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Chapter One
I was sitting at home in my favorite easy chair, but my mind was not at rest. It was 4:00 a.m. For the third night in a row I'd awakened in the early hours, troubled and confused by a problem at work that increasingly gnawed at me.
Being a division sales manager for a large hightech company in a very competitive industry can have its difficult moments. This definitely was one of them. Sales had been down for almost six months and my boss was putting pressure on me to get my division's numbers up. I'd been involved for a month in a search for a topflight, experienced sales representative to add to my sales force, and three days ago I had interviewed a very likely prospect.
From the moment he walked confidently into my office, I'd felt this man was just the person I needed. As the interview proceeded I became more and more excited. It was obvious that I'd be lucky to get this person. He had an outstanding sales record and knew our industry backward and forward. Most intriguingly, he had just quit a top job with our major competitor, after six successful years with that company.
Throughout our meeting, I realized that this sales representative was head and shoulders above all other applicants I had interviewed, in every category. I'd just about made up my mind to hire him (pending a phone call or two to check his references), when he smiled, reached into his attache case, and pulled out a small, square envelope. From it he extracted a computer disc, and held it up as if it were a priceless gem.
"Can you guess what's on this disc?" he said.
I shook my head.
Still smiling, his voice oozing with self-assurance, he proceeded to explainthat the disc contained a wealth of confidential information about our competitor, his former employer -- including profiles of all their customers and cost data on a major defense-contract bid for which our company was also competing. As we closed out the interview session, he promised me that, if I hired him, he would give me this disc and more of the same.
After he left my office, I had two immediate responses to what had just happened. The first reaction was one of rage. How could he do such a thing? I knew that what he proposed was wrong and because of that he wasn't the kind of person I wanted on my team. My second reaction was not as quick or as emotional, but when it surfaced I knew it was something I could not easily dismiss. The more I thought about it, the more I realized that this person was offering me and our company a virtual gold mine. He had told me enough to convince me that if I hired him, I could, most likely, bring in not only the giant defense contract but several other huge accounts -- fish I'd been angling for over the past three years. It was all there within my grasp. I knew it was one of those once-in-a-lifetime opportunities. And I certainly could use such an opportunity now.
With one of our kids already in college and two more close behind, my wife and I were starting to feel a financial pinch. Without a promotion of some kind, I felt things were going to get worse before they got better. There was no better opportunity than now for a promotion because the executive vice-president in charge of sales and marketing was retiring and my boss would be moving up. His replacement was the subject of the loudest hush-hush there had been in our company since I'd been there. With the current sagging sales record of my division, I had thought I didn't have a chance. But that was before my interview with this sales representative. This would be the perfect time for me to land a large new contract.
I realized that I was caught somewhere between the two reactions of rage and temptation and I decided to go to talk to one of our senior operations managers about the situation. He had been a mentor to me ever since I'd joined the company twelve years before. After I had told him the whole story, his reply was short and to the point, and it surprised me. What he said was "Hire this guy before someone else does. I know it's a risk, but everyone in our industry tries to get reliable data on competitors any way they can. We stand to lose a real competitive edge if you don't strike while the iron's hot." The way he said "competitive edge" was, I knew, a mimic of my boss, who was always hitting us with those words and in that tone.
As I left his office, he patted my shoulder and winked as he assured me he knew I'd do the sensible thing.
As I wandered down the hall toward my office, I ran into my top assistant, a sharp, aggressive M.B.A. graduate. She said, "You look troubled. Anything wrong?"
I quickly motioned her to follow me to my office. Once inside I shut the door and spilled out the whole story, again. Her response was the exact opposite of my mentor's. She looked me straight in the eye and said, "Listen. Think about what you're contemplating here. Not only is what this guy doing wrong, but if you hire him, you would be supporting that kind of behavior. Besides, there's no telling when he might start stealing from us and selling to the highest bidder." I nodded; I'd thought of this myself.
