatives, support temples overall strategy enjoy well. Thank you both very much for joining us today. I'm looking forward to the discussion about about the case and your experiences, and you know, as always for the listener all the tidbits and advice that you have for them. So maybe we'll start about you know. How did you learn about the tender green story? And you know what really precipitated you thinking? This is going to be a great case and walk us through that process of researching and writing them. Well, I think this is an example of what you might call reverse engineering. I had learned about Eric Oberholtzer. He is in a lum of Temple University, not the business school, and I learned about him because he's an important and successful alum and his story was really interesting to me. He came and spoke to my class a strategy Class A number of times and that precipitated a lengthy project. He and I decided to collaborate on a full length business book detailing the plan that led to the success of tender Greens. So that's the reverse engineering part. We were working on this book and, as you know, that's a long and slow process and it occurred to me that I might be able to develop a teaching case as a way to go deeper into one aspect of their business model, and that was about sourcing. So that's that's how I got engaged and had the good fortune to meet Neha, who was a supply chain, expert, yeah and really I mean I think, since the case dealt with ethical sourcing issues. During the growth and expansion of tendered operations, we thought it would become a great case for the students, because it would not only give them an opportunity to learn about a some of the supply chain issues when a business grows. But given the multitude of prayers and stakeholders that Oberholzer has had and the careful balancing of each of the perspectives, we thought it would really expose students to an interesting multi criteria, decision making problem Ye, and you mentioned that you know the genesis of the case was kind of there's a few things that play here and you know as experienced case writers. You know: Do you always approach case writing a new case in the same way, do you focus more on the story or the learning objectives, or is it a mix or is it you know it is. The case comes to you in many different ways. What's been your experience with that, I have to admit, I have a bias because my degrees are in English literature. So it's always the story for me. First and a story well told, is both engaging and instructive. So the potential story line is what gets my attention first most frequently I am co authoring, and so I'm looking for a partner with deeper expertise in that particular subject area, and so in this case you know, Neha really provided the impetus toward understanding what would be valuable learning objectives in a supply chain course and, of course, she's also a terrific researcher. Now I think for me personally, it's both it's a compelling story as well as the learning objectives, but I think in my experience I have always been able to relate some meaningful learnings from a compelling story, so I mean I always believe that if there is a business that has struggled with something, there is always some out consumed learning that has come from it and it can be connected with irrelevant topic or a content in the course and it it should be provided to the students. So it sounds like together. You guys are a great team you're both bring your strengths here. I think that's an important lesson, for you know those just starting out in case writing, like choosing a great you know, writing partner or a great team to come together. You Lean on each other and those skills and the different perspectives, which is really cool that you brought that up, you know sounds like things went very well from the writing side of it, but let's talk a little bit about challenges, because people are always asking you know in our work shops and when we're meeting them at conferences. Now what are some of the challenges we should look out for? Were there any notable challenges when writing this particular case? And how did you overcome them? You know, I think we were fortunate because we had access to inside information at the highest level, a founder and CEO, who also is very supportive of instruction and wanted to share his story. So you know a lot of times. People just encounter that access issue that they can't get information, so we were really fortunate there. I think some of the challenges were, as we started, to try to understand the dynamics of his decisions. For me, it was you know, I didn't know that much about supply chain, so understanding more about the dynamics there and also there's a big rabbit hole that we both went down, trying to understand all of the designations that the USDA or simply the industry applies to beef, and so we really had to sort that out. We had to figure out a way to make that clear to students, so that was pretty much. You know the research side of it, and you know once again that was. We were helped in overcoming that by these candid and and deeply knowledgeable conversations with Eric about what he considered. You know the range of his considerations and then the factors that influenced his final decision. I completely agree with Meridan. I think those couple meetings in the initial face of the case writing as well as the email exchanges and some reading on the Internet truly help disunderstandingly. I think for me personally. The biggest challenge here was just understanding the scope and the wealth of the case, because initially, when we started working on the case, I thought it would be a a business that is dealing with supply to in issues whether its lodges takes an ventry management that they're housing their sourcing issues. But, as we came to know more about it, I mean he really figured that it was much more than just supply to an issues. It was about again, as I said, initially the multi crite decision making problem that involve the ethics as well as business values. So I think yes, those those meetings, those those email exchanges really have thus overcome those challengers just to understand what this case halls Marilyn. I want to come back to something that you mentioned, and you know those candid conversations and it sounds like you. Both