Case Study

Running Toward Net Zero — From Finish Line to Bottom Line

What does it really take to earn the time and trust of C‑suite buyers?

For us, it began at 5:00 a.m., on the road, doing something hard and with intent. In 2023, ALLY Energy convened a cross‑company, executive running team—Women & Allies in Energy: Running Toward Net Zero—with Tata Consultancy Services (the title and technology partner of the TCS New York City Marathon) and Worley, a global engineering, procurement, and construction company.

The goal wasn’t swag or a booth; it was to build a community that brought CIOs and their peers in Finance, HR, Operations, and Procurement into one room—and then onto one course—around a shared pursuit that demanded grit, consistency, and leadership. On November 5, 2023, 50 energy leaders ran in New York together to make that point visible.

From the start, this wasn’t “a campaign.” It was an operating rhythm. We curated a roster intentionally—senior operators and influencers across oil & gas, utilities, wind, solar, and climate tech—then wrapped it with weekly touchpoints: training plans, nutrition sessions, runner stories, and peer‑to‑peer accountability. The work created a drumbeat that sustained executive attention for months, and the content told a human story that leaders actually wanted to share. That mix—discipline plus narrative—moved the conversation well beyond IT into the full buying committee.

The crescendo came during the marathon weekend. On the Friday before the race, ALLY secured the New York Stock Exchange closing bell and hosted Energy Human Capital Markets Day. It was a market‑signal moment—100+ leaders on the platform; national visibility; the message that the future of energy is built by people willing to do hard things together. Then the team ran. The whole activation raised the profile of our partners and channeled momentum toward the conversations that actually move enterprise deals forward.

Purpose mattered, too. The team raised funds to support The Energy Project, tying the effort to talent, youth, and the next generation of energy problem‑solvers. The story worked because it was bigger than any single company—exactly the kind of platform that earns influence across a fragmented stakeholder map.

Impact

The cohort created multi‑threaded access at the very top of target accounts—CIOs alongside CFOs, CHROs, CPOs, and operations leaders—and built the kind of trust that trade shows rarely produce. Those relationships contributed to a nine‑figure enterprise project with a major oil company (details available on request), and they left behind a repeatable, field‑first playbook: curate the right leaders, build real community, create a signal event, and let the outcomes compound.

Why this matters to Pinnacle:

You’re not trying to win clicks. You’re trying to win enterprise reliability—Newton™, RAM, decision intelligence—sold to leaders who care about production, availability, and spend. The marathon program shows how we operate: we build markets by convening executives around meaningful work, not noise; we turn community into multi‑threaded meetings; we turn meetings into pilots; and we turn pilots into pipelines you can measure. It’s the same builder mindset we’ll apply to your Reliability Leadership narrative—field‑first, ABM‑ready, instrumented in HubSpot—so your next chapter isn’t “more content,” it’s more conversion.

ALLY’s take is simple: do the hard thing that proves the point.

That’s how you cut through with the people who decide. When the work is done right, the signal carries—from the starting line to Wall Street—and into the rooms where seven‑ and eight‑figure decisions get made.