Paul's company internal budget management was a mess. All the individual departments were required to keep their accounts based on the amount of notional money that came in. No real money ever changed hands and moreover, the system assumed that all the departments operated entirely independently, without interacting with each other. Nothing could have been further from the truth as every driver, washer and refueller knew - but Paul did not.
On one sunny morning during the sultry late summer therefore, Paul sent an email around to the staff in the Division of Unhired Cars - they were responsible for most of the emergency work that did not involve actual breakdowns needing stripping down of the engines - inviting them to take part in a competition:
Due to deficiencies in performance there is a current overspend in the projected annual budget for your division. We need to find more cost savings urgently and you are encouraged to submit your ideas to me within the next three weeks. The person with the best - and the most - ideas will win a prize.
It was not specified what the prize might be.
Most of the drivers were rather put out by this. 'Aren't we working hard enough?' they wondered.
One of them asked: 'Paul, this little toy town economy of yours in the company - it doesn't make any sense. On the one hand you are exhorting us to work harder, attract more work, take on more jobs. Now you want us to reduce what we do, cut output, make savings. Have your left and right hands even met?'
Paul, naturally, ignored this.
One of the drivers had an idea. It was an old established custom that a worker wanting help from someone else within the company would scribble an outline of their problem on a little card and drop this off in an old box in a central office. From there it would be collected, passed to the addressee and action would hopefully ensue. The irony of the anachronistic nature of this system in an otherwise almost completely computerised workplace had gone largely unnoticed.
Sometimes the cards would get lost. Other times they went to the wrong person and days could go by waiting for the delivery to go to the correct person, during which time most of the work on the project in question would more or less stop. No one seemed to question why a simple telephone call or an email would not suffice, especially as lately the system was open to a fair amount of abuse as even junior fuel pump attendants could write a card asking for a quite senior driver to come and look at a fuel gauge, when perhaps this was not always necessary.
'And if you also wanted to record all this activity, Paul,' said the driver, 'then why not introduce an electronic system? The cards don't record anything as mostly they are torn up after the relevant advice has been given. It would be a much more reliable system, fully accountable and save days of waiting around. Other National Hire Service centres do it already. Think of all the time savings.'
'I'd have to invest in more IT,' countered Paul.
'Yes, but think of all the time wasted currently while people wait for others to come and advise and the job stalls. Saving that would surely pay for itself very soon.'
'Hmm. Hard to quantify though,' said Paul.
'Oh, I have quantifiable savings too,' replied the driver. 'Take a walk round the place any day of the week and ask anyone who is carrying a clipboard what on earth they are doing. If they aren't contributing anything useful to what goes on here - sack them.'
'You mean introduce an extended programme of compulsory redundancies amongst the managerial staff?' mused Paul.
'Same thing,' sighed the driver walking off, confident that neither of his ideas would ever see fruition.
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