Ran & Citigroup

132 PART I Strategy and the Nonmarket Environment

The Rcsinforest Action Network

RAN was founded in 1985 with the mission of prot

ecting tropical rainforests and the human rights of

people living in them. RAN used tools such as

citizen protests, media, nonviolent civil disobedie

nce, and publications to bring awareness to the

issues and pressure governments, corporations, and

lending institutions. RAN had about two dozen

employees, all in the United States, organized in

three departments: operations, development

(fundraising), and campaigns. RAN had a full-time

media specialist who interacted with the news

media and participated in campaign planning.

Within the campaigns department, RAN typically

had a campaign manager for each campaign and

used an organizing staff of about five to support

whichever campaign was active at the time.

In the mid-1990s RAN changed its focus from

public policy to the private sector with the objective of

changing the practices of companies with environm

entally destructive practices. RAN executive direct

or Michael Brune said, “Companies were more

responsive to public opinion than certain legislatures

were. We felt we could create more democracy in the

marketplace than in the government.”

RAN’s Global Finance Campaign

Selecting a Target

In late 1999 RAN was concluding a successful 2-year

campaign (led by Brune) targeting Home Depot,

which had agreed to end by 2003 the sale of wood

from endangered forests. For the Global Finance

Campaign, RAN planned to use a model similar to

the one used for Home DepotвЂ"target a large,

brand-oriented, U.S.-based multinational company

that had a strong retail presence, was a leader in its

industry, and had a key role in facilitating the

destruction of old growth forests and supporting

extractive industries. Because RAN was a small

organization with the goal of shifting the practices of

entire sectors, not just individual companies, it relied

on the ripple effect of targeting a market leader.

One company stood out as the best targetвЂ"

Citigroup, the world’s largest bank. Citigroup was

the leading global, emerging market project finance

bank, and developing country project finance bank.

Citigroup also had a key role in a number of specific

projects that alarmed RAN, such as the Camisea

pipeline in Peru (Citigroup was the financial advisor

on the project but did not directly fund it) and the

Chad-Cameroon pipeline under construction by

ExxonMobil Chevron, and a consortium of central

African oil companies.2 In researching Citigroup’s

involvement, RAN relied on data from Dealogic’s

ProjectWare, a database of project finance deals.

In 2000 Citigroup had net income of $13.5 billion

on revenues of $111.8 billion and had customers

in over 100 countries and territories. Citigroup’s

activities included global consumer banking, global

corporate and investment banking, global investment

management and private banking, and investment

activities. Citigroup’s global consumer group offered

banking, lending, investment services, and credit

cards to customers in over 50 countries and tern-

tories. The global consumer group reported core

net income of $5.3 billion on $30.4 billion of revenues

in 2000.

Citigroup had a public image and a brand to

protect (in particular, its large consumer banking

operation and credit card business), which made it

an attractive target. Ilyse Hogue, RAN’s campaign

manager for the Global Finance Campaign, said:

Citigroup had poured $100 million into its

brand image, most recently on its “Live Richly”

marketing campaign, which was predicated on

the notion that “there is more to life than

money.” We saw a company that was investing a

lot in making the public believe that they opera

ted in line with conirnon social values. Part of

Citi’s vulnerability was the juxtaposition of what

it