Lympo: The Complexity of Responsible Leadership in the Emerging Blockchain Industry

Legal uncertainty, market volatility, and a high risk of scams were just a few of the challenges that Lympo, a leading firm in sports non-fungible tokens (NFTs) minting (i.e., creation of unique digital assets related to sports), had already successfully overcome. In early 2022, Lympo, led by co-founder and Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Ada Jonušė, was hit by a massive hacker attack and lost a large number of tokens (i.e., digital units of value representing community investments in the firm) worth close to 19 million USD. Tomas—another of the co-founders and a close colleague of Ada—took full responsibility for the incident. As the CEO, Ada should lead the firm toward recovery by balancing different pressures, interests, and relationships. What actions should Ada, as a responsible leader, take to handle this new immense challenge? The case enables learning about responsible leadership, in particular, the complexity of assessing what responsible leadership is. The latter is central to the implementation of Sustainable Development Goal 10 (Reduced inequalities), and target 10.2 (Empower and promote social, economic, and political inclusion) in particular. Additionally, the case provides insights on the emerging blockchain technology-based businesses.