I design big computer systems - most in the region of £100m - £1billion. (software, hardware, algorithms, interfaces - all of it )
I'm in an odd situation where I'm essentially a contractor, but I have groups of guys who I feed work to. At the same time as doing design, I sometimes do project management as well, usually on the same projects - mostly in the sales phase.
I get to see some very interesting companies, government departments and lots of interesting problems, but I also get to see a *lot* of very senior people being stupid. A prime example being a very senior civil servant tacking £140million of completely un-needed money onto a budget for a project becuase another department was buying a different type of database, and this guy wanted one "bigger and better than theirs" - so the entire thing got re-designed to stroke a single guys ego.
And you wonder why govermnent projects over-spend. Although I'll be honest - the only place I've NOT seen this happening is at the MoD. I know they get a lot of bad press, but the people I've come accross seem to have their heads screwed on pretty well.
Steve