This material is part of the Giving Voice to Values curriculum collection (www.GivingVoiceToValues.org).The Aspen Institute was founding partner, along with the Yale School of Management, and incubator for Giving Voice to Values (GVV).

Now Funded by Babson CollegeDo not alter or distribute without permission. © Mary C. Gentile, 2010

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Be Careful What You Wish For: From the Middle1

Sarah was delighted when she was promoted to Controller for the regional Sales unit of a leadingchemical producer where she had been employed for the last 3 years. It was a big boost in responsibilityand enabled her to participate in the incentive compensation program. Now that she was facing her firstend-of-quarter crunch, however, she wondered what she had gotten herself into.

A major customer has placed a large order just one week before the end of quarter, but they don’t wantdelivery till the middle of the next quarter. The Sales Director of Sarah’s group wants to recognize therevenue now, thereby ensuring the maximum bonus for his group for the quarter. This means processingthe order, shipping the product to a warehouse and bearing the carrying costs until shipment to thecustomer.

Sarah feels pressure on all sides. When she sat in the Accounting organization, she saw the costs of suchrevenue recognition problems – the cost of sending messages to all levels of the organization that it’sOK to game the system; the loss of information and distortions in expectations that jeopardized effectivedecision-making; the cost of records clean-up when the distortion eventually came to light; and so on.She still reports to her old team and she knows they are counting on her to make the right decisions onthis kind of thing.

On the other hand, she wants the Sales Director and her new unit’s General Manager to consider her oneof the team. She wants to earn their trust and respect.

What should she say, to whom, when and how?

1 This case was inspired by interviews and observations of actual experiences but names and other situational details havebeen changed for confidentiality and teaching purposes.

This material is part of the Giving Voice to Values curriculum collection (www.GivingVoiceToValues.org).The Aspen Institute was founding partner, along with the Yale School of Management, and incubator for Giving Voice to Values (GVV).

Now Funded by Babson College.Do not alter or distribute without permission. © Mary C. Gentile, 2010

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Discussion Questions What are the main arguments Sarah is trying to counter? That is, what are the reasons and

rationalizations Sarah needs to address? What’s at stake for the key parties, including those with whom you disagree? What levers/arguments can Sarah use to influence those with whom she disagrees? What is your most powerful and persuasive response to the reasons and rationalizations you

need to address?

Revised 02/28/2010