View the meeting

You step into the company board room. Inside, a group of five company executives are sat around a large oval table. You recognise your manager amongst them, along with his manager and even the CEO. It seems a lot is riding on this meeting.

You introduce yourself and start your presentation:- "Costcutting and trimming price margins while maintaining an effective paradigm".

Dilbert, eat your heart out.

You plunge into your first slide, showing an detailed pie chart showing the company's current expenditure on needless things - who really spends all this money? There are, you explain, lots of ways to save money that can be ploughed into better areas such as research and development as well as all important advertising.

The executives, on the whole, seem to agree with you. Agreeing with saving money in principle is a thing that executives are very good at.

The next slide contains specific examples on costcutting - the first one being a point you were dreading but needing to be said. Company cars, you argue, cost too much and are needless expenses. Of course, company cars are needed but a Lexus is not exactly essential to a company, especially when it's constantly being upgraded to a new model.

The specific Lexus owning executive begins to raise a lot of complaints at this point - when you mention how much it would actually save however he soon sits back down; there's a lot of money to be trimmed when you drive a Ford.

After this you explain more cost cutting points which seem to go down well. At the end of the presentation the CEO stands up and shakes your hand - a sure sign you're not being fired just yet, at least. They inform you they will be in touch with an acceptance or refusal of your proposals and you get up to take your leave.