Subject: consultants
> >
> > A timeless lesson on how consultants can make a difference for
> > an organization...
> >
> > Last week, we took some friends out to a new restaurant, and noticed
> > that the waiter who took our order carried a spoon in his shirt
> > pocket.
> >
> > It seemed a little strange, but I ignored it. However, when the
> > busboy brought out water and utensils, I noticed he also had a spoon in
> his
> > shirt pocket, then looked around the room and saw that all the staff had
> > spoons in their pockets.
> >
> > When the waiter came back to serve our soup I asked, "Why the
> > spoon?"
> >
> > "Well," he explained, "the restaurant's owners hired Anderson
> > Consulting, experts in efficiency, in order to revamp all our
> > processes.
> >
> > After several months of statistical analysis, they concluded that
> > customers drop their spoons 73.84 percent more often than any other
> > utensil. This represents a drop frequency of approximately 3 spoons per
> > table per hour. If our personnel is prepared to deal with that
> contingency,
> > we can reduce the number of trips back to the kitchen and save 15
> man-hours
> > per shift."
> >
> > As luck would have it I dropped my spoon and he was able to replace
> > it with his spare spoon. "I'll get another spoon next time I go to the
> > kitchen instead of making an extra trip to get it right now." I was
> rather
> > impressed.
> >
> > The waiter served our main course and I continued to look around. I
> > then noticed that there was a very thin string hanging out of the
> waiter's
> > fly. Looking around, I noticed that all the waiters had the same string
> > hanging from their flies. My curiosity got the better of me and before
he
> > walked off, I asked the waiter, "Excuse me, but can you tell me why you
> > have that string right there?"
> >
> > "Oh, certainly!" he answered, lowering his voice. "Not everyone is
> > as observant as you. That consulting firm I mentioned also found out
> > that we can save time in the restroom."
> >
> > "How so?"
> >
> > "See," he continued, "by tying this string to the tip of you know
> > what, we can pull it out over the urinal without touching it and that
way
> > eliminate the need to wash the hands, shortening the time spent in the
> > restroom by 76.39 percent."
> >
> > "Okay, that makes sense, but if the string helps you get it out,
> > how do you put it back in?"
> >
> > "Well," he whispered, lowering his voice even further, "I don't know
> > about the others, but I use the spoon."