Many employees of a big corporation in New York were complaining that their elevators were too slow. Someone in accounting took the number of employees who worked in the building on above ground floors, multiplied them by a factor that represented necessary elevator rides in a week, then (being conservative) multiplied the result by 50 weeks to come up with an approximation of how many hours were wasted each year while waiting on an elevator. The hours lost estimate was quite large. The problem was so well-known that employees in satellite offices joked about waiting on the elevators in New York. Often the elevators were blamed for missed deadlines and other management difficulties. Finally, management decided to act. They hired a consulting firm to study the problem, and look into the feasibility of installing newer, faster elevators. For $100,000 the consulting firm assured them they would come up with an appropriate solution. The consultants spent one day onsite studying the problem. One week later they returned, installed full length mirrors on the inside of the elevator doors, and went back to their office to see what would happen. A couple more weeks went by and the consultant called the company's CEO. "Hows are things at XYZ, Inc. Mr. Peebles?" He said. "Going great Ted, you really did a great job on that elevator project. We haven't had a single complaint in over two weeks." "Fine Mr. Peebles, glad to hear that. We'll send over the bill for our services, I think you'll be pleasantly surprised." Sometimes the solution to a problem isn't obvious. This was an actual case study I ran across while taking a senior level management class, but I can't remember the companys name, or if one was given at the time. Thirty years ago net meetings and video conferencing didn't exist. Perhaps today the company could reduce the necessity of inter-floor travel with technology, Handheld PDA's, Blackberry's etc. But back in the day, a mirror worked.