It should be remembered that in few departments have important reforms been affected by those

trained up in practical familiarity with their details.

The men to detect blemishes and defects are among those who have not, by long familiarity,

been made insensible to them.

Those words are from 1837.

An early pitch from an aspiring management consultant?

No, that profession was still nearly a century off.

But it was, in effect, the role Roland Hill had taken it upon himself to perform for great

Britain's postal service.

Hill was a former schoolmaster, whose only experience of the post office was as a disgruntled

user.

Nobody had asked him to come up with a detailed proposal for completely revamping it.

He did the research in his spare time, wrote up his analysis and sent it off privately

to the British Finance Minister, the Chancellor of the Exchequer.

I am confident that the right understanding of my plan must secure its adoption.

He was soon to get a lesson in human nature.

People whose careers depend on a system, no matter how inefficient it might be, won't

necessarily welcome a total outsider turning up with a meticulously argued diagnosis of

its faults and proposal for improvements.

Atelier Felicius, most preposterous,

filminated the secretary of the post office, Colonel Mabily,

Wild, extraordinary.

...