In this fictional case, a vice president of marketing and sales for the cleaning division of a global consumer products company is struggling to make a promotion decision. She has two strong internal candidates. One is a brand manager on her team with whom she’s worked closely over the past few years. The other is a rising star from a different division who was recommended by the company’s new people analytics program. Both seem equally qualified, though the vice president knows one candidate far better and is therefore worried that she might be biased, in part because the candidate is also a woman. With the decision looming, she has to decide whether to trust her intuition or the firm’s algorithm.
Aliyah Jones was having trouble paying attention to the farewell toasts. Although she was sad to see her longtime colleague Anne Bank go, she was more consumed with trying to figure out who should replace her.
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