How to Make a Buck and Still Be a Decent Human Being: A Week with Rick Rose at Dataflex

In today's highly competitve personal-computer market, Dataflex Inc., listed by Forbes in 1989 and 1991 as one of America's best-managed small companies, generates from its modest New Jersey headquarters $100 million in annual revenues by buying PC hardware from IBM, Apple and others and by selling it with benefits added to such top clients as Squibb, Merck, Exxon, Price Waterhouse and Prudential. According to this gung-ho report from its president, ex-Navy footballer and super-salesman ``I'm Just Rick'' Rose (with business writer Garrett), the firm's 200 sales associates, managers and other employees work in an almost evangelical atmosphere of group dedication to hard work and ethical behavior as they provide systems planning, product oversight, inventory management, performance measurement, follow-up maintenance and on-site training to demanding customers. This virtual manual for competitors describes, among other things, morale-building encounter sessions, one-on-one meetings with the boss, sales competitions, high-ticket company outings and a method of ``team order processing'' that eliminates inter-departmental snags. The authors even provide a chapter on tension-reducing pranks and practical jokes. (Nov.)