Kalina Ivanov's Proposal Kalina Ivanov was recently hired by the Challenge Products Corporation (CPC) as a senior marketing executive for the electronic housewares division. Her previous experience at Pearces, a major competitor, had earned her a reputation for being a creative and hardworking manager. Her department at Pearces had increased its sales at least 15 percent per year over the past five years, and she had been featured in a lead article in Contemporary Management. This combination of competence and visibility was what attracted the attention of John Dilworth, the CEO of CPC. John was troubled about the two-quarter decline in electronics sales. This was the core of CPC's business, and he could not risk losing market share. In the past, CPC's products had dominated such a large share of the market that, ironically, marketing wasn't considered very important. Production touted its high quality and low costs, purchasing emphasized its contribution to keeping costs low, and engineering stressed the durability of its designs. CPC products, it was argued by many, "sold themselves."