The boys had two hours to prepare for a four-minute presentation to the Board of Directors of an imaginary company called Zest. They had to offer financial and business advice on the company’s current and future prospects. Zest markets organic preserves and shellfish with a national distribution network. The boys faced two dilemmas. First, the organic honey provided by one of the company’s suppliers had been contaminated with pesticides.

The boys were required to consider whether the product should be recalled/ rebranded, or whether the embarrassing problem should simply be ignored. The second curveball to which the teams had to respond was the alleged exploitation of migrant workers in the shellfish-harvesting industry. Were they underpaid? What should Zest do about it? The boys had to balance the company’s profit- maximizing objective against the potential damage to its ethical reputation.