In August 2019, Paraguayan sports journalist Edgar Cantero, correspondent for various international media outlets and digital channels specializing in football (soccer in the US), wondered which of the world's football coaches was most qualified to receive 'The Best' award, granted annually by the Federation Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) in various representative categories (coaches, players, goals etc.). FIFA had 209 affiliated national associations in 2019, so its annual awards were an event of global interest. The voting system was designed to ensure votes were as impartial and transparent as possible, with the way in which each participant voted later being made public on the FIFA website. The final three nominees were generally somewhat predictable, however, usually based on the winners of the world's most prestigious footballing trophies the previous year. Cantero was surprised and honored to be invited to represent Paraguay for the first time in the voting. In an industry where several professional generations with long careers co-exist, Cantero was part of a new generation of younger journalists, all in their early thirties, who were beginning to receive recognition in various countries for their coverage of major international tournaments, such as the World Cup in Russia 2018 and the 2019 Copa America. Cantero was pleased generational diversity was being considered, as it was a topic that generated passionate debate. He only had a couple of weeks to make his decision and cast his vote, although he did favor four of the top ten candidates in particular: Jurgen Klopp (Liverpool FC coach), Pep Guardiola (Manchester City), Mauricio Pochettino (Tottenham Hotspur) and Erik ten Hag (AFC Ajax). Cantero and his colleagues were aware of the media importance of the FIFA awards, which is why their decision was far from an obvious one.

In mid-December 2016, John Cortes, owner, founder, and general manager of JC Premium Cars in Colombia, reached the final stage of the recruitment process for a new sales manager. A prestigious international headhunting firm had spent nearly two months seeking suitable candidates who could also potentially succeed Cortes as general manager. He had recently sold a significant stake in the firm to SLB, a multinational bank that was rapidly expanding into the country. At the assessment center, the performances of the three shortlisted candidates left Cortes dissatisfied. He was negatively surprised by the performance of his favorite candidate, while the other two finalists did not exactly fit the desired profile, contrary to the impressions he had formed of them earlier in the process. The recruitment process had begun with a fundamental instruction from Cortes to the headhunter: "I want the best and the most experienced individuals in the market." He thereby set very specific criteria in terms of experience and knowledge within JCPC's market niche. The headhunting firm found only a few candidates meeting Cortes's requirements, and eventually concluded that "These are all the qualified candidates available in the market." Cortes, who had hoped to retire in order to rest and dedicate himself to other businesses, now believed this would not be possible in the near future. As SLB needed to approve the sales budget for the following year, Cortes was pressed to appoint the new sales manager before the end of the month.

In January 2010, the head of the Colombian Red Cross approached Oilcorp, owner of the largest regional chain of service stations in the country, requesting its participation in its 100th anniversary celebration with a brand awareness campaign for its social programs. Given that the annual budget had already been approved without this campaign in mind, Oilcorp's CEO assigned the task of raising money to the marketing department. Nevertheless, the campaign backfired when Oilcorp tried to link the social message with selling more gasoline and asking customers to provide their details through its corporate website, to be added to Oilcorp's database. Carlos Cardona-a member of the marketing team at Oilcorp-was worried about the mixed reactions he was receiving. The team merely wanted to be practical, and this seemed the easiest way. However, people close to Carlos thought otherwise. For many, it seemed that the company was taking advantage of a social cause for marketing purposes. They disliked the way in which it was hiding selfish intentions behind helping those most in need. Nor did they understand why Oilcorp asked for personal information on a website in exchange for a donation that the company should give on its own initiative. In addition, Oilcorp's CEO told media the company expected to raise US$50,000 from the campaign, but Carlos was worried about achieving the target when he noticed that just 1,200 users had provided their data via the campaign's website. Because of the regular pattern of gas consumption, it was improbable that customers would buy more gasoline from Oilcorp's service stations through the influence of a social initiative. Consequently, the results of the campaign could be as much as 30% below the Colombian Red Cross's expectations and the promises made by Oilcorp's CEO in the media. Carlos and the marketing team needed to decide what actions to take given that the campaign was not on track to meet expectations.