- A broken toilet in a large organization leads to weeks of meetings and blame-shifting because responsibility is unclear, while a colleague could fix it in 10 minutes.
- In contrast, a technical company quickly repairs a similar problem using in-house tools and expertise, avoiding all the bureaucracy.
- The Dutch government is like the first organization: it is heavily dependent on external IT contractors and locked into contracts with US suppliers, making it unable to fix issues promptly.
- The government's proposed Dutch Digital Service (NDD) initially focused on advice but now plans to hire its own IT staff to regain control.
- The core message is that the government must treat IT as a core activity, invest in internal expertise, and stop relying solely on external parties for critical systems.