In some departments, it’s supplies; in others, it’s telecom or computers. You can almost always find 15% to 20% of spending that hasn’t been managed closely. In one particularly egregious example, each department at a company we worked with was allowed to spend up to $10,000 a year on stationery and supplies without seeking direct approval from superiors—yet the manufacturing department couldn’t get approval through the normal capital process to purchase the $8,000 overhead crane it needed. Soon, a new crane appeared in the factory with its name painted on the side: Stationery & Supplies. Its spiritual cousin—a riding lawn mower named Typewriter—was found in the maintenance department.