During high school Mark Stanley began working for Mitchell Lumber after school and during vacations. He was a hard worker and assumed increased responsibilities. After graduation from the University of Wisconsin, he was offered a position with the company, but he decided to pursue a career on Wall Street. With the birth of his second child, Mark wanted to spend more time with his family. He and his wife decided that they wanted to raise their children in a rural environment, so they moved back to his home town. Ellen Stone felt that Mark had the potential to run the company after her retirement. She hired him as the office manager and agreed to teach him the specifics of running a hardware and lumber business. During his first week on the job, Ellen mentioned her concerns with the company credit policy. She realized that the current situation was serious and wanted Mark to develop new policies more consistent with the current business environment. She asked him
to prepare a report on the company’s working capital position for the next meeting of the company investors and to explain credit policy alternatives available to the company.