Upon joining Oceantech. Howard realized that most projects were being approved on a ”gut feel” approach. There were no formal acceptance criteria in place. Up until then. The company had been lucky in that most of its projects had been well selected and it had benefited from good relationships with clients and suppliers. “this has to change,” said Howard to his assistant Roseanne, “we can’t possibly be this lucky forever. We need to calculate the firm’s hurdle rate and use it in future. “ Roseanne Keane, who had great admiration for her boss replied, “yes, Howard, why don’t I crunch out the numbers and give them to you within the next couple of days?” that sounds great, Roseanne,” said Howard, “this should have been done a long time ago. But as most things go it’s better late than never!”