A corporate president put a senior executive in charge of a failing operation. His only directive was “Get it in the black.” Within two years of that injunction, the new executive moved the operation from a deficit position to one that showed a profit of several million. Fresh from his triumph, the executive announced himself as a candidate for a higher-level position, and indicated that he was already receiving offers from other companies.
A version of this article appeared in the July 1976 issue of Harvard Business Review.