I say it was brilliant because a bunch of us had already chartered such a committee a few years prior (I was a member) — a fact I mentioned to the consulting team during a preview of their findings.
Not that this mattered. Their recommendations survived my critique unscathed, leading to a profound change in how the company managed evolving industry technologies: We changed the existing committee’s name, agreed that henceforth we would use fewer expletives in our discussions, and waited (in vain) for praise from the executive leadership team for our foresight in having anticipated the consultants’ guidance.
“Well shucks,” I said to a fellow member of the Industry Technology Planning Committee, “if all it takes to be an expert is to listen to what clients tell you and claim their ideas as your own newly minted wisdom, why do I beat my brains out trying to convince company management that, when I go shopping at the Clue Store, I don’t leave with an empty basket?”
