Chapter 6, Swimming in a Bigger Pond Summary and Analysis

Moving up means moving to Fairfield. Jack's move is a big promotion to a newly created layer of management. Jack is one of five sector executives and two corporate staffers publicly identified as candidates for Reg Jones's job. Each candidate is put in charge of a group of businesses to see who is best at managing multibillion-dollar portfolios. Jack is responsible for the consumer products and services sector. Unfortunately for him, his boss, Vice Chairman Walter "Dave" Dance, favors another candidate. Jack proceeds on his own because of a lack of support from Dance and creates his team. Regardless of the process, Jack knows what he wants, and, he says, it won't take long to find out whether he is going to get it.

The succession process is a political nightmare...