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ROYAL FLORAHOLLAND: THE DUTCH FLORICULTURE SUPPLY CHAIN Ken Mark wrote this case under the supervision of Professor P. Fraser Johnson solely to provide material for class discussion. The authors do not intend to illustrate either effective or ineffective handling of a managerial situation. The authors may have disguised certain names and other identifying information to protect confidentiality. This publication may not be transmitted, photocopied, digitized, or otherwise reproduced in any form or by any means without the permission of the copyright holder. Reproduction of this material is not covered under authorization by any reproduction rights organization. To order copies or request permission to reproduce materials, contact Ivey Publishing, Ivey Business School, Western University, London, Ontario, Canada, N6G 0N1; (t) 519.661.3208; (e) cases@ivey.ca; www.iveycases.com. Copyright © 2016, Richard Ivey School of Business Foundation Version: 2017-11-08 INTRODUCTION Edwin Wenink, program director of FLOW1 at Royal FloraHolland was meeting with Rob Koppes, supply chain consultant, at their corporate office in Aalsmeer, the Netherlands, on January 12, 2016, to discuss the latest change to Royal FloraHolland’s supply chain. Starting the following week, all flowers sold at auction in Aalsmeer and Naaldwijk would use only image auctioning, ending a 100-year tradition of physically moving the flowers through the auction room during the auction process for visual inspection by the buyers. Under the new process, a digital image of the flowers would be presented on the auction clock located at the front of the room (see Exhibit 1). Royal FloraHolland had been making greater use of image auctioning in recent years, believing that product quality would be improved if flowers remained in cold storage. The quality control process provided adequate information to the buyers alongside the virtual auction clock. This announcement was one illustration of several recent changes that had been made to Royal FloraHolland’s supply chain as the co-operative responded to a host of pressures that threatened the relevance of one of Holland’s largest and most famous industries. Edwin commented to Rob on the challenges ahead:

Our industry is changing rapidly and I do not see the pace of change slowing anytime in the near future. The industry is consolidating, the use of information technology is affecting our business processes and relationships with supply chain partners, and our growers are facing competition from developing regions across the globe. We need to continue to innovate to maintain a resilient supply chain. Several of our recent projects, such as HubWays and GreenRail, have challenged conventional views in our industry and pushed us to change traditional practices. The challenge is to continue on our path of change management and innovation to reduce supply chain costs while simultaneously improving environmental sustainability performance. Royal FloraHolland’s supply chain department needs to identify new areas to target our future supply chain innovation projects. Put together your thoughts on where you feel we have the best