So.
There you are, Mr. Senior Exec, a guiding light of the immensely large and powerful American energy firm, Water and Power.
You're sitting in your corner office, faced with what, for you, is a terrible problem:
once upon a time the government alowed you to pass along to your customers the cost of every bad decision you ever made -- from nonsense mergers with companies half a continent away to partially-built nuclear power plants. Of course, you took this opportunity to 'pad' the bills a bit, adding a few dollars and cents here and there per bill and labeling these charges so arcanely only the truly geeky and intrepid could figure your codes out.
This was a very good thing because it boosted your profitability and in turn, your handsome profitability boosted your share value. Truly, of all the worlds that could possibly exist, this was nearly the best of all, at that particular moment.
Sadly for you, this federally sanctioned revenue enhancement program came to an end last year. Without those extra dollars and cents you cleverly extracted from your customers your profitability will return to the earth -- not bad numbers mind you, but not what the voracious raptors of Wall Street expect.
What to do? What to do?
You could offer new products but that requires R&D which takes time and is uncertain. Besides, no one seems to have any really good, 'paradigm changing' ideas right now.
You could try to increase rates but there are legal and market obstacles to that.
You've already done a merger which was supposed to increase your portfolio but unfortunately, not only has it failed to accomplish that goal, it's costing you money.
It's a difficult problem to be sure but you're a visionary and not out of ideas yet. After long seconds of soul searching and the blessing of an accounting firm you hired to bless whatever decision you've already made, you settle upon a bold course of action: headcount must be reduced, raises and bonuses must be freezed (well, not yours or your friends of course), the offshorable must be offshored. We will be more efficient, we will do more with less, this is a difficult time but if we pull together as a family we will get through. Well, not all of us, some of you will be on the street but surely you understand how difficult this decision was for all the senior managers.
Disaster is averted. With thousands cast, like Adam and Eve from the garden, out of the environs of cube city into the harsh wilderness of unemployment, with budget discipline enforced at the middle-management level, with workers properly cowed into quietism, your profitability equilibrium is restored.
But wait, something's still wrong.
Despite all your heroics, your projected numbers for next year are not looking as attractive as you might hope. You still don't have any new products, you still can't really charge customers the crazy prices you'd like to and, unlike Mao you can't claim the revolution is unfinished -- after all, you already 'laid off' thousands of workers and put in place an efficiency program.
You search for more savings and, towering mental giant that you are, find them: the infrastructure of your business is expensive, maybe it doesn't need so much maintainence or redundency. Sure, there might be some blackouts and other, um, inconveniences but this is a small price for others to pay to help Water and Power maintain its profitability.
So let it be written, so let it be done.
The word goes forth -- maintainence costs for infrastructure must be reduced. If that means using sub-standard equipment and contracting critical functions out to firms that don't know what they're doing well, excuuuuse me for being profitable! And oh, by the way, no more 'free' coffee and soda for workers. Repeat after me mortal: Savings! It is a holy word of power, speak it and the heavens crack open. Genuflect appropriately.
Beaming with pride, you settle into your 5,000 dollar leather chair (deep thought requires deep comfort).
An email comes in. You struggle to open it because your transcendent mind, is too, well, transcendent to understand such simple matters as opening email. You call a tech, he shows you again (perhaps for the 10,000 th time) how to read your mail.
You open the email. The news from your financial team is grim. Profitabilty is slipping away like a summertime love affair; something must be done, again.
The synapses fire for nanoseconds; you're equal to this challenge. Headcount must be reduced, surely the workers will understand...
.d.