Instructor’s Manual Abstracts
Issue 2 IM Abstract: Worlds Converging: Sustainable Fashion Meets e-Commerce
James H.W. Siew
Case Overview
This case revolves around entrepreneurs Chris Yong and Adam Baodunnov as future leaders and the behaviours and traits that they demonstrated or exhibited. Analysis of sustainable leadership is based on the framework of Jacob Morgan’s “Nine Skills and Mindsets for Future Leaders” for tackling the challenges of buying and making an e-commerce start-up business successful and profitable in a relatively new field, such as sustainable fashion. Local Threads was a Melbourne-based start-up aimed at providing a marketplace website for sustainable fashion and ethical fashion, which represented Australia’s independent brands in the sustainable fashion space and had a clear value proposition that sustainable fashion was a strategic differentiator. Yong and Baodunnov saw an opportunity to scale up this start-up and to employ what they do best: combining entrepreneurial start-up know-how with e-commerce and marketing savvy. They also had the challenge of balancing two very different stakeholders: the more e-commerce-savvy investors and the sustainability-oriented producers, who were on opposite ends of a continuum. How would they do this as future leaders?
Learning Objectives
By working through this case, students should be able to
- Apply a current or future leadership framework to business leaders of a start-up organization within the sustainable fashion industry to determine leadership traits, behaviours, and mindsets.
- Identify leadership challenges and opportunities when attempting to operate an e-commerce business in a sustainable manner.
- Recommend a leadership strategy for a new e-commerce business entering the sustainable fashion industry.
Course Suitability
This case can be used at the undergraduate or graduate level in any leadership or management course with an emphasis on sustainability or sustainable leadership.
Recommended Reading
Hargreaves, A., & Fink, D. (2004). The seven principles of sustainable leadership. Educational Leadership, 61(7), 8–13.
Morgan, J. (2020). Nine skills and mindsets for future leaders. Duke Corporate Education. https://www.dukece.com/insights/nine-skills-for-future-leaders/
Morgan, J. (2020). 9 skills and mindsets for leaders in the future of work. LinkedIn. https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/9-skills-mindsets-leaders-future-work-jacob-morgan
Petrie, N. (2014). Future trends in leadership development: White paper. Center for Creative Leadership. https://www.nicholaspetrie.com/_files/ugd/65aff7_c21044ac53664e339622c54d86d063de.pdf
Taylor, A. (2020, February 13). Six principles of sustainability leadership. LinkedIn. https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/six-principles-sustainability-leadership-andre-taylor/
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