CASE
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CASE' '.3 . LandersCorporarion
Terry Shawhad beenin chargeof the Cincinnati, Ohio, territory for abouta yearwhen
Vice Presidentof Marketing Harry Wiley announced in a memo that he would be visiting Cincinnati for tWo days in the near future. Terry previously had beenin the
New York salesterritory for three years and had developed a superior salesrecord before being transferred to southwestern Ohio. The New York territory assignment involved dealing with the company'slarger accounts, but Terry was responsiblefor daily businesscontactS,whereashigher-level executivesdid most of the entertaining and gift giving. The purposeof Wiley's visit was to call on severallargecustomerswith
Terry, andonein particular, BlandingsConsolidated.That accountaloneaccountedfor
30 percent of that territory's business.
BlandingsConsolidatedhasa lot of clout with LandersCorporationbecauseof itS importanceas a customer,and high-level executivesof both companiesstay in touch with each other. The businessand personal relationships go back nearly fifty years.
Terry wasquite consciousof the importanceof liaison with this customerandthe effect it would haveon both his shon-run and long-run careerobjectivesat Landers.At least, he knew that a negativeimpressionwould be very serious.
Terry met Harry at the airport in the morning and Harry's first day in Cincinnati was not very eventful. After Harry had checked in to his hotel, they called on three customersbefore lunch; the visit to Blandings Consolidated was scheduledfor the secondday. Terry chosea fast-foodrestaurant for lunch. During lunch, Harry askeda lot of questions,mostly about individuals he had known personally at a number of
Terry's accountS.Harry was in his fifties and had worked his way up the organization from a field sales position. Terry was somewhat uncomfortable, becausehe didn't know the peoplethat Harry knew very well, and cenainly not asfriends.The afternoon went much as the morning had, with what Terry judged to be the kind of calls Harry wanted to make on clientS' high-level executives.
After the last call, Harry suggestedthat they have cocktails at his hotel before
Terry went home to Dayton, fifty miles to the north. Harry beganthe conversationby asking Terry how he got along with George Whitehead, the purchasing agent at
BlandingsConsolidated.Terry's answer didn't seem to satisfy Harry. He then asked
Terry how many times he had taken Georgeout to dinner and a "night on the town."
Terry had to admit that he hadn't taken Whitehead out at all. (Terry had heardfrom other salespeoplethat GeorgeWhitehead was a heavy drinker and that eveningson the town had gone to some rather wild extremes.both in Cincinnati and acrossthe

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river in Kentucky. He felt intimidated by Georgeevery time he calledon him, and felt that, being younger,he would probably be led by Georgeeven if he tried to plan the evening.Drinking and hell-raisingwas fun enoughin college,but now he wasmarried and had a baby at home.)
Harry's questions made Terry realize that he had been avoiding entenaining
George,and that Harry had uncoveredit. Although LandersCorporation had always enjoyedthe lion's shareof BlandingsConsolidated'sbusiness,a Germancompanywas in hot pursuit of it. Accordingto GeorgeWhitehead, its priceswere very attractiveand product quality was the same.loss of