When Your Star Performer Can’t Manage


Vic, the CEO of a sporting goods company in this fictional case study, is pleased with the numbers. For several years now, they’ve gone steadily in one direction: up. But there’s trouble in paradise. Hidden from the public’s view of industry-dominating winners–from the coolest snowboards to the hottest in-line skates–lies a product-development department that may be ready to shatter like cheap fiberglass. Carver, the company’s chief of product development, is the workaholic mad genius who is responsible for most–he might say all–of the company’s successful products. At the same time, he has managed to alienate the rest of his staff.