Suppose you are vice president of public relations for one of nation's largest retailers. You are awoken at three a.m. by a call on your nightstand telephone from a New York Times reporter wanting a statement from you about the retailer's president and CEO, who has just been found dead by the police of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. He apparently killed himself after fatally shooting his wife. The reporter wants to know if it is true that the CEO committed suicide because he was involved with insider trading and if it is true that he would have been fired along with the CFO that very day during a scheduled meeting of the board of directors. Just as you are about to say something, your cell phone rings and you realize that it is the retailer's chairman calling.
What do you do? Explain what you think the rest of your day will be like, and what are the three things you must do for your company before the day is over. Oh, I forgot to mention that your spouse is out of town, and you need to get your teenaged daughter and your 11-year-old son to their respective schools, plus you have a toothache and have been delaying seeing the dentist. Now it really hurts.