As Diane Ashton walked to her car, she admired the sleek yellow Ferrari that had moved into the slot next to hers. The daughter of a motor enthusiast, Diane had fallen in love with sports cars at an early age. “You know,” she mused aloud, “I could buy myself that car for Christmas, if I do what they want.”
A version of this article appeared in the February 2001 issue of Harvard Business Review.