QUICK FACTS
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Industry: Energy & Financial Services
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Clients: Large corporations with significant oil and gas exposure
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Market Context: Early 1990s, prior to widespread adoption of energy derivatives
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Core Challenge: CFO skepticism toward financial engineering and derivatives
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Approach: Executive-level education and third-party credibility
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Outcome: Hundreds of millions of dollars in energy risk management contracts; market leadership​​
THE CHALLENGE
In the early 1990s, corporations with large energy exposure — airlines, trucking fleets, manufacturers, and global shippers — faced extreme price volatility in oil and gas markets. These swings made forecasting operating costs, managing earnings, and protecting balance sheets increasingly difficult.
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Phibro Energy had developed a solution that is now standard practice but was unfamiliar at the time: derivative instruments such as swaps, caps, and floors designed to hedge energy price risk.
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The obstacle was not the economics. It was establishing trust.
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Many Chief Financial Officers viewed derivatives as speculative Wall Street inventions — opaque tools created by quants and traders, disconnected from real operating risk. Financial engineering carried reputational and career risk for conservative finance leaders.
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Traditional product marketing would not overcome that longstanding skepticism. If Phibro attempted to sell derivatives directly, resistance would harden.
THE STRATEGY
Highlander Consulting designed an integrated go-to-market strategy that addressed three distinct barriers to adoption:
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Executive skepticism regarding derivative instruments
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Lack of shared language to explain energy risk management clearly and objectively
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Sales conversations that positioned derivatives as products rather than risk management tools
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The strategy was deliberately multi-layered, combining thought leadership, sales enablement, earned media, and explanatory marketing.
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Rather than relying on any single tactic, the goal was to synchronize credibility, understanding, and application.
STRATEGIC PILLARS
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Reframe the product category.
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Translate complexity into clarity.
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Enable an intrinsic sales process.
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Amplify third-party validation.
EXECUTION HIGHLIGHTS
Private CFO Forum: Category Reframing
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Executive-Only Private Forum
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Designed and hosted a closed-door, invitation-only event exclusively for CFOs.
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Positioned the forum as an educational discussion, not a product presentation.
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Ensured confidentiality and peer-level dialogue to encourage candid engagement.
Unimpeachable Third-Party Credibility
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Secured Peter F. Drucker, then in his 80s, teaching at Claremont Graduate School and universally regarded as the era’s most trusted management thinker.
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Explicitly requested that Drucker deliver no promotional message for Phibro.
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Upon learning the audience was composed of CFOs, Drucker chose his own topic: “The role of the CFO.”
Market Response
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Within weeks, more than 200 CFOs from some of the largest and most respected U.S. companies accepted the invitation.
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Attendance alone signaled that the market was open to rethinking the issue — if approached properly.
The Defining Moment
During his remarks, Drucker recounted a personal story from 1934, when he helped develop one of the earliest currency-hedging instruments in London.
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He described how these tools failed commercially — not because they lacked value, but because customers believed exchange rates were “ordained by the Good Lord” and not something to be managed.
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He then revealed that the only client who truly understood the tool was legendary economist John Maynard Keynes — who used hedging, not speculation, to build extraordinary wealth.
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Without endorsing Phibro — and without being prompted — Drucker offered a powerful, authoritative reframing:
Hedging is not speculation. It is responsible risk management.
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Phibro’s CEO, legendary oil trader Andy Hall, immediately recognized the impact. The market’s mental model had just shifted.
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Restructuring the Sales Model:
From Product Pitch to Intrinsic Selling
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While thought leadership and media established legitimacy, adoption ultimately depended on how energy risk management was positioned and sold.
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We recognized that CFOs would not be persuaded by brochures, advertising claims, or theoretical explanations. To accept derivatives as a prudent strategy, they needed to understand their own exposure in concrete financial terms.
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To create an intrinsic sales dynamic, we equipped its sales force with a structured, face-to-face diagnostic worksheet, based on Phibro’s proprietary algorithm:
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The worksheet calculated the range and depth of a company’s energy price exposure using historical and projected consumption of jet fuel, gasoline, heating oil, and related products.
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Phibro’s algorithm translated volatility into direct balance-sheet impact.
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In real time, CFOs could see how hedging would reduce earnings volatility and protect cash flow.
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This shifted the sales interaction from persuasion to demonstration. Sales representatives were no longer seen as product advocates but as consultative partners helping CFOs reduce economic risk and improve planning confidence.
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Executive-Level Thought Leadership
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Produced An Overview of Energy Risk Management, a plain-language educational booklet designed to explain energy price volatility, hedging concepts, and CFO relevance without financial jargon.
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Created a companion publication featuring Peter Drucker’s remarks, The Role of the CFO, reprinted and distributed via direct mail to thousands of CFOs who did not attend the forum.
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Positioned these materials as educational resources — not sales collateral — reinforcing Phibro’s credibility.
Earned Media & Market Validation
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Secured coverage of energy risk management and Phibro Energy in The Wall Street Journal and other major business publications.
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Articles highlighted real-world hedging outcomes, reinforcing that derivatives were already being used prudently by leading corporations.
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Media coverage reframed energy risk management as an accepted executive practice rather than an experimental financial product.
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Advertising & Explanatory Marketing
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Developed print advertising campaign in major financial publications that explained energy price risk using familiar financial analogies (interest rates, exchange rates).
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Focused on education rather than promotion, reinforcing understanding and legitimacy.
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Ensured visual and conceptual consistency across ads, brochures, and educational materials.
Direct Extension of Drucker’s Authority
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Distributed reprints of Drucker’s forum remarks to thousands of CFOs via direct mail.
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Extended the credibility of the private forum well beyond attendees, creating a halo effect across the broader CFO community.
THE RESULTS
In the years following this integrated marketing campaign:
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Phibro Energy executed hundreds of millions of dollars in energy risk–management–related contracts.
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Energy derivatives moved from a fringe concept to an accepted financial management practice among large corporate consumers.
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Phibro emerged as a dominant player in energy risk management for a sustained period.
What had been viewed as risky financial engineering became understood as prudent balance-sheet protection.
LESSONS LEARNED
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Credibility precedes persuasion.
A credible third-party voice can legitimize an idea faster than any marketing message. -
Education works best when it isn’t selling. By removing product promotion, Phibro allowed CFOs to reach their own conclusions.
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Frame the problem before offering the solution. Recasting derivatives as a CFO responsibility — not a trading tactic — changed adoption dynamics.
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Opportunity favors preparation.
Drucker’s validation story was unplanned, but the private forum that made it possible was deliberately designed.
TRUST CREATES MARKETS
By building credibility first—and letting trusted voices do the talking—Phibro Energy helped define an entirely new category of financial management.
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The tools mattered.
The framing mattered more.
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Does your company need to build credibility to gain market traction?
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