The following day, Friday, both Jonathan and Jason had been invited to a luncheon, to honor a mutual acquaintance who was retiring after a distinguished career, culminating with a position as executive vice president and chief financial officer for one of the largest publicly owned companies in the area.

As they drove to the luncheon, Jonathan commented that he was pleased with both the dialogue and outcome of the meeting the day before. He now felt the timing was right to launch into the details of the work effort through a team he had formed within the past month. Earl and Jack were designated as co-leaders. Jonathan explained, to Jason, that he wanted Jack to be an integral part of the process and did not want Jack to feel that Earl was taking over such an important task for the company.

The other team members were Jill Debitson (the number two person in Corporate Accounting), Frank Accurato (Earl's most senior level direct report), and the finance directors for the two business units. Catherine (Cathy) Casher served as finance director for Industrial Products and David (Dave) Dollarby held the same position in Industrial Services. Val Performa, while not an official member of the work team, was to be brought in for all summary and conclusion type meetings, and sent copies of all significant written reports.

After listening, Jason turned to Jonathan and asked, "Would you give me an overview of the backgrounds and experiences of these team members? We've talked briefly...