In The Fast Fashion Bottleneck: Crisis at VeloTrend, learners step into the high-pressure role of the newly appointed Chief Operations & Sustainability Officer (COSO) at VeloTrend, a global fast-fashion retailer headquartered in London. Just 21 days before the critical "Spring Peak" collection launch—which represents 15% of the company's annual revenue growth—a third-party compliance audit reveals severe labor and environmental violations at Apex Textile, the primary supplier handling 60% of production. To make matters worse, an investigative journalist is poised to publish an exposé in 48 hours, and a newly passed regional Labor Transparency Act threatens an automatic $50 million fine if non-compliant goods are imported.
The core pedagogical objective of this simulation is to teach the Triple Bottom Line (TBL) framework (Profit, People, Planet) in a highly realistic, operationally constrained environment. Learners must navigate intense, conflicting pressures from internal stakeholders: Marcus Thorne (Head of Retail Operations) demands maintaining speed to secure revenue; Elena Rostova (Director of ESG Compliance) insists on immediate contract termination; Dev Patel (Head of Global Logistics) proposes a high-emission, margin-eroding air-freight pivot; and Saffron Campbell (Lead Supply Chain Strategist) suggests a phased circular pivot.
During the simulation, learners will engage in an interactive AI chat with CEO Victoria Sterling, who demands a structured, defensible, and executive-ready recommendation. Facilitators can use this experience to unpack how operational speed, regulatory compliance, and ethical supply chain management intersect. The debrief should focus on how learners navigated the trade-offs of each option, how they defended their synthesis to a demanding executive, and how they avoided common traps like greenwashing or short-termism.
Players tasks
Review the baseline metrics, prepare the debrief questions around the Triple Bottom Line framework, and guide learners through analyzing the hidden social and carbon costs of their supply chain decisions.
Learning objectives
- How to use the Triple Bottom Line (TBL) framework to ground complex operational and ethical supply chain debates.
- Discussion hooks comparing the hidden human cost of sudden supplier termination (uncompensated layoffs of 3,500 workers) versus active remediation.
- Key insights on the financial and environmental friction of emergency nearshoring (a 400% carbon spike and 30% margin erosion).
- Pragmatic ways to evaluate executive presence and "Decision Synthesis" scoring during high-pressure stakeholder interactions.
About the authors
LiveCase Studio designs immersive, decision-driven simulations that challenge learners to navigate real-world organizational crises and apply strategic frameworks in real-time.
LiveCase Studio
Creator of immersive, decision-driven simulations designed to bridge theory and practice by placing learners in high-stakes, real-world organizational crises.
Who is this for?
Designed for executive education, MBA students, and mid-to-senior level managers in operations, sustainability, procurement, or retail strategy looking to lead through complex ethical and operational dilemmas.
FAQ
LiveCase is an educational and training simulation tool that immerses participants into a situation.
Please feel free to reach out to us for a demo.
Simply contact us and we'll be happy to give you a demo.
Yes! For all cases authored by LiveCase we can provide extensive Teaching Notes.
We can't make them public to avoid participants getting a hold of them, but you can simply reach out to us.
You get to choose in the next step. If you "Host" (Instruct) the case, you can pick during the setup if you want to pay for the participants or they pay by themselves.
We offer several options for payment depending on the situations
If you are Hosting
- If the participants pay for the case, they will be requested to pay before joining the case.
- If the host pays, we ask you to purchase your expected number of seats, if you need more, you can purchase more later, if you bought too many, please contact us to arrange a reimbursement.
- Get pre-approved: You can get pre-approved for Invoice billing at a later date. If interested, please reach out to us.
The purchase of the seat has no time limit for the exception that the case is removed (hasn't happened yet), or if the methodology has changed too much.
In the extremely unlikely scenario, you can simply contact us for a reimbursement.
If there is a problem with the payment, please contact us and we will be happy to help.