Yesterday I had a hilarious conversation with 3 work colleagues on the cost of several things: ranging from the cost of having 30 people enclosed in a day-long meeting to the cost impact of having the toilets of a whole office building not working for two days (cost measured by the extra time needed for fulfilling physiological needs).
This reminded me of the US Department of Defense’s “Defense Efficiencies Initiative” launched in 2010 by former Secretary of Defense Robert Gates.
One of the initiatives was to:
“[…] publish the actual cost of the preparation of each report and study prepared by DOD in the front of each document. “
See the implementation in the picture below:
Cost of DoD Strategic Management Plan FY 2012 - FY 2013: $169,010 (FY 11 dollars).
The cost of preparing the Department of Defense Strategic Management Plan FY 2012 – FY 2013 was $169,010. You may see the document here [PDF, 1.6MB] and judge by yourself whether you find it worthy of those 169k$.
Now, imagine if in the next crowded meeting you are attending the first slide of the first presentation said “Gentlemen, with this meeting today we’re consuming: xxk€”. The same applies for IT systems down, facilities not operating as they should, etc.
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NOTE: Researching and writing this post took me about an hour. The cost of that hour? You name it 🙂
The Blog by Javier 
It’s actually a good idea, since the first 30 minutes of most meetings are usually chit chat.
Yes, that’s true. On the other hand we always read or hear about the importance of building bridges, the importance of networks, establishing relationships within the job… if we erased the chit chat at the beginning of the meetings, part of that would be lost… mmm no clear conclusion. 🙂
No he hablado esto contigo? Mi invento de poner un contador en la pared de cada sala de reuniones, que vaya mostrando el coste de la reunión en curso? Un simple contador de gente a la entrada valdría para estimar el coste/minuto. Es mi principal idea para la empresa Aero’99, compitiendo con la ideaca anti-crisis de Maicol.
No, no habíamos hablado de esto. Pero suena gracioso.
Por cierto, no sabía que Maicol hubiese tenido una ideaca por fin… le preguntaré.
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