were very fortunate to have a leader in an organization that was open. That was interested in you know and providing a great learning experience for the students and give me a lot of open access. You know what have been the ways that you help build, that type of relationship with organizations, maybe in other cases, that you've written, because that that is a huge challenge of sometimes getting access, or you know developing that relationship any tips for for writers and how to foster that type of situation that you guys were lucky enough to have well. I've certainly heard this other case writers as well that this is a relationship building process, and it really is about trust, and it's about understanding the goals and objectives of this of your potential subject and trying to find that spot that will provide value for them, and sometimes the value is that they really do want to pay it forward. You know they remember their student experience. They want to share what they've learned with early stage or- or you know, just students starting out. Sometimes it's in in sharing their story. It actually clarifies for them what their role has been, what their process has been, what how how they make decisions, it helps them to think about their leadership, and that can be very rewarding. So I think in this case, particularly you know, this relationship started with a simple introduction: a come to my class and meet some students that live engagement. Peace was very exciting for him. The students came prepared with questions, there was lively exchange and we did that a number of times and it gave him a chance to see to experience what students are interested in what they're thinking about to see the diversity in the class and the reception to his ideas, and also you know on my side that I was there in a supporting role that the goal was for everyone to have a positive experience. He wasn't going to be lamped or you know, or there just be crickets in n the room. You know that it was really fun and and full of learning on both sides and that helped set the stage for working together. More so I would say whenever you can have that face to face, and particularly if you can involve your subject with students, they really conceal the deal yeah and it makes it. So it's something that the the company, the or the CEO you know. What's to do again, and maybe there's another situation that comes up, and they remember that great feeling of seeing the environment of learning and the students and having that experience it can be a long term relationship to so I love how you put that that that's a great point, and in fact, in this case and in another case with a Solo Entrepreneur, not only did they come and talk to my classes, but then each of them became cenote speakers for larger events at the university, so it really did evolve into a much richer relationship. That's that's great and a great tip for those you know starting a journey of writing a case, get the people actively actively involved yeah and on the trust. I don't ask him for financials on day one yeah very, very good point yeah build up to that. So so, let's talk a little bit. You know nee how you mentioned this before you know. The case is primarily focused on supply chain management, but it touches on a lot of different issues, including sustainability, balancing stakeholder interest strategy, ethical sourcing. Can you talk about the versatility of the case? How did you keep that in mind when you're writing it? Some thoughts on you know that type of approach, because it can fit into a lot of different teaching situations, you're absolutely right mat. In fact, we believe it is this versatility of the case that makes it so unique and interesting, and in fact I mean if you look at the field of supply chain to day it has grown, to include issues like sustainably or CSI, the caprid social responsibility issues. So I think it's very important for the students to understand how these values and have these principles often drive the course supply thin decisions. For example, if you look at the wintergreens case, when we think of buying- and so saying, I think buying that who the ethically raised meat was very important for them from a logistic standpoint of we were told that tender Greens would never buy a frozen meat, so they always wanted that fresh supply at Max refrigerated, but nothing frozen. Because again, I dicto us that when the frozen meat, I think when it t freezes, it pulls out some of the tissues from the meat and it loses the taste. So I mean I think that was a key issue here, that he, the key values the core principles of ethical sourcing, was so important that it was driving some of the supply chain issues and again, in this case, I think Eric was trying to balance a number of different perspectives from a former's point of view from a animal protection group. From the consumer point of view. From the investors point of view, he had several different objectives that he were trying to that he was trying to balance Yeah and if I could just add to that, what appealed to us was this notion of values, elements of a business model being differentiators and and actually even foundations for the success of the company, and we really thought that that would speak to students. We were looking for a business case that could be used in a business ethics course that would really show the costs and benefits of a values driven enterprise. Students are increasingly interested in making sure that their work is meaningful and that it's aligned with their values and so putting this in a fort profit context and and exploring how you go about actually making that happen, we thought would have wider applicability and interest to students really well said, and I think that's one of the things that excite me when I see cases and when I go into a case classroom I've been lucky enough to you know, be educated in a class case classroom as well as at you as a student, are in the seat of a decision maker, and this case is really great, because you know there's a lot of different stakeholders, as he just met mentioned and with competing interest. You know different perspectives, different ideas, you know when teaching this case, how do you get the students to experience? You know sitting in the seat of the decision maker, balancing all of these