MCE/MCE+1 – Blog Post Prompt – Monday August 5, 2019 – Cliffs of Moher/FoodCloud
Name: Connor Damon
Cliffs of Moher/Galway: Give us your observations on what stood out to you during your tour of the Cliffs of Moher and the City of Galway.
For me thus far, the tour of the Cliffs of Moher and Galway has been my favorite tourist excursion on our trip. The Cliffs themselves were an amazing natural feature, and I think they might be the coolest landmark I have ever seen. Though the weather we had in Galway was not necessarily ideal (it rained pretty much the whole time), I sincerely enjoyed the brief stint we were there. The city was full of life and there were so many interesting little shops and restaurants at which to spend time. The thing that stood out to me the most on this tour was how many interesting things are packed into the small island and how close everything is in relation to one another.
FoodCloud: In preparation for your site visit to FoodCloud, this organization has a deep commitment to supporting the local food system in Ireland. Just from reading the article, it resembles an organization in Pittsburgh, 412 Food Rescue, which supports the local food system in Pittsburgh through an emphasis on reducing food waste through food recovery and distributing excess food to local food banks. Based on your quick review of the article on FoodCloud, identify one commercial opportunity and one commercial challenge they are addressing in their efforts to support local food systems.
An opportunity that FoodCloud is addressing at the moment is the gradual expansion of their company’s influence internationally. The expansion into the UK in 2015 was the first step of many that could lead to establishing influence in the distribution of local food throughout all countries in Europe.
A challenge that FoodCloud faces is the fact that it is a charity organization, so it does not generate very much profit at all. FoodCloud is addressing this challenge by approaching donors like Nestle and AIB in search of funding and grants in order to keep the business alive and well.
Questions For The Site Visit: Finally, acting as members of consulting teams that might choose to write a group paper about the commercial opportunities and challenges connected to FoodCloud, what specific questions do you have about the business model for FoodCloud that relate to our course material (Triple Bottom Line and sustainability, market segmentation, maximization versus shared value, etc.)? Give us a specific question for tomorrow’s visit.
How do you market this system differently to both businesses as well as consumers, and how might this be a problem for the company?