Andrew Jordan sat at his desk, absentmindedly watching a barge chug slowly upstream on the Thames. The dinner meeting he had scheduled with a select group of senior managers at Universal Products Company, Ltd. would begin in an hour. For three years, it had seemed enough to focus on the business problems of UPC’s Connectors Division, and Jordan, the division’s general manager, had made it the most profitable unit in the company. His success had brought him tremendous respect at UPC. Now problems not of his own making threatened to undermine all those years of hard work. One last time, Jordan opened the file. • • •
A version of this article appeared in the March–April 1991 issue of Harvard Business Review.
