“I’ll make Fred pay for dinner,” thought Jack Thompson, the CEO of Praxim, Incorporated, as he drove north on Interstate 101 toward Il Fornaio, his favorite restaurant in Palo Alto. Fred Wong, a long-time friend, had been one of Praxim’s early backers, and Jack knew he’d get an earful about his company’s continued lackluster performance. “I’ll be getting all the grief,” Jack said to himself. “At least Fred can pick up the tab.”
A version of this article appeared in the November-December 1998 issue of Harvard Business Review.
