Sustainability & ESG · Sustainable Business Strategy

Supply-Chain Brand — Cláirseach Dairy's Verified Sustainability Promise

A four-round, advanced agri-food sustainability-marketing simulation set inside Cláirseach Dairy Group, an Irish farmer-owned co-operative turning over €1.1B from 2,400 supplier farms, 68% exported as high-value nutritional dairy ingredients.

4 rounds Executive English, Español

Preview

About this simulation

A four-round, advanced agri-food sustainability-marketing simulation set inside Cláirseach Dairy Group, an Irish farmer-owned co-operative turning over €1.1B from 2,400 supplier farms, 68% exported as high-value nutritional dairy ingredients.

Cláirseach's single largest customer, Nordmilk Nutrition (€242M, 22% of revenue), has issued an ultimatum: from FY2028 it will buy only from suppliers with independently verified, farm-level sustainability certification aligned to Origin Green. The co-op has 24 months, ~960 farms (40%) still unverified, and a once-off €9M board-approved budget against ~€14M of asks.

Playing the marketing director, you (1) diagnose the brand–supply-chain gap and size the €242M at risk, choosing the one claim Cláirseach can defend today; (2) commit the supply chain — set a verification target, sequence the farms that supply Nordmilk volume first, and decide the co-op/farmer/shared funding split before any brand promise; (3) build the national brand programme — choosing architecture (B2B ingredient brand, consumer endorsement, or both), the proof/measurement system that turns farm audits into auditable claims, and evidence-based positioning that beats NZ and Dutch rivals; and (4) allocate the €9M across verification, B2B trade marketing, consumer pull, and proof infrastructure, then model ROI under low/base/high premium-and-demand scenarios and defend the plan to the board and the Nordmilk buyer.

The math embodies McLoughlin's thesis — the brand is a verified promise about the supply chain, never a layer on top of it.

It rewards verification-first sequencing, the B2B ingredient-brand logic, evidence-based differentiation, funded proof infrastructure, and scenario discipline; it punishes the five classic errors — brand before proof (greenwashing), unsequenced 100% verification, generic 'sustainable dairy' positioning, consumer-only myopia that ignores Nordmilk, and single-scenario optimism.

Final KPIs track Verified Supply %, Brand Credibility, Buyer Confidence and a scenario-weighted Margin/ROI projection against the €9M cap.

Who it is for

An advanced simulation for participants used to working with the main frameworks and trade-offs of the subject, designed for executive education and experienced professionals.

How a session runs

  1. The instructor creates a session from the Eureka dashboard and invites the participants.
  2. Participants play 4 rounds. In each one they submit their decisions and the simulation calculates the results.
  3. The simulation can be run in English, Español.
  4. The instructor follows each participant's progress and results from the dashboard, and uses the class results for the debrief.

Decisions participants make

The decisions participants make during the simulation:

  • What is the one sustainability claim Cláirseach can credibly defend today?
  • Where does the revenue and profit at risk really sit — what do you protect first?
  • How candidly does your team admit the brand cannot yet promise what the farms can't verify? (%)
  • How far and how fast do you commit the supply chain to verification?
  • Who pays for on-farm verification? Set the funding split (must total 100%)
  • How much of the €9M do you commit now to closing the verification gap? (€M)
  • What brand architecture do you build with the budget?
  • What is the positioning that differentiates you from the NZ and Dutch rivals?
  • How firmly do you keep every brand claim inside Round 2's verified reality? (%)
  • How much of the remaining budget goes to B2B trade marketing to Nordmilk and other buyers? (€M)

What participants track

What participants follow on screen as the rounds go by:

  • Verified Supply, Credibility & Buyer Confidence

Subjects covered

Designed for courses in Sustainable Business Strategy.

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