Case Study 1, BMGT 464 Reach for the Stars—Developing Salespeople, Achieving Organizational Success As he read the email from his company’s CEO, Ravi Verghese rolls his eyes and whispers to himself, “Oh boy, here we go again….”: To celebrate PRME’s fortieth year in business, and our successful customer expansion from “seniors” to all ages served by burgeoning sports and active lifestyle market through our new PRMESport line, I invite you, our invincible, “take-charge” marketing and sales units, to REACH FOR THE STARS! The goal is to increase PRMESport sales by 10% by the end of this year…. Ravi, sales director at New Jersey-based Providence Rehabilitation and Medical Equipment (PRME, or “Prime” as employees liked to say) remembers all too well the challenges he and his coworkers weathered 18 months ago when PRME expanded its product line from aging-related to sports injury-related medical supplies and equipment. The new products are branded PRMESport, developed to grab a share of a fast-growing medical and rehabilitation supply and equipment market segment. To achieve this, PRME bought a small, thriving manufacturing enterprise created by a couple of sports orthopedic surgeons—however, no salespeople came with the acquisition. PRME executives decided to up-skill and retrain its existing sales force—”no sales associate will job will be lost because of PRMESport,” they reassured—rather than recruit additional people. Ravi, whose stellar sales performance caught the attention of company executives, was promoted to director of the sales unit, a group of twenty-five people. Task one, executives said, is to reorganize the unit, establishing self-managed teams to penetrate the new market segment rapidly, efficiently, and effectively.