Tender Greens: Can they keep the ‘Green’ Promise in Beef Sourcing?

In October 2015, the co-founder and chief executive officer (CEO) of Tender Greens faced his most difficult decision yet: should the company continue to pay a premium price for sustainably sourced beef, or should it switch to conventionally raised beef to boost profit margins and improve the company’s prospects for national growth? Tender Greens, a thriving fast-casual restaurant chain in California, was ready to expand its operation to the East Coast with backing by equity investors. As the expansion plans grew closer, the CEO began to address the foreseeable supply chain issues that his company would face with the next level of expansion. The company had faced sustainably raised beef supply shortages before, but this time the CEO had more stakeholders to satisfy. He faced a dilemma, one that required him to weigh competing stakeholder interests, the company’s stated values, and significant financial implications to arrive at the best long-term outcome for the company. What would be the best way for the company to achieve scale while maintaining a commitment to food that was local, sustainable, and affordable?

This case can be used in undergraduate-, graduate, and executive-level courses on supply chain management, strategic management, social entrepreneurship, ethics and corporate social responsibility, and operations management. The case is best used at the mid-point of a course or when students have gained an understanding of the basic supply chain concepts and can comprehend different supply chain issues that can arise when businesses grow and expand. After working through the case and assignment questions, students will be able to do the following<ul><li>List common supply chain challenges encountered as businesses grow.</li><li> Understand how decisions can be made when multiple stakeholders are involved, each with their own unique perspective, and how a company can balance and assign relative importance to different stakeholder groups when making decisions.</li><li>Assign values to the factors that influence procurement decisions, such as staying local or importing from foreign markets, the possible trade-offs in flavour and texture, and the quality or provenance that accompany such decisions.</li><li>Compare a centralized logistics model to a decentralized logistics model, taking into account the delivery times and the landed cost of a product.</li><li>Understand the different problems and opportunities that arise when a company takes on social, environmental, and animal welfare responsibilities.</li><li>Determine which features influence pricing and purchasing decisions among similar products.</li></ul>

• ethical sourcing
• supply chain management