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Roger clarke

W. Earl Sasser

Six weeks after his promotion to advanced market development specialist, Roger Clarke realized that he was in trouble. The glowing reports and forecasts that had provided the momentum for his predecessor’s promotion to marketing manager were either overly optimistic or outright fabrications. There was no chance of meeting the 6-month or 12-month goals unless Clarke continued the creative accounting and report writing so bril1ianty engineered by Brad Carter, who was now his boss. In fact, as he reread a memorandum from Carter to Conrad Dawson, the group vice president, he was convinced that Carter was building a case to fire him.

Path to advanced market development specialist

Roger Clarke was born in 1948 in a small midwestern town. Of modest fmancial means, he worked his way through Indiana State University, receiving a bachelor’s degree in engineering management at the age of 22. His first job after college was in a sales capacity with IBM. Clarke compiled an outstanding sales record and was recruited to Universal Computers in March 1973 to assume a sales representative’s position for the securities industry group in the Chicago office. In Clarke’s mind, the opportunities to advance rapidly at Universal appeared outstanding.

In July 1973, Clarke made a well-received presentation to Robert Simmons, the national sales manager, and Conrad Dawson, the group vice president, during a regional meeting. Shortly thereafter, during a 4-week training program at group headquarters in New York, Clarke asked Conrad Dawson to promote him to market development specialist, stating that “most of the market development specialists are not qualified to carry my briefcase.” At the end of a 6-hour dinner, the group vice president gave Roger his blessing and promoted him to the position of advanced marketing development specialist assigned to group headquarters in New York City. The group’s organizational structure is depicted in Exhibit 1. The promotion had been a double advancement because it normally took a marketing development specialist several years in the field to obtain the advanced status. All other market development specialists were in their early to mid-thirties. The advanced market development specialist in the other region was 40 years old; Clarke was only 25. His salary was $27,000, a 50 percent improvement over his previous salary.

Clarke had direct responsibility for the three market development specialists in his region. They, in turn, had “dotted-line” responsibility for the sales representatives in their districts. Clarke reported to Brad Carter, the marketing manager of securities industry group. Carter had recently been promoted from the position Clarke assumed.

First month

After the promotion had become effective on September 10, Clarke had spent a week with his boss in New York City, making a whirlwind tour of brokerage firm clients. The next week he had spent the majority of his time getting to know most of the New York sales representatives of the securities industry group and making introductory sales calls with a few salespeople. He had spent the next 2 weeks visiting brokerage firms in New York and visiting sales offices in Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Boston, where he met local sales representatives and clients. He also participated, along with the eight other marketing specialists and Brad Carter, in a marketing plan review for 1974. Clarke recalled the hectic nature of the first month in his new position, “Besides meeting all the sales representatives and clients during this period, I was in the process of buying a house on Long Island, getting married (on September 21), and arranging to move my possessions from Chicago to Long Island.”

EXHIBIT 1. Roger Clarke — organization chart, the securities industry group.

*There are two advanced market development specialists (one for each region) and seven market development specialists (one for each district). Roger Clarke was advanced market development specialist for the New York- Philadelphia-Boston region.

**There are seven technical specialists (one for each district).