Nearly My Last I.T. Meeting: Director Hires Consultancy

Just about my last I.T. Department meeting went like this:

IT Director: We hired this consultancy to redesign our website; they charged $XX,000, so you must implement their new design ASAP.

Consultant: The most important thing is consistent look-and-feel. Every web-page is now hard-coded to display XXX pixels wide.

Me: What if someone resizes their windows to something they like better?

Consultant: The most important thing is consistent look-and-feel. If people are going to use nonstandard access methods, they can't expect consistent results.

Me: What if they want to look at two windows at once? Or access our site from a phone?

Consultant: You don't understand because you're not a professional design consultant.

Silent Me: Oh, I understand very well. Ka-ching!