Janice, the store vice president, ran up to Bill. Janice had worked for Bill since before she graduated from high school. She started out doing odd jobs and slowly but surely grew into his most valued employee. She was high-energy — always rushing purposefully around the store — helping, smiling and laughing. When he named her vice president, nobody in the store disagreed. At the moment, however, she wasn’t smiling. “Bill, I hate to say it,” she said. “I don’t think the sale is going well.”