Management Practice Insights
DOI: 10.59571/mpi.v1i2.7
Year: 2023, Volume: 1, Issue: 2, Pages: 57-60
Original Article
Amol Subhash Dhaigude
Associate Professor with SPJIMR’s Operations, Supply Chain Management & Quantitative Methods
departments.Correspondence
Received Date:09 August 2023, Accepted Date:01 October 2023, Published Date:12 October 2023
Problem of Practice:
There have been many crises – product recalls, negative publicity, regulatory scrutiny, etc. – that established brands have had to weather – and these naturally affect consumer perception. Recent research by Mollenkopf and team reveals an innovative way of brand stewardship during a crisis – being transparent about the sustainability of your supply chain.1 Such transparency can help protect your brand and rebuild consumer trust if there is a negative event. For product managers and brand managers, this is good news. A practical question then arises - how much transparency is enough? Being transparent and communicating that to consumers requires management of energy and resources. Here is how to build trust through transparency – and the pitfalls to avoid
1 Alexis Bateman and Leonardo Bonanni, “What Supply Chain Transparency Really Means,” Harvard Business Review, August 20, 2019, https://hbr.org/2019/08/what-supply-chain-transparency-really-means.
2 León Valdés, “Supply Chain Visibility and Social Responsibility: Investigating Consumers’ Behaviors and Motives | Manufacturing & Service Operations Management,” June 1, 2018, https://pubsonline.informs.org/doi/10.1287/msom.2017.0685.
3 Will Sansom, “What Can Brands Learn from Patagonia?,” September 22, 2022, https://www.creativereview.co.uk/brands-patagonia-purpose/.
4 Charu Lamba, “Indian Retailer - How The Body Shop Is Integrating Tech and Sustainability to Stay Relevant to Changing Consumer Needs,” September 29, 2022, https://www.indianretailer.com/article/retail-people/sustainability/how-the-body-shop-is-integrating-tech-and-sustainability-tostay-relevant-to-consumers.a8222.
5 Earthsight, “Ikea’s House of Horrors,” June 15, 2021, https://www.earthsight. org.uk/ikeahouseofhorrors.
6 Earthsight, “Ikea’s Response to Its Illegal Timber Scandal Is a Sham. Here’s Why,” October 29, 2020, https://www.earthsight.org.uk/news/blog-ikea-response-illegal-timber-scandal-is-a-sham-heres-why.
7 Jennifer Warnick, “New Starbucks Traceability Tool Explores Bean-to- Cup Journey,” Starbucks Stories (blog), August 10, 2020, https://stories.starbucks.com/stories/2020/new-starbucks-traceability-tool-explores-beanto-cup-journey/.
8 Sarah Jean Callahan, “Popular Starbucks Coffee Drink Facing Major Recall - TheStreet,” February 19, 2023, https://www.thestreet.com/restaurants/starbucks-drink-recall-pepsi-bottle-vanilla-grocery-fda.
9 Beth Wright, “VF Corp’s Source Maps Track Supply Chain Footprint,” Just Style (blog), October 2, 2018, https://www.just-style.com/news/vf-corpssource-maps-track-supply-chain-footprint/.
10 Walmart, “Product Supply Chain Sustainability,” accessed August 4, 2023, https://corporate.walmart.com/esgreport/environmental/product-supply-chains-sustainability-overview.
11 Julia Rancone, “Sustainability Claims & Packaging Communication; Using Your Package to Communicate Sustainability,” August 2, 2019, https://www.thedieline.com/blog/2019/8/2/sustainability-claims-packaging-communication-using-your-package-to-communicate-sustainability.
12 Lew Blaustein, “How Adidas Is Pioneering Open-Source Sustainability for Sports | Greenbiz,” July 24, 2015, https://www.greenbiz.com/article/how-adidas-pioneering-open-source-sustainability-sports.
13 Pearly Neo, “‘Full Supply Chain Transparency’: Nestle Publicly Discloses Lists of Commodity Suppliers in Industry-First Move,” Foodnavigator- Asia.Com (blog), April 2, 2019, https://www.foodnavigator-asia.com/Article/2019/04/02/Full-supply-chain-transparency-Nestle-publicly-discloses-lists-of-commodity-suppliers-in-industry-first-move.
14 Sounak Mitra, “The Maggi Ban: How India’s Favourite Two-Minute Noodles Lost 80% Market Share,” mint, February 15, 2017, https://www.livemint.com/Companies/1JKHsutTXLWtTcVwdIDg0H/The-Maggi-ban-How-Indias-favourite-twominute-noodles-lost.html.
15 Yoni Heisler, “Popular Nestle Snacks Were Just Recalled, so Throw Them out Now,” October 14, 2021, https://bgr.com/lifestyle/popular-nestle-snackswere-just-recalled-so-throw-them-out-now/.
© 2023 Published by SPJIMR. This is an open-access article under the CC BY license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)
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