The Credible Boss — Pennine Cardiac Institute

A four-round, advanced healthcare-governance simulation set inside Pennine Cardiac Institute (PCI), a £88M-turnover specialist cardiac hospital in Leeds. On 4 February 2026 Professor Alan Voss — the unit's most cited clinician, its registry data-author and the name external referrers trust — resigns abruptly, leaving PCI's flagship interventional cardiology unit (£41M, 47% of turnover) without a credible leader 14 weeks before the national cardiac-registry submission deadline of 15 May 2026. A drop below the top quartile triggers a £12M outcome-contingent re-tender; four of eleven unit consultants (each £180,000 and nine months to replace) are flight-risk; and £6M of clinical-trials funding needs a credentialed Principal Investigator of record. Playing the board, you (1) diagnose what kind of credibility the unit actually needs — Goodall's expert-leadership theory: inherent domain knowledge, credibility with the led, and a signal the organisation values the work that matters — mapping where consultant trust, commissioner confidence and trials eligibility each come from; (2) select between Dr Priya Anand, a top-decile interventional cardiologist with no management experience, and Marcus Reeve, a seasoned NHS turnaround manager with no clinical background, and design the supporting structure, allocating a £350,000 transition budget across protected clinical sessions, a deputy/COO hire, leadership coaching and a consultant-retention package; (3) respond to a week-8 performance crisis — two consultants formally object, a complex case threatens the registry submission, and a commissioner requests a meeting — deciding how the board backs or constrains the leader without stripping their authority; and (4) defend the appointment to the lead NHS commissioner and the consultant body with 18-month KPI projections. The math rewards an expert leader paired with general-management bandwidth, funded consultant retention, and visible board sponsorship — and punishes the five classic errors: hiring the generalist for 'manageability', assuming expertise equals management capability, treating the choice as strictly binary, underfunding team retention, and over-intervening in the crisis. Final KPIs track Leader Credibility, Unit Performance, Consultant Retention and Risk Exposure (re-tender, talent flight, registry failure).