Influence Without Authority

53 ill Heatton is the director of research at a $250 million division of a large West Coast company. The division manufactures exotic telecommunications components and has many technical advancements to its credit. During the past several years, however, the division’s performance has been spotty at best; multimillion dollar losses have been experienced in some years despite many efforts to make the division more profitable. Several 6 large contracts have resulted in major finang cial losses, and in each instance the various $ parts of the division blamed the others for the ’ problems. Listen to Bill’s frustration as he g talks about his efforts to influence Ted, a colleague who is marketing director, and Roland, the program manager who reports to Ted.