emotions started to swell. You know, you’d think that Joe’s Umbrellas would listen to the people who know their customers the best, the people who live their umbrellas, 昀椀x their umbrellas, sell their umbrellas — Bill was jolted by the shrill voice of a young regional salesperson from Joe’s rushing up to him. “Hi, Gil, welcome to the dealer meeting!” “It’s BILL, not Gil — as in Bill’s Outerwear — your company’s oldest dealer!” Bill responded loudly, with clenched jaw. The regional salesperson was oblivious that he had just insulted Bill. “No problem, my name is Tim. I’m new. Joe just hired me. In fact, I’ve been assigned your region; we’ll be getting to know each other real well. Nice meeting you!” Bill smiled and looked him in the eye and answered, “Likewise, TOM.” Bill thought to himself, This is going to be one long dealer meeting. Back at the hotel, Joe’s staff was running about nervously preparing for the event. There would be several days of meetings with planned entertainment at night. Tonight’s opening event was huge — a performance of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony by a world-famous conductor. Joe’s executives were huddled in a small conference room waiting for him. “All right everyone, run down what we’re going to tell the dealers,” Joe said and attentively listened to his team articulate their message. As they did, Joe noticed that they were not in sync. The theme from the sales department was The Best Pricing Ever. The mantra from advertising was The Luxury Leader, and the engineering department’s message was The Quality Leader. Even the looks of their presentations were different — some were black-and-white, others were vibrant with purple, gold, red, blue and virtually every color imaginable. 5