For the exclusive use of B. SANCHEZ
1.212.14211
Harvard Business School
Duncan Field (A)
9-382-137 Rev. August, 1988
On Monday morning, September 11, 1978, Duncan Field was continuing his negotiations with Bob Baer, senior vice president of Galaxy Industries. Bob stated:
Duncan, we're not willing to give you any further information at this time. We still have to be convinced that you and your investors will not have any difficulty handling an acquisition of this size.
Duncan shuddered as Bob continued:
You are the one who came to us and badgered us into considering the sale of our East Valley CATV systems, remember? This is as far as we go - $9 million for the sale of the systems. We are prepared to execute this three-page letter agreement we developed together and accept your $50,000 good faith money. Or, we will simply keep the systems and continue operating them as we had always planned. Which will it be?
Duncan Field knew that he had only a few moments to evaluate his alternatives and respond to Mr. Baer.
BACKGROUND
Duncan Field, 34, had grown up in the suburbs of Pittsburgh where his father was employed by a large national company. His family moved to southern Ohio during Duncan's high school years, then he attended Duke University in North Carolina where he received a Bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering. Engineering had been a struggle and, while Duncan valued the training, he decided he wouldn't be happy as a professional engineer. Duncan had married during his junior year and his wife agreed to support them while he attended Wharton to study business. [All quoted comments are Duncan's unless otherwise noted.]
I had taken a lot of business courses at Duke because I wasn't sure if our finances would allow graduate school. Compared to engineering school, business school was a whole lot easier for me, so I used the opportunity to round out my education. I read widely, took some social psychology and communications courses.
This case was prepared by Richard 0. von Werssowetz and H.I. Grousbeck, Lecturers, as the basis for class discussion rather than to illustrate either effective or ineffective handling of an administrative situation. Copyright © 1982 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College. To order copies, call (617) 495-6117 or write the Publishing Division, Harvard Business School, Boston, MA 02163. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise—without the permission of the Harvard Business School.
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This document is authorized for use only by Barbarita Sanchez in ENT 4113- 2012 taught by Dileep Rao from September 2012 to February 2013.