Bzzt. Bzzt. Bzzt. Sitting on a bench in the dog park, Elena Pelc glanced at her phone. She’d hoped to escape from work for the morning, but as the founder and CEO of 2 Proud Pups, a maker of all-natural dog care products, she didn’t have much free time. She decided to ignore e-mail for a few more minutes. This was a rare outing with her pets, and she wanted to enjoy it.

A version of this article appeared in the September–October 2018 issue (pp.145–149) of Harvard Business Review.