Sometimes it can be tricky to explain why Narrative’s 20+ years of specialist digital experience and expertise can be so powerful when it comes to helping businesses perform better online. Then, today I heard this little anecdote that sums it up quite nicely.
One day, the Experienced Man, who had been the engineer at Big Company for many years, left. Just a few weeks later, the Important Machine he maintained broke down. The Important Machine was essential to Big Company’s revenue so The Manager called in the people from Young & Keen Engineers who spent a couple of days coming up with ideas that the Manager really liked, but none of them managed to get the Important Machine to work. All this time Big Company was losing money and running up costs so, eventually, the Manager asked the Experienced Man if he would come back in as a freelance consultant.
The Experienced Man walked into the factory, passed the Manager a hammer & pointed to a spot on the Important Machine saying “Hit the machine with the hammer, right there, just once”. As the hammer struck, the Important Machine kicked back into life and the company got back to making money.
The next day the Experienced Man’s invoice for £10,000 turned up. The Manager thinks the bill is far too expensive. He calls the Experienced Man and says “£10,000 just to tell me to hit it with a hammer? Would you provide an itemised bill explaining why this costs so much?”. “Certainly.” replies Experienced Man.
The next morning, a revised, itemised bill turned up from Experienced Man. It read:
Hammer: £5
Knowing precisely where to hit the machine with hammer so you can be profitable: £9,995
Total: £10,000