A funny thing happened 🙂
Imagine this. You have just taken up a six-week temp assignment to reconcile GL accounts for the year end. Nothing too demanding; just some accounting experience needed, and of course some basic Excel experience. Nothing special.
You overhear a problem. Apparently there’s some duplication of effort. It’s in another area of the Accounting Department. Management thinks this is wasteful, requires unnecessary work, and leads to risk and more unnecessary work to resolve the resulting mess that’s created.
The overheard conversation tells you that the internal experts in IT and outside experts said that the duplication of effort is unavoidable. A plausible reason has been given, and this is the official current thinking.
It’s not your problem, it’s not your job. You can stay out of it.
But you’re curious. So you look into it, quietly.
Armed with Excel, and drawing on your existing accounting experience, you find a simple solution that’s easy to set up and to demonstrate. Management is ecstatic. The staff are equally ecstatic. You’re invited to put it into practice. It not only removes an annoyance but also changes the culture of the organization.
(Those who said it can’t be done have disappeared! Are not available for comment 🙂
You have just kicked ass.
Epilogue: After after a few more these (very simple) magic you’re invited to ‘stay for as long as you like, and do anything you like’. Your client triples your pay rate.
[This is a true story. If you’d like to test yourself and take this challenge go here The Columbo Murder Mystery – TBA]