different interests? You know how walk me through how you lead the student on this journey? Yes, so I I mean multi criteria, decision making is any way, always a very interesting problem. You have different stakeholders each having their own benefit and cost into things in mind that they want to bring to the table. So in this particular case, I provide students with the case about four to five days in advance, give them an opportunity to read. I also assigned them with a specific stakeholder role that they would be playing on the day of the discussion in the class. So I split the class into Gropeanwag each of the groups with a particular identity, whether it's a former or it's an animal protection grow. But it's the consumer or it's an investor, so I'll have those groups pre defined and on the day of the case, discussion I would make each of those groups discuss again their own benefits their cause, their risks associated it with ethical with as sourcing ethically raised beef. So I think- and in my experience I have seen interesting debate and discussions emerge between all these different groups and again since the classes full of millenniums and millennials are known to go to words, organic and ethically raised a food. I think it was really interesting to see those discussions in the class and by going through this exercise, I think students and Ersto the value of recognizing different stake holders that may be involved in their decision making, process and understanding each and everybody's perspective and how important they are to the final final decision. This and then I've got to follow up that. I just kind of wanted you to look into your crystal ball and you know what do you foresee in the evolution of the case method that you know we're sitting here s up to early September, with with Ovid, still very much a concern causing a lot of rapid innovation. I'm just love to hear what you think of an evolution in the method as well, so you're absolutely right mat. I think that modality is always in the back of our minds when we are writing the case and given the environment we are in today, I think we are always writing the case, which can be taught both online as well as in person. So I think truly with he when we were writing the tendere case. That was in the back of our minds. We were trying to develop a case that can be seamlessly taught either in person or or online to answer your second part, I think, as the meteorology evolves. I personally think that virtual reality is something that may pick up. I mean stupen sitting in a Vorchel Castron wearing those headsets. They are able to walk and experience the big business practices through videos, a mad, really change the way teaching cases could look in the future men. We recently had one of four faculty experience with. We are headsets and Forshaga rooms, and it was, it was very successful, so I think that's probably where we are seeing us going in the future yeah I'll. Just add on to that that one of the things that we all experienced because of the pandemic was increased access in a way, and so, while I was fortunate to have Eric be based in the Philadelphia area where I am, if he had still been in California, he could have joined us virtually. So you know that, in terms of making it easier for people to participate, while there is a trade off there's nothing as exciting as being live and in person it's going to make it easier for people to connect because they don't have to travel in order to join you- and, I think, also there's a lot of emerging technologies right. So using more of those technologies like voice thread, engaging students to record things and share things will come closer to enlivening the environment and and lead to more engagement. You know- and you mentioned you know, patching people in via zoom or other technologies. It also gives the opportunity to record some conversations that can be included in you know things like teaching notes and add enhanced video to to more traditional cases, and we know, as a publisher were being asked for things like that, for courses that are sincere or ace and Grenes online to yeah another opportunity to take advantage of the technology. Yeah. That's a really good point, because we know certainly that students are it's easier for them to become involved. When you give when you deliver content in different ways. So, visual and auditory, as well as reading, if you can put a package like that together, which is also part of our thinking as case writers, as we move into this more virtual delivery system. So I want to take a slightly different path here and just talk about something that is always exciting for us at publishing and I'd be publishing when we get to partner with organizations and recently I'd be publishing partner with the Fox school business at Temple, and you know to publish and distribte cases you know, can you speak about your experience so far as a CO brand partner? And you know the where you see collaboration fitting in in this the whole universe of case publishing? Absolutely, I think this partnership has been excellent. It has motivated Fox faculty to develop and write more and more cases. Ivy has provided us with immense support as part of this collaboration. I think the partnership has drawn Fox close it to I V and we Wenota part of its network and a global reach. So in fact, we hard we're currently running a global case. Writing Competition within the umbrella- and we had two free workshops this summer, provided by IV to help the case. Competition participants develop their own cases. So I think the partnership has world wonders. We have a lot of interest and I actually hear faculty talk about writing cases now much more than what it was a couple years ago. Yeah. I think what ives contributed a great deal of learning to our community and we have many faculty who thought about. They use cases to teach. They may have even developed some of their own, but not really thought about publishing and as with any new enterprise, those barriers to entry are, I don't know how to do it. That's the first big one and Ivy has really really provided us with tremendously rich resources that have made it easier for people to cross that threshold. You know they explained, step by step. Here's how you do it well, it's been a great opportunity for us to learn from