Too Good To Go: A Surprise Bag that Creates a Win for Business and the Environment

Transitioning to a greener economy often requires significant pain and costs, which makes it difficult for responsible business professionals to build sustainability into their businesses. Can there be a way to achieve sustainability in business without compromising profits and growth? The case titled “Too Good To Go: A Surprise Bag That Creates a Win For Business and the Environment” addresses this challenge. It highlights a new way of thinking about innovation and growth that defies the conventional wisdom that sustainable practices must come at the expense of profit and value. Specifically, the case illustrates how the deep-rooted but largely taken-for-granted problem of food waste in the food retail and service industry could be a brand-new opportunity for lucrative and accountable business. Facing tension between economic incentives and the social good in running the food business sustainably, Too Good To Go (TGTG) created an innovative two-sided new market that connects surplus food with customers. It shifted surplus food from waste to product, from charitable action to profitable business action, and from cheap food to conscious consumption. In this way, TGTG broke the dilemma that any food business operator had regarding food waste that is too good to go. The company instantly appealed to local businesses, big-name retailers, and consumers, as it aligned the value for customers and profits for both TGTG and its partners, while society enjoyed a positive impact by reducing food waste. This is an excellent case for teaching innovation and growth in the era of sustainability, as it presents a path to breaking the trade-off between profitable growth and sustainability by broadening the perspective of innovation beyond disruption.

1. To understand the rising importance of sustainability issues and the dilemma that businesses face in pursuing profitability and responsibility. How can food waste reduction be achieved without compromising a company’s current profitability? 2. To uncover a critical bottleneck in adopting sustainable practices by challenging existing assumptions in the industry. TGTG unearthed a deep-rooted yet taken-for-granted problem of the food retail and service industry that normalized wasting leftovers. Instead of defining a problem within the existing options for repurposing food waste – donation and clearance – TGTG challenged the existing assumptions in the industry. 3. To analyze the implications of conventional assumptions within the industry boundaries and reframe them to unlock new business opportunities. TGTG reframed the existing assumptions on surplus food to pursue both social responsibility (no waste) and profitability (a new revenue stream with minimal cost and effort). 4. To discuss the consequences of market creation beyond existing boundaries. As a new (or unearthed) problem is identified and solved, the outcome has positive-sum gains, without increasing the costs to others. The TGTG marketplace creates economic and social value that provides wins for food businesses and consumers while ensuring profitable growth for the company and contributing to society by reducing food waste and carbon emissions. 5. To learn how to build a business model in a way that achieves both differentiation and low cost. TGTG adopts the sharing platform economy model, which effectively creates value for surplus food at low cost.