“I remember it as though it were yesterday.” Wendy Clanger smiles as she recalls the events of April 1st 2017(愚人节——暗示故事是讽刺虚构). Clanger, whose petite frame hides an iron will, had been a consultant for decades, and thought she had seen everything.(克兰格身材娇小却意志如铁，做顾问数十年，自以为什么都见过。) “Radar charts, quadrant matrices, waterfalls: I’d used them all. I thought the geometry of consulting was complete. But I hadn’t banked on(指望，预料到) Harbour.”
“我记忆犹新，仿佛就发生在昨天。”温迪·克兰格微笑着回忆起2017年4月1日那天的事。克兰格身材娇小，却藏着钢铁般的意志。她做咨询顾问已有数十年，自以为什么场面都见过。“雷达图、象限矩阵、瀑布图：这些我都用过。我以为咨询业的几何学已经完备了。但我没料到会冒出个哈伯。”
Harbour Brandish was 23, bespectacled(戴眼镜的), just out of college. When he was assigned to Clanger’s team, she assumed he was just another bright trainee, one of hundreds she had seen come and go(来来去去，流动更替). His first engagement(（咨询）项目，聘用) was for a fast-moving consumer-goods(快速消费品) firm called MidPoint, and he was in the room when Clanger presented some competitor analysis.
哈伯·布兰迪什23岁，戴着眼镜，刚大学毕业。他被分配到克兰格的团队时，她以为他不过是又一个聪明的实习生，是她见过来来去去的数百人之一。他的第一个项目是为一家名叫“中点”的快消品公司服务。克兰格做竞争对手分析演示时，他就在会议室里。
Vic von Ursen, a bear of a man whose gruff manner disguises a heart of gold, takes up the story.(维克·冯·乌尔森接着讲述。他身材魁梧如熊，态度粗鲁，却心地善良。) “We all knew that the client lagged(落后于) Flummox, its main rival. But when Wendy laid it out(摆出来，展示清楚), the gap was so much bigger than we had realised.” In slide after slide, Clanger used a classic quadrant(象限) to map the performance of MidPoint and its peers(同行，同侪) in different product categories. “It was standard stuff(标准做法，老一套),” says von Ursen, who had spent 20 years in the industry by then. “You want to be in the top right-hand box. You always want to be in the top right-hand box.”
维克·冯·乌尔森接着讲述。他身材魁梧如熊，态度粗鲁，却心地善良。“我们都知道客户落后于它的主要竞争对手弗拉莫克斯。但温迪把数据摆出来时，差距比我们意识到的要大得多。”克兰格用一张张幻灯片，以经典的四象限图展示“中点”及其同行在不同产品类别中的表现。“这是标准做法，”冯·乌尔森说，他当时已在业内干了20年。“你想待在右上角的框里。你永远都想待在右上角的框里。”