You may want to know about the hospital a King built for the poor people in his kingdom. Read all about it here and here.. This post is about the King's prescribed method of procuring equipment for his hospital.
There were a few (actually quite a few) dishonest people in his court, who would buy equipment for the hospital at inflated prices, and the difference between the market rate and the rate of purchase would be shared by them. In order to curb this, the King decided to use a process he called 'tender'. Actually there was nothing tender about it. It was quite complex. You can read all about it here. One of the steps in inviting these tenders was to lay down specific technical features of the item to be bought, so that all persons who wanted to sell that item would offer a similar product. The process of writing these specifications was entrusted to the hospital doctors and one engineer. The king did not know that doctors were not taught engineering skills, because he used to be a political appointee himself with no knowledge of either medicine or engineering. A problem with the engineer was that he would be appointed to this position by seniority in the king's service. So a garbage or sewage management engineer could get appointed to do an electronic engineer's job. The doctors would copy specifications given to them by vendors they liked. The engineer would depend on brochures of three different vendors, taking out their least common denominator. These facts resulted in preparation of technical specifications which left a lot to be desired. Sometimes different points about a single item would be opposite of each other, creating a technical impossibility.
One day the king appointed an engineer to do this job, who was different. He probably hated electronics, or perhaps hated engineering itself, like some medical students hate medicine but join a medical college under parental pressure. He used to collect files in his office until their pressure threatened to push the walls outward. All medical specialists complained that they could get no equipment because there were no specifications. No one could do anything about it, including the king, because of reasons not revealed to anyone. Fortunately almost every problem has a solution. An innovative doctor found it for the problem at hand. This doctor got specifications for seven items approved when others could not get even one. The secret was not revealed. After some time another doctor got specifications for a mega project sanctioned. It is rumored that the engineer asked this second doctor to bring along other projects too, on which he would love to work with that doctor. Though the other doctors were not very good with math, they found the least common denominator of the two doctors who had succeeded where the others had failed. The result was as follows.
The aspirant of technical specifications should have fashionably cut hair, well made up face, pleasant and a little mischievous smile, slim arms revealed by sleeveless top, fashionable dress, and willingness to have coffee.
There were a few (actually quite a few) dishonest people in his court, who would buy equipment for the hospital at inflated prices, and the difference between the market rate and the rate of purchase would be shared by them. In order to curb this, the King decided to use a process he called 'tender'. Actually there was nothing tender about it. It was quite complex. You can read all about it here. One of the steps in inviting these tenders was to lay down specific technical features of the item to be bought, so that all persons who wanted to sell that item would offer a similar product. The process of writing these specifications was entrusted to the hospital doctors and one engineer. The king did not know that doctors were not taught engineering skills, because he used to be a political appointee himself with no knowledge of either medicine or engineering. A problem with the engineer was that he would be appointed to this position by seniority in the king's service. So a garbage or sewage management engineer could get appointed to do an electronic engineer's job. The doctors would copy specifications given to them by vendors they liked. The engineer would depend on brochures of three different vendors, taking out their least common denominator. These facts resulted in preparation of technical specifications which left a lot to be desired. Sometimes different points about a single item would be opposite of each other, creating a technical impossibility.
One day the king appointed an engineer to do this job, who was different. He probably hated electronics, or perhaps hated engineering itself, like some medical students hate medicine but join a medical college under parental pressure. He used to collect files in his office until their pressure threatened to push the walls outward. All medical specialists complained that they could get no equipment because there were no specifications. No one could do anything about it, including the king, because of reasons not revealed to anyone. Fortunately almost every problem has a solution. An innovative doctor found it for the problem at hand. This doctor got specifications for seven items approved when others could not get even one. The secret was not revealed. After some time another doctor got specifications for a mega project sanctioned. It is rumored that the engineer asked this second doctor to bring along other projects too, on which he would love to work with that doctor. Though the other doctors were not very good with math, they found the least common denominator of the two doctors who had succeeded where the others had failed. The result was as follows.
The aspirant of technical specifications should have fashionably cut hair, well made up face, pleasant and a little mischievous smile, slim arms revealed by sleeveless top, fashionable dress, and willingness to have coffee.
