Diversify Raw-Material Sourcing for a Boston Natural-Cosmetics Brand
Overview
What this challenge is about.
You map spend and risks, then build a sourcing plan cutting single-supplier dependency by 30% for a cosmetics brand. You earn a verifiable certificate.
The scenario
GlowUp Naturals is a direct-to-consumer natural cosmetics brand of roughly 40 employees, based in Boston, that formulates products from organic oils, plant butters, and fragrances and is scaling rapidly through online sales. Its buying is still founder-led and single-sourced per ingredient, which now threatens both supply continuity and margin as volumes climb.
The Brief
What you'll do, and what you'll demonstrate.
Design a strategic sourcing strategy that diversifies the supplier base for GlowUp Naturals' critical raw materials, cutting single-supplier risk while holding to the company's cost and sustainability goals.
Earning criteria — what you'll demonstrate
- Assess single-supplier concentration and supply risk from real portfolio data
- Build weighted supplier selection criteria that balance cost, reliability, and sustainability
- Apply a risk-versus-impact framework to prioritize which ingredients to diversify first
- Translate a sourcing strategy into a realistic, phased plan for a small operations team
- Identify negotiation levers that protect cost targets while broadening the supplier base
Program Fit
Where this fits in your program.
Sharpens the same skills your degree expects you to demonstrate.
Aligned coursework coming soon.
Skills
Skills you'll demonstrate.
Each one shows up on your verified credential.
- Strategic Sourcing
Apply strategic sourcing to solve real industry problems and demonstrate production-level capability.
- Supplier Evaluation
Apply supplier evaluation to solve real industry problems and demonstrate production-level capability.
- Risk Management
Identify, assess, and mitigate risks across business operations and projects.
- Negotiation Strategy
Apply negotiation strategy to solve real industry problems and demonstrate production-level capability.
- Sustainability Procurement
Apply sustainability procurement to solve real industry problems and demonstrate production-level capability.
Careers
Career paths this challenge builds toward
Completing this challenge demonstrates skills that transfer directly to these roles:
Strategic Sourcing Analyst
This challenge mirrors the core analyst task of turning raw supplier data into a diversification plan, building the portfolio analysis, scoring, and risk-segmentation skills that sourcing teams hire for.
This challenge sharpens
- strategic-sourcing
- supplier-evaluation
- risk-management
Procurement Manager
By balancing the cost ceiling, sustainability goals, and negotiation levers into an executable roadmap, you practice the cross-pressure decision-making a procurement manager owns when professionalizing a growing company's buying.
This challenge sharpens
- strategic-sourcing
- negotiation-strategy
- risk-management
Sustainability Procurement Specialist
Embedding sustainability indicators into supplier selection and weighing them against price prepares you for roles that ensure responsible sourcing without sacrificing supply security or margin.
This challenge sharpens
- sustainability-procurement
- supplier-evaluation
- strategic-sourcing