A VP of sales needs to report on records owned by individuals in various parts...

When the Organization-Wide Default (OWD) for an object is set to Private, users can only see records they own or those shared with them. While the Role Hierarchy automatically grants "upward" visibility (managers see what subordinates own), it does not naturally allow for "lateral" visibility or visibility across different branches of the hierarchy. To solve this, a Platform Administrator should use Sharing Rules. Sharing Rules allow the admin to create exceptions to the Private OWD based on record ownership or specific criteria. For example, the admin can create an "Owner-based Sharing Rule" that shares all records owned by the "East Coast Sales" role with the VP of Sales (or a Public Group the VP belongs to). This provides a scalable way to grant the necessary visibility for reporting without making the data public to the entire company. Sharing Rules are a core security feature that ensures the right people have access to the right data while maintaining the principle of least privilege.