Listen to those who know

One morning Paul walked into the office through the car park where the majority the company's fleet of vehicles was kept. He looked at all the different models and types but was most taken by the row of red Ferraris. It was a picture of this row that appeared on the company's advertisements as they were the top of the range.
'We need to get more of these,' he thought to himself as he passed the other rows of less photogenic vans, estate cars and fuel-efficient Smart cars. And he called his managers together in his office.

None of them had ever driven a Ferrari, nor indeed any of the other cars that the company owned, and rarely met the drivers who did. Nonetheless they made plans for changing the make-up of the fleet and energetically wrote business cases to this effect.

On his way to another such planning meeting Paul bumped into one of the drivers in the corridor and casually mentioned this plan to him. The driver was aghast.

'But Paul,' he said. 'The Ferraris are only hired by young executives for weekend jaunts. They don't make up a very large part of the business. Most of what we do is long-distance driving of both people and goods. A Ferrari wouldn't be much use there. The biggest growth area we are seeing is people wanting to hire cars to tow caravans.'

Paul remained obstinate.

'They are our top of the range. We need to get as many people as possible to use them as quickly as possible. We can only do this by having more of them.'

The driver looked incredulous. 'But Paul. The Ferraris are the most expensive vehicle for the firm to run. They cost more to buy, to maintain and to fuel. Why use them for anything other than their specific tasks?'

Paul remained obstinate.

'It is good publicity if people know that we are associated with high profile, high performance vehicles like these'.

'But Paul,' the driver persisted. 'Getting a Ferrari to pull a caravan is not only inefficient practice but it will damage the car if it goes on for any length of time. Not only is there no need to use such a car but it can be positively damaging.'

Paul remained obstinate. He had had an idea and he was determined to see it through, evidence notwithstanding. 'We'll call it the initiative SPECIAL International Superior Transport Service - or SPECIAL-ISTS for short.'

The driver shook his head sadly and wondered why his opinion counted for so little.