The case is set in early 2019. Edouard Neviaski is CEO of the Global Energy Markets (GEM) division of Engie, a very large French energy company. He has been pushing a major programme of change over the previous three years and is considering the next steps: how to maintain momentum, what additional initiatives to pursue and whether to encourage other parts of Engie to apply a similar approach in their divisions.

The case provides a lot of detail on the internal organisational changes in GEM from 2016-2019. In particular, it focuses on how some parts of GEM adopted ‘holacracy’ – a self-organising system in which individual teams take full responsibility for defining their own work and how it fits with others. The case also provides a lot of detail on the broader cultural change and the high levels of investment in professional training around new techniques and concepts.