So I was at a job site when someone told me this story.
He is a person who is in-charge of doing projects for a huge multi-million dollar company. His most recent project involves the overall of some process equipment to the tune of a few hundred million.
His story was as follows: About 5-10 years ago, this company had outsourced the maintenance of their railcars to independent contractors. After doing a cost-benefit analysis, it was determined that by creating its own maintenance department, it would break even within 6 months. Thusly, the storyteller was tasked to go to the current contractor to find out how they operated.
His cover story was that he was inspecting the railcars currently under repair. So as he toured the facility, the one question he kept asking the production manager was "What would you differently, if you had a chance to start over again".
After he came back from his trip, he wrote up the repair sequence and within 2 years, the company had created the railcar maintenance division.
After hearing that story, I decided to never tell the whole truth to anybody who isn't in the know. An innocent sounding question might lead you to lose billions of dollars of business in the long run...
He is a person who is in-charge of doing projects for a huge multi-million dollar company. His most recent project involves the overall of some process equipment to the tune of a few hundred million.
His story was as follows: About 5-10 years ago, this company had outsourced the maintenance of their railcars to independent contractors. After doing a cost-benefit analysis, it was determined that by creating its own maintenance department, it would break even within 6 months. Thusly, the storyteller was tasked to go to the current contractor to find out how they operated.
His cover story was that he was inspecting the railcars currently under repair. So as he toured the facility, the one question he kept asking the production manager was "What would you differently, if you had a chance to start over again".
After he came back from his trip, he wrote up the repair sequence and within 2 years, the company had created the railcar maintenance division.
After hearing that story, I decided to never tell the whole truth to anybody who isn't in the know. An innocent sounding question might lead you to lose billions of dollars of business in the long run...
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