I used to work in R&D. Very often reagents and parts would cost a great deal of money and only be available from one supplier. This would take the purchase into capital expenditure and a senior management review they claimed. Our department managers simply ordered whatever as they had the money to run the department properly. We used to have great laughs at their stupidity and lack of basic intelligence. The senior managers would acquiesce very quickly because they would look pretty stupid if company R&D was shut down.
The fuss we created when computers came in for image analysis! Every computer purchase had to be reviewed and none could be more powerful than a senior managers computer. It would overturn the status of the manager. Again we just ordered the things as part of new instrument systems and hid the true spec. The poor dears had no idea what a couple of thousand high res tiff image would do for an HD.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