you as well, because every you know partnership that we go and we hear about different ways that cases are being developed or supported in different ways. That they're being used so we've been getting a lot out of it as well. I want to thank you, for you know for your participation in it, and you know this interesting. The the Fox temple case collection. It's interesting, that it supports temples strategy, and maybe could you speak a little bit about that and what you're saying for the future of the the collection sure to I mean at the Fox translation Al Reset Center. We had four strategic pillars when we first created it. We wanted a way to connect research to practice, communicate research and sites for public consumption support faculty as they bring research learning into the classroom and, lastly, affect some policy level changes so by developing a school wild school wide culture. On case writing, we have been able to accomplish these goals. I think faculty are encouraged to identify case subjects, help bring research learnings into the classroom and they are also able to connect their research with their real world operations to solve real world problems are at least bring the learnings from those things into the classrooms, which I think students appreciate, and I think it has been a windvane situation from both the faculty side, the research part of it that cad make sight of it, as well as the students learning part of it. So now I'm going to ask a question that I m going to be a bit greedy here and I want to know you know what are you working on now? Do you have any cases in the in the line up or that you're excited about starting or thinking about writing, because I always love to hear about what can I can expect to see you know hitting our library in the coming months or so sure so Marilyn and I actually have a case currently being a reviewed at I we. We are under the third round of reviews this time, but it's about a small spice company New York, which focuses which actually focused on changing their mode of business. They were initially serving only whole sale and then, when the pandemic hits, I think, just to expand their operations as well as to stay afloat in the PHANTOMIC. They moved to a direct to consumer marketing and that has been so successful there for them. So we thought that it was a very, very fascinating business and especially the way it evolved from being serving only wholesale to now serving both whole in and consumers. I think they're very interesting supply chain issues there. So I think that's that's one case. That is definitely in the firelike. In addition to that, I'm working on two other cases one is dealing with the global expansion of a bridal down company from Israel and the other one is about how technology has changed a city parking garages into largest and hub centers. So I mean companies like Amazon have now started looking into these parking garages, which are very strategically located in our metropolitan area, and they are trying to use the unused parking spaces to install lockers or make them as delivery hubs, or even they are using some of those two delivered packages in people's trunk. So if I'm, the customer- and I want a package delivered, my correspond in ex garage Amazon would actually send a driver and deliver it day. So they don't have to go to everybody's house. They are making these parking garages as artistic, Al Haps, wow, a fascinating and so relevantly again, the one of the cool things about cases you see them come through and like it's dealing with a business situation, that's happening now and we can relate to that. We can relate to getting our packages from Amazon. That's great. So I'm also at work on a number of things and early stage. Companies that are facing decisions about scaling, especially if those companies are led by women are of special interest to me so currently, under review by Ivy, is a case about an upstart beverage company that I co wrote with another Fox colleague and with another Co author, I've published an HR M base case on racism in the workplace and with that same co, author, we're in a case competition. It's a strategy case about post pandemic pivot of a New Zealand restaurant chain and hospital, and they were also in developing one about a hospitality and tourism company trying to grow in Africa. So you know looking outside the US to some things that are happening post ovid and the fact is. There are just so many interesting and novel things that businesses are doing in response to this, and so there's lots of new and and as you mention and as nea just gave a great example of relevant material, just waiting for case writers, yeah so get you know encouraging those that are thinking about writing cases g, give it a shot. You know follow those great story, ideas you know, think about what you could use in your classroom or what a Collie could use things that support the strategy with the organization but you're right. There are so many ideas like daily we're, seeing we're seeing cases submitted we're seeing stories in the news that would make fantastic cases to put the student in the seat of making decisions so that they're prepared to go out and be N B leaders when they graduate. I want to thank both of you for taking the time today to chat with us. You know one of the things. That's sticking in my mind is just that relationship building with the organization with the CEO and leaders that organizations that you know it will help for this case that you're working on, but also you know it's beneficial to that person and the company it's exciting for them, it's great for students to see CEOS and successful people struggling with different decisions, and I just to me what's sticking in my mind- is that importance of the relationship and how it really facilitates great cases being written. So, thank you very much for sharing your stories with us. Yeah. It's been great. Thank you. Yes, it's a pleasure to be a part of the decision. Point Ceres. I think it's one of those cities that I've always enjoyed listening to. So thank you very much for inviting us if you enjoy today's episode, subscribe to Decision Point on spotify or wherever you listen to be sure, to check out the show notes for links to cases, resources and more have any feedback, send us an email at cases at IV, dot, CA, t t