Welcome

CONT E NT S
Change of Fortune.
SETTING THE SCENE 2
Change of Fortune
C MEET THE CHARACTERS 3

CHARACTERS 4 -21
read this entire cas study and
NOT and chairperson S
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CREDITS
Design: Emma Proctor and Emil Chetty
Development: Emma Proctor, Emil Chetty & David
Bonbright
Instructions development: Emma Proctor
Play-testers: Keystone Accountability
Editing: Neil Gaught
Artwork: Steve Ives

Thanks to the project team members and the many others

who have contributed to the development of this project.

1 | Change of Fortune
SETTING THE SCENE

A corporate public relations During a European Union parliamentary enquiry into the conduct of one of Europe’s
catastrophe collides with a new largest energy corporations during the worst winter the continent has seen in decades,
Tomas Halle, CEO of FuelGlow accidentally Tweets a comment that he really wished he
opportunity for a fledgling
hadn’t. The tweet, an insulting joke about the enquiry committee chair, MEP Kirsty Valk,
start-up enterprise and a was intended for his PR director. Instead, not so tech savvy Halle’s message goes viral. It
businessman coming to terms shows him up as manically focused on the pursuit of profit and dismissive of anything to
with a world that is rapidly do with ESG or any other ‘do-gooder’ nonsense outside the business of doing business.
For him sustainability is nothing other than a sideshow.
changing around him.
In the wake of the tweet, which has brought the parliamentary enquiry on to the front
The scene is set for a clash of pages of media channels around the world and resulted in significant reputation damage,
values, ideas and ideals. Sun Lien Tang, the president of HALODI Holdings, the conglomerate that owns FuelGlow,
has had an epiphany. It’s a moment of reflection that has caused him to call a special
Use your persuasive skills to meeting to help him decide whether the time has come to transition his entire group of
companies and put sustainability at their core.
shape how events unfold. Your
decisions could be critical to A thoughtful, strategic leader Sun Lien knows full well that Halle’s attitude to business and
ensuring a business wakes up top-down modus operandi will clash with a driven young entrepreneur called Bibi Okira,
and changes the nature of its whose start-up tech business has recently caught his attention. It’s the perfect opportunity
to hear the arguments of two different generations and what they value most when it
fortune — before it’s too late.
comes to maintaining the status quo and doing business in the 21st century.

Shrewdly, the President has invited three other guests to the meeting. Attendees of the
parliamentary enquiry, each of them have their unique insight and each are more than
willing to share them. It promises to be an interesting discussion!

Change of Fortune | 2
MEET THE CHARACTERS

SU N L I E N TA NG CONR AD JAMES
President of HALODI Holdings, has called Founder of Soul House, a multi-billion
a special meeting and invited five guests conglomerate that is known for its social
to help him decide where to invest the enterprise. He’s a popular celebrity
considerable fortune he has amassed during businessman with a diverse portfolio, and a
an empire building career that has tendency to ruffle the old guards’ feathers with
traditionally put profit first. He is hosting new ideas. Conrad is dialling in from his
the meeting from his office in Singapore. Malibu beach house in California.

BIBI OKIRA K IR STY VALK

Millennial founder of an app called Thrive European MP who chaired the parliamentary
that connects East African smallholders to a enquiry into FuelGlow’s conduct and the
network of world-wide micro-investors. Bibi is target of Tomas’ infamous tweet. She is
seeking to make a positive difference in the passionate about holding corporate
world and an investment from Sun Lien Tang businesses accountable for actions they take
would help make that happen. She is dialling that harm people and the planet. She is
in from Kigali. dialling in from her office in Brussels.

T O M A S H A L LE ANTON va n de r BOOR
CEO of European energy giant FuelGlow, CEO of The Charont Group, FuelGlow’s rival
Tomas sent the tweet that brought global energy company, which has a carefully
attention to his business ethics. Worried about cultivated brand reputation for its paper thin
his job, he’s dialling in from Basel to state the corporate social responsibility activities. A slick
case for maintaining the status quo and the and operator who likes to do the talking but
benefits of businesses like his that put profit not much of the walking, Anton is seen as a
and the pursuit of growth first. ‘green washer’ by activists. He’s dialling in
from Charont’ s Head Office in Amsterdam.

3 | Change of Fortune
TOMA S H A L L E
CEO of FuelGlow a European energy subsidiary
of global multinational Halodi Holdings
 Background
Tomas has been captain of the corporate supertanker FuelGlow for
four years. His approach to achieving efficiency and profit at all costs
has led to questions of late and is seen by the likes of Kirsty Valk as
contributing to the tragic deaths of pensioners who could not pay
their bills during Europe’s worst winter in decades. Tomas believes
FuelGlow is completely innocent. For him business isn’t a charity and
ultimately, it his duty to the shareholders and that rests on customers
ability to pay. At the time of the hearing and a tweet that led to social
media infamy, his pay was 450 times that of FuelGlow’s average worker.

Personality
An old school businessman who believes in ‘common sense’ and that the business of
business is to make a profit. He is confident in his business track record and that his
strategy will deliver reliably strong quarterly returns to FuelGlow’s shareholders. Tomas is
confused by the public reaction to his tweet, and tends to rely too heavily on his
communications director to script vague, smartly worded one-liners for him.

Primary objective
Maintain status quo and don’t get fired!

Secret objective
Convince Su Lien that Bibi and Kirsty’s
ideas about business are idealistic
fantasies; a trend that will never deliver the
returns that shareholders demand.

Your role is to participate in the discussion,

stating your case for how Halodi should
invest its money in a way that aligns with your primary and secret objectives. You may ask
pointed questions of the other characters, pulling on your inside knowledge. Ultimately
you’re here to ensure Halodi backs off with the crazy ideas Conrad spouts and Su Lien
leaves you to carry on running FuelGlow as you like to — from the top.

Inside knowledge
• You have been at the helm of FuelGlow for four years, delivering steady returns for
shareholders that have up to this point ensured that Halodi have let you run things your
way.
• You believe that the decision-makers that matter do not care what Twitter has to say
about you.
• You believe that at the end of the day, businesses are about profit and charities are
about helping people. Like oil and water, the two cannot be mixed.
• You think that Bibi’s company is untested — it is small, its purpose fanciful and she has
not shown her chops in the world of international business.
• You’re proud that FuelGlow employs thousands of people, and its ability to support their
families is directly linked to your success at the helm of the business.
• You believe that business ethics starts and ends with adhering to industry guidelines.
 • You know that FuelGlow has corporate social responsibility programmes, but can’t remember
who heads them up at the moment or whether it has been outsourced. In your opinion, CSR
serves to feed press releases and positive media coverage. You have to be regularly reminded
by your Communications Director what the acronym ESG stands for.
• You think that asking an energy giant to step up and save the world is beyond any idea you
have about what the purpose of a business is.
• You start work everyday at 5.30am.
• You know that, at the end of the day, shareholders want steady leadership and reliable quarterly
results, which you have delivered reliably since taking the top job at the company.
• You are aware of mutterings amongst institutional investors about the need to press for more
information on the sustainability question. They’ve not been quite so friendly since the
parliamentary enquiry.

Key quotes
Here are a few things Tomas has been known to say:

“We operate within industry guidelines.”

“As a company we have nothing to apologise for.”

“I have a very clear conscious.”

“What should I worry about what’s going to happen thirty years from now?”

“We provide free domestic insulation assessments for all our customers”

“As a company we constantly strive to improve.”

“That’s a matter for the Director of Communications.”

“It's a question of leveraging our core competency.”

“That tweet was a mistake - I got rid of it straight away.”