The wind was howling and relentless as Fred Westen opened the door and called upstairs to tell his wife that he was home. While he waited or her to come down, he poured himself a shot of whiskey, tilting the decanter with his left hand. In his right he grasped the morning’s Wall Street Journal. The CEO of the luxury apparel retailer Hathaway Jones wanted to hear his wife’s reaction to a story. Martha Westen walked almost languorously down the stairs. She went to the kitchen, poured herself a cup of tea, strolled into the living room, and nestled in her favorite chair by the ?re. Fred handed her the paper and directed her attention to the front page. There she found an article about how an insurer had rejected a woman’s claim for disability because of chronic ack pain, based on information the company had obtained from her psychologist’s notes.
Martha shook her head. “It gets worse every day,” she shuddered as she envisioned a future in which everyone’s medical records were posted online. “Even our thoughts aren’t private anymore. ” At 58, Martha didn’t pretend to be an expert on shared online content or anything else to do with the Internet. All her information was limited to what she read in the popular press. Which was just enough to keep her up at night. “It’s what I keep on telling you, Fred. There are no secrets now, and we’re just going to have o learn how to live with that. ”
Martha fell silent, staring moodily at the ?ickering ? re. Fred was almost relieved when the telephone rang. He jumped up to grab the receiver. At the other end of the line was John Brewster, Fred’s old roommate at Andover and now a stringer for a number of U. S. newspapers in Shanghai. Although the two had not stayed close after prep school, they still exchanged Christmas letters and called each other occasionally. The men spent a few minutes catching HBR’s cases, which are ? ctional, present common managerial dilemmas and offer concrete solutions from experts. arvard business review • june 2007 page 1 W e Googled You •• •H BR C A SE S T UDY up and then John eased the conversation around to his daughter, Mimi. Now in San Francisco, Mimi had heard that Fred planned to expand the Philadelphiabased Hathaway Jones into China, and she wanted to be part of the move.
The Essay on Martha’s Relationship With Rashid
Martha’s connection to Rashid was very strong. Martha and Rashid were happily married and very much in love with each other. Martha and Rashid have two children named Tony who is 15, and Marie who is 13 both born in Canada. Martha was born in Ontario but moved to British Columbia when she married Rashid. Martha met Rashid during her high school years. Martha and Rashid were married in a Roman ...
All business now, she grabbed her bag, her BlackBerry, and her keys and ran out to catch the ? ight to Philadelphia. Bullish on a China Shop Fred left the house at 5:30 AM every day for his of? ce at 1 Constitution Road. He had a lot of work to do, and there was not a moment to waste. Despite sales of $5 billion in 2006, Hathaway Jones had fallen on hard times. Four years ago, the privately owned U. S. retail chain had recruited Fred because of his imposing credentials and a lifetime’s experience of working with luxury brands and had charged him with waking up the company’s sleepy, onservative stores. It hadn’t been easy.
