The case follows the story of Brazilian business leader, Ricardo Semler, who took the family marine-pump business, Semco, to multi-national, multi-sector success. To do so, Ricardo Semler dramatically changed his own leadership style by relinquishing control and working less hard, and subsequently transformed the culture at Semco via a radical process of workplace democratisation.

In January 2008, Société Générale, revealed that trader Jerome Kerviel had exposed the bank to 50 billion euros in apparently unhedged and unauthorized trades, resulting in 4.9 billion euros of losses when his positions were unwound.

First Direct has become the model of tele-banking worldwide, despite similar initiatives undertaken by large international banks. The case describes the history of First Direct and the various components of its operations, especially around the central issue of relationship marketing at a distance.