Yet he maintains that ad hoc corporate task forces are often a better way of solving problems than calling in consultants.
They are all about "competition" until private corporations have to compete with public sector ventures that can provide superior services for less money and don't have to pay millions in profits to satisfy their corporate task masters.
Born on February 19 , 1928in Beirut, Lebanon, to a well-to-do Lebanese-Greek Orthodox family, Nicolas Hayek began his career as a corporate consultant tasked with turning around two Swiss watch conglomerates, the Allgemeine Schweizerische Uhrenindustrie (ASUAG) and the Société Suisse pour l'Industrie Horlogère (SSIH).
The success of its initial public offering -- which Mr. Doyle called "a watershed event for our industry" -- lifts the hopes of a long list of small software companies that are using this same subscription-based business model to help companies manage corporate tasks like customer relations, purchasing or management of a manufacturing plant.
They are also buying into the global trend toward outsourcing corporate tasks like payroll administration, product testing and manufacturing.
Corporate tasks such as payroll and invoicing can be standardised and costs cut if they are performed outside the organisation by a specialist – but only if the circumstances are right.
The new ventures typically sell software that lets a company lash together hundreds or thousands of PCs in-house; they also hope to line up home PCs for corporate tasks, although the outlook at that end of the market is questionable.
Last week there was a corporate bonding "away day" task that both teams pitifully fudged.
While there is nothing illegal about an analyst advising a chief executive on how to approach a conference call, providing such detailed coaching, as the e-mail message does, is highly unusual and seems to indicate that Mr. Grubman considered himself a close adviser to Mr. Ebbers, playing a role that would normally be the task of a corporate insider or public relations specialist.
It's work to plan a corporate conference, and the smallest tasks are often the biggest headaches.
