It is one week later, and Mark waits in his office for Ross Peterson, lead consultant for Effective Management, Inc. He has read EMI's brochure and wonders if what the brochure says about the firm is hype. Mark can't help being skeptical after more than twenty years of experience with consultants.

What interests Mark is EMI's claim to only hire people who have worked in industry and have implemented business process improvements. He glances at the passage that states, "No recent college graduates or theoretical professor types," and again wonders whether it is truth or fiction.

In the week since finishing his interviews with the management team at Universal Products, Mark has held his weekly staff meeting. During the meeting, he asked Janis Novak to share with the team what she told Mark during their interview. Mark chose not to dwell upon the findings from the other individual interviews during the staff meeting. He simply told the staff that there is a better way to manage the business. He was careful, however, not to create unrealistic expectations of an overnight turnaround.

Interestingly enough, Sam Wente, the sales director, mentioned that some of his customers had implemented or were implementing processes similar to what Janis described. He seemed supportive, but expressed concern about any pressure to resurrect his forecasting process.

Anita Cooper, the purchasing manager, commented that suppliers are asking for more detailed and more frequently updated purchasing schedules and forecasts. She recently asked two suppliers why this information was needed.