With superior hardware and software skills, Mitch was a one-man show. Everyone at MakeDough Suppliers knew a call to Mitch equaled "problem solved." There was always at least one well-placed sticky note on his chair. Few noticed when Mitch’s boss John, the MIS director, resigned and left. After all, Mitch was there, and he was in good company with two recent hires: Paul, an analyst, and Eric, a seasoned developer. People like Mitch helped MakeDough, a bakery equipment supplier with $70 million in annual sales, become a rising star. MakeDough was expanding, and Mitch was soon to be a key part of that.

He was summoned to the office of the CEO, Andrew Singleton, and on that fateful day, Marsha, the chief financial officer, personally escorted Mitch to meet Mr. Singleton, since information technology belonged to her.

"So, what does he want?" Mitch asked as they walked.

"I can't say," Marsha replied. "However, get used to calling him Andy."

Before Mitch could decipher the meaning of that comment and its accompanying wink, they stopped. Marsha opened the door to Singleton’s office. "Andy, this is the one everyone has been talking about. Mitch, meet Mr. Singleton."

Mr. Singleton welcomed Mitch with a firm handshake. "Please, have a seat. You might need to sit down for this."

Singleton and Marsha exchanged glances. Mitch sat in the plush leather chair reserved for Singleton's visitors.

"I've heard great things about you. Marsha and I think you should be our next MIS director. Do you think you're ready?"

It was news Mitch had been hoping to hear. After Mitch's enthusiastic acceptance, Singleton quickly began to share his vision.

"Mitch, we're merging with five other companies to be more profitable by sharing resources. All agree that information technology support should be centralized here. That's why John hired Paul and Eric."

"Actually, I'm already aware of the situation," Mitch began. "As I recall, John had some concerns."

Singleton groaned. "I know. John was worried when I promised the other companies they could keep their current systems. The only thing we want is some kind of feed from them each month so our marketing folks have a complete view of all the customers. We've been calling it Project: Single-view. Do you have a problem with that?"

Mitch saw this question as a challenge.

Sure, implementing a data model for several different places would be challenging, but Mitch was already determining how to put it all together. He'd had taller orders than this before.

"I'll do my best," he told Singleton.

Mitch immediately dedicated himself to Project: Single-view. Paul and Eric were supportive, but they noticed Mitch still personally took care of all the sticky note requests. Mitch did delegate the data consolidation project to Paul, but that was after Mitch had already prototype reports to get marketing by.

Soon, Rod Johnson, the marketing vice president, demanded those makeshift reports regularly, and there was still the need for a repository to seamlessly blend the historical information of all six companies to look like one.

Things were not going well, and it all came to a head one day when Rod demanded to meet with the CEO, Mitch, and Marsha.

"Our customers seem to think we're clueless!" Rod opened. "I have to call the accountants at each of the six companies for sales information. I compare it to these reports I get, and the numbers never match."

"Rod," Mitch said, "that's because what sales people call a sale isn't always a sale to the accountants. Each division has its own definition. Some only count orders shipped, some divisions count projections—at least I think that's what they call them—and ..."

"I don't give a rip!" Rod threw his reports on the floor. "You said you could do this, and now we look like jerks! I've already had two customers wonder if we have any clue of what's going on because we didn't give them the volume discounts they had earned—because we didn't know!"

The meeting only got worse and ended with Singleton’s telling Mitch to "fix it."

Marsha could only offer support with a silent half-smile since she was not completely sure of the technical issues outside of the area of financial systems. Mitch returned to his desk but was oblivious to everything. There was a fresh set of sticky notes on the back of his chair. "Hey, need help. BC" "Got another problem. Thanks, Hank"

After six straight months of giving everything he had, he couldn't find any more strength. The next morning Mitch's wife walked into Marsha's office with a message. Mitch would not be back—he was having a nervous breakdown.

Three days later, Paul was sinking into the deep leather cushions of Singleton’s visitor chair, which had absorbed Mitch only months earlier.

"Congratulations. You've got a lot of challenges ahead of you, Paul," Mr. Singleton began. "I want you to know I have full confidence that you can pull this off. We know you're a key player."

"Thanks," Paul replied.

"You're welcome. Anyway, I won't hold you—there's a lot to do especially with the Single-view project. When can we get that done?"

It was Paul's first day as a manager. He didn't want it to be his last, but he knew he had a choice: either go with the flow and destroy his career, or just say no and start looking for a new job on his first day. Paul blurted out his gut reaction.

"We can't."

"What?" Mr. Singleton wanted clarification. "Can you be more specific? What can't we do?"

"Most of it," Paul replied. "Actually, we just need to stop what we're doing. It's killing us. People can't agree on anything, and what we have was never designed to support what we do as a business now, not to mention that it can't possibly scale to meet our growth needs."

"But, Mitch always assured me we were OK," Singleton shot back.

"Mr. Singleton, don't get me wrong, Mitch taught me a lot. He just didn't want to let you down."

"And you do?"

"No. I'm just being honest with you."

"You really don't think we can go forward?" Singleton interrogated further.

Paul took a nervous breath and replied, "No, not after what we've been through."

Mr. Singleton sighed in frustration. With his arms folded, he leaned back in his executive chair and looked at Paul. For Paul, this was the ultimate staring contest. While it lasted only three minutes, it seemed like three hours. Just as Paul was about to crumble, Mr. Singleton blinked. No, he raised a white flag. He was surrendering.

"Apparently, you really believe this," Mr. Singleton started. He leaned forward and his glare changed to an inquisitive expression.

"What do you think we should do?"

Paul explained he wanted to take time to talk to the other company officers and make sure he understood the future direction and all its implications. Then, he would work with them and others to come up with a plan.

Mr. Singleton gave an approving nod. "OK, but keep me posted."

Paul was relieved. He'd survived his first thirty minutes as MIS director. As Paul began to leave, Mr. Singleton said, "Paul, one more thing."

"Yes, sir?"

"The name is Andy, and my door is open anytime you need me."