The Board


“Since I was young, I knew I was going to make it to the top. I have that motivation and drive that only successful people in business have. I knew how to read people and influence them, for the good of course, so getting to the top was somewhat easy.”

“I didn’t have much money growing up, so I could only afford a community college for my associate degree. When I landed my first internship, my employer sponsored my business degree and my MBA. I did not stay there long though; I had other plans.”

“I really enjoy being where manufacturing and science meet, so that’s where I looked for my next engagements: senior manager at a chemical company, director at a mining company, and VP at an oil company. The sky was the limit.”

“When I landed the job of CEO at A___ I was determined to bring this Fortune 500 company into the Fortune 50 group. A___ provides lithium batteries to the EV auto industry. But lithium is not a common element found on Earth. In fact, only a few countries hold all the reserves of lithium. What did I do? I looked for the best scientists in the field who could give me an alternative to lithium batteries.”

“I put these scientists to research the problem under the most secrecy. No one in the company was supposed to know what they were working on, no one except me. After a year’s work they were able to develop a battery based on sodium as opposed to lithium. You see, lithium is akin to sodium as they are next to each other in the periodic table, and they share the same number of electrons in their last orbital, making them behave very similarly. They told me they got the idea from when scientists in the Soviet Union started working with germanium for developing microprocessors. The problem with germanium is that is a very rare element. Scientists in the US developed microprocessors using silica instead, which is much more common, but shares a lot of its properties with germanium. You probably know who won the microprocessor race…”

“And how common is sodium? Have you heard of the salt you use for cooking? That’s how common sodium is. Can you imagine creating batteries at about 1/100 of the current price? We are not only going to solve the problem of climate change, but any energy problems we face.”

“At this moment the board of directors is reviewing the findings, and they are to approve 100 million dollars’ worth of funding to develop the first plant of its kind. Our company is not only going to be in the Fortune 50, but we could be just behind Apple, Amazon and Microsoft in revenue in the Fortune 10 group.”

- Miss S___, the board is waiting for you.


- Miss S___, the board has reviewed your petition, and it has consulted with the doctors who treat you. It is the board’s decision that you are to continue your psychiatric treatment in this facility. We will review your case in two years’ time.

- So, when can we start building that battery plant?