Ivey alum Melissa Hartwick (HBA’14) has co-authored a new Ivey Publishing teaching case on Flashfood, one of North America’s most exciting new businesses focused on reducing retail food waste.
Hartwick, who played a leading role in growing Flashfood’s retailer partner network as Vice President of Partnerships, wrote the case with Ivey’s Rob Klassen and Matthew Lynch.
The case considers the critical societal issue of food waste. Canada generated enormous volumes of waste along the entire food value chain, estimated at $50 billion annually. A significant proportion of this wastage occurs at grocery retail stores.
Flashfood Founder and CEO Josh Domingues, the protagonist in the case, conceived of Flashfood to address reduce wastage by offering quality food near its ‘best before’ date, such as meat, vegetables, and bakery items, to consumers at a significant discount. By partnering with retail stores, the Flashfood app platform sold this surplus food through a growing network of over 1,000 locations across Canada and the United States.
Since its launch Flashfood has diverted over 45 million pounds of waste from landfill, while providing affordable food for families at a time when grocery budgets are being stretched by rapid price rises.
This case examines some key strategic questions faced by senior managers at a sustainability-focused firm as it attempts to simultaneously deliver on its mission and pursue growth. It also considers tactical challenges of managing supply chain partners (e.g., retailers) and refining the business model. A key question in the case is the potential decision for Flashfood to become a B Corporation, a major third-party certification of high standards of social and environmental performance.
“The case teaching method was central to my Ivey experience and equipping me to succeed in complex managerial roles. It is great to be able to give back by contributing to the Ivey case library,” said Hartwick. “As more business students look for professional opportunities with purpose and impact, it so important to have cases that tackle the strategic challenges of growing a successful business that addresses major societal and environmental issues”.
The Flashood case has already been used with an Ivey MBA class and generated a lively discussion on how the organization should chart its path forward, while maximizing its impact.
The new Ivey case was also recently profiled by the Case Centre, a global organization that promotes the uses of teaching cases in business education, to highlight the critical importance of sustainability-focused cases for training future leaders.
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