Why consulting is secondary to me

WinXP News today looks at the problem of getting things fast, cheap, and right. The adage in engineering is you can only have two. The adage in consulting is you can sell all three.

This is exemplified by a tongue-in-cheek conversation I had on the elevator this morning with the head of Q.A. for one of my clients:

QA Guy: I can't believe it's only Wednesday. I want it to be Saturday. You're a consultant; can you do something about that?

David: Sure, I can whip something up. Give me three days, and I'll have a Saturday for you.

He: Can you do any better than that?

I: Sure. I'm working on a faster process, which should be in production in about two days. I can get it to you about 18 hours after that.

He: Can't you off-shore the development?

I: As a matter of fact, our Fiji facility can get the job done 18 hours faster. They will probably finish in less than two days from right now. But I'll have to go to Fiji, which won't be cheap.