Immediately Dominic asked me for a briefing on the region. I started with a headline: Lederman now has the 6th largest ATM network on the South Island in New Zealand. Dominic wanted broader perspectives. So I fired a broad data point at him: I told him that Lederman had approximately 1200 employees in the region. By this time his lunch was almost over. So he impatiently told me to give him rough turnover and profitability details. Cleverly I asked him which branch of the bank he wanted it for. He looked surprised. How did I have such granular data for the Australian market? I told him that I had spent all morning digging it up. Now I had details for—and this was truly a master stroke—several branches in Sydney including Ashfield, Auburn, Bankstown, Blacktown, Botany Bay, Burwood, Camden, Campbelltown, Canada Bay, Canterbury, Fairfield, The Hills, Holroyd, Hornsby, Hunter’s Hill, Hurstville, Kogarah, Ku-ring-gai …

At this point Dominic stopped me, got up and told me that this was too much to talk about over lunch. He said this was astonishing granularity for a morning’s worth of work. He left asking me to send him a report in a day or two.

If that is not all-round personality over-performance then I don’t know what is.

Overall Einstein threat level: (Not applicable)

(Be right back after dinner. Starving. The Tesco will close at 11.00 p.m.)

And I am back. Feeling sleepy. But I have started. So let me finish.

5. James Mair, London, Senior Associate

Consulting ability: James may be a good senior associate with a lot of experience. And out of the office he is a really nice guy.

But inside the office James Mair is un-freaking-bearable.

Note: I am not sure if I should include Mair’s weakness in consulting ability or personality. His weakness extends over both areas. So … hmm … Ok I think it is more of a personality failure. So let me quickly finish the other sections and type it there.

Overall Mair is an average consultant with average consulting ability.

Talent and potential: Mair has average talent and average potential.

Personality: Finally. James Mair’s single biggest weakness is over-enthusiasm. Now you know that when it comes to enthusiasm I not an amateur myself. When it is required I can be pretty proactive, energetic and motivated myself. But James is not like that. James does not have any standards when it comes to enthusiasm. His approach to everything is to be enthusiastic by default. And not even regular enthusiastic. He is just unbelievable. Dominic doesn’t even have to finish the sentence before James already starts typing away on his laptop.