Free Infinite Exposure by Roland Hughes

only one who noticed.
     Twisting, bending, smiling and empathizing all happened right on cue. Good-looking young guys were placed strategically around
     and across from the female board member, while the short skirts virtually smothered the dirty old men.
    It wasn't that she minded the “sex for sale” marketing tactic used by Big Four Consulting. Lord knows they all did it. Had
     she not been on the short list of people who would be left twisting in the breeze when this project went south, she might
     have even considered helping herself to a few servings from some of the dishes being offered. What really pissed her off was
     knowing that the tweaked libidos in the room were going to sign off on the project in hopes of getting some, only to have
     put the entire corporation face down on the table to be rectally violated when the invoices from the project started. Margret
     could already see how this train wreck was going to play out.

    1. Contract would be signed, then someone would buy drinks and dinner.
    2. Mother ship would dock the very next day, spilling out an unbelievable number of well-dressed kids not old enough to shave,
     costing the company $120/hr. each.
    3. Paper consumption would increase 50-fold at the company as hand carts full of great looking documentation having absolutely
     nothing to do with the project were generated. All of it required by the “process” used by the consulting firm.
    4. Entire budget then would be consumed, requiring a small “extension” budget.
    5. Once the extension budget was granted, Big Four Consulting would step out of the picture and make company employees do
     the actual project, putting in 90 hours per week on salary.
    6. Most employees involved in the project would quit and the department heads would be tagged for the failed project.

    Some people said Margret was sarcastic, those who knew anything about IT knew she was a realist. This is the standard M.O.
     for large consulting firms. They weren't there to solve your problem, just schmooze you long enough to consume all of your
     budget. Very few board members were ever willing to say they had been taken for tens of millions of dollars, so they very
     rarely got sued. When they did get sued, it was usually by a company in dire enough financial straits that they could simply
     apply for continuances until the plaintiff took bankruptcy. It was an outright racket, but the MBAs would never admit it.
    The project leader finished her positive and energetic chat about the last PowerPoint slide she had up. She smiled to the
     board and asked if they had any questions. Oh, she is good, thought Margret. Such a classic burn and bucket bunko scam. Just wait for it ...
    “What will this project cost?” came the question from one of the board members.
    The lemmings are about to go over the cliff, Margret thought.
    A quick click of the mouse brought up the final slide in the presentation, which was Kent's spreadsheet, prepared using the
     Big Four's equipment valuations. There, in black and white, the board saw how half of the project would be paid for by sale
     of the existing equipment and software licenses once the move was completed. The rest of the project would be paid for by
     the lack of software and hardware maintenance contracts over the next three years. Given that maintenance contracts tend to
     go up every year, the project would probably be paid back sooner, but they had to use the numbers currently on file.
    Margret sat in silence. If the board was dumb enough to overlook the obvious, she was not going to pipe up about it. She was
     only Kent's assistant. True, she would be the first fired when this train turned from locomotive to a pile of twisted smoldering
     steel, but she would be fired today if she pointed out just how stupid both her boss and the board of directors were. What
     was missing from that spreadsheet was just how much the service contract would be for the three years they were using the
     software