CEO2 Online Game Puts CSR Minded Players in Charge

You think you could do a decent job of 'running' a CSR minded insurance organization, car manufacturer, chemical company or utility better than most? Now's your chance to flex your virtual business strategy acumen and lower your company's carbon emissions while ensuring its financial growth. CEO2, The Climate Business Game, is an online game developed by the World Wildlife Fund for Nature (WWF) and Allianz, a financial services company, gives you a chance to play that CEO role. Specifically, you're tasked with maximizing profit, making a significant dent in slashing your organization's CO2 (carbon dioxide) emissions and creating low-carbon products by 2030. You get two shots at making it happen. The challenge is to sort out what investments you'll make at a particular interval to set the stage for a profitable boost in a future where low-carbon economics rule.

The game starts by presenting you with a choice of the four industry types. But before you commit to that industry, you'll have an opportunity to watch a video that provides a brief summary of the key issues at play in that particular industry. This is a helpful feature so as to minimize the ignorance syndrome, if your CSR persona is clueless about that industry. Pay attention to the tutorial. You might pick up insights that come in handy for when you start to play. Once you've decided which CSR top-dog role you'll play, you'll be prompted to input your CEO2 character and company names. In the welcome message, you'll be prompted via an inquiry as to what what you're supposed to accomplish and the options of playing that industry background again, view a short demo or jump right into the game. Once you start the game, you'll be presented with a view as if you were sitting at the desk of your CSR company, complete with executive window panorama, relevant to the industry you chose. On your desk are four clickable items: a stack of folders that contain your investment options; a laptop that will allow you to run an "intelligence report" once you drag the investment option to your screen; an industry-specific corporate knick-knack that provides relevant corporate sayings; and a telephone to which you can drag your investment option and call your advisers.

With each operational investment option, you'll be able to track the percent of budget it represents and the impact on CO2 levels by 2020. Once you've made your investment selections, you'll get to see just how well you did. A graphical representation of stock value and CO2 impact based on your selections will display. This is accompanied by a number of written narratives of meaningful developments in your industry over the course of 10 years. You'll also get a narrative, along with photo, of your investor's feedback on how you did, what he liked, what he didn't and what you might want to look out for. In addition to his feedback, you also see a thumbs up or thumbs down from your other advisers--a researcher, and environmentalist and a customer--and you can click on a summary opinion report from each of them. In one of the rounds, I tried, I selected the automobile industry.

My company stock was worth $75 when I started, with a starting point of 0% in carbon emissions change. By 2020, my investment selections had made fine progress; our company stock was valued at $91 and we had achieved a -56% change in CO2 emissions. So what did my advisers feel about the performance of this rookie CEO who chose the automobile arena? Investor Roger Price had this to say about my performance in round one: "I like what I see so far. You've got a nose for both profit and future opportunities in this industry. Keep it up, and beware of future regulations or new product trends." Alright. That's one third of CSR. How did I do in the eyes of researcher adviser Klaus Bergman? "R&D and new products can help prepare our company for future trends in the industry. Your investment here might well make some of the next round's options cheaper." So far so good. What did environmentalist adviser Leena Khan have to say? "A nice surprise. Your choices show me you actually care about reducing your company's carbon footprint. Keep it up in the next round." Not too shabby. Two out of three. Now for the social part of CSR, here's what my customer Susan Silverman had to say. "You're one of my main suppliers, and I'd like to keep it that way. The fact that you think about new products, R&D, and costs make me think you are going to stay profitable in the future." Looks like I'm staying in business on this first round.

Want to hear how I fared on round two? Hmm. On second thought, maybe it's time for you to give CEO2 a go! I thought it was a worthwhile exercise.