Rio Tinto Aftermath

This case, Rio Tinto Aftermath, picks up where the case Rio Tinto leaves off. Jakob Stausholm has just assumed the helm of international mining giant Rio Tinto following stakeholder uproar over the company’s decision in May 2020 to dynamite two sacred, 46,000-year-old caves at Juukan Gorge in Western Australia to extract iron ore. Case Rio Tinto Aftermath examines how Stausholm addressed the dilemma over the next four years and how a company that loses its social license to operate (SLO) can take steps to regain it.

Specifically, readers learn how leaders diagnose deep-rooted issues and strategically use crises to implement transformation strategies: in Rio’s case, by systemically and holistically embedding value-based culture change to regain SLO and improve future competitiveness. The case details Stausholm’s efforts to perform root-cause analysis; build leadership capacity; redefine and live Rio’s objectives, values, and purpose; resurrect and modernize the company’s historical good DNA; overhaul community relation systems; and embed financial and non-financial metrics.