I once attended a very high powered meeting in a multinational firm, and asked the question "What happens to your ideas?"   There was silence, during which someone entered the room.  "Don't mind me," he said as he spotted an empty chair, "Just carry on.  What were you saying?"  I repeated the question.  He got up, went to the flip chart, drew a perfect curve plotted against the axes of time and effort, and punctuated his contribution with the satisfied remark, "This is how things are done here."  I noted, "You must be a senior manager."  "Yes," he said, "I am the managing director."  "And no one tells you when things go wrong." I said.