“At GM, you form a committee on snakes, then hire a consultant…” (Ross Perot)

Texas billionaire H. Ross Perot did not like the practices at General Motors, the company that bought Perot’s Electronic Data Systems. GM, Perot said, bogs things down with a committee system.
 
An EDS employee who sees a snake kills it, Perot graphically said. At GM, they form a committee on snakes, hire a consultant who knows about snakes, talk about it for a year…
   
   
Wikipedia: Ross Perot
H. Ross Perot (born June 27, 1930) is an American businessman from Texas, who is best known for seeking the office of President of the United States in 1992 and 1996. Perot founded Electronic Data Systems (EDS) in 1962 and later sold the company to General Motors and founded Perot Systems.
 
Perot is a billionaire. With an estimated net worth of around $4.4 billion as of 2007, he is ranked by Forbes as the 57th-richest person in America. 
 
New York Times
G.M. vs. ROSS PEROT: BREAKING UP IS HARD TO DO
   
By DORON P. LEVIN;
DORON P. LEVIN IS CHIEF OF THE TIMES’S DETROIT BUREAU.
THIS ARTICLE IS ADAPTED FROM ‘‘IRRECONCILABLE DIFFERENCES: ROSS PEROT VERSUS GENERAL MOTORS,’’ TO BE PUBLISHED IN APRIL BY LITTLE, BROWN.
Published: March 26, 1989
 
Hiring McKinsey was a classic exercise in dithering by the General Motors brass, Perot told E.D.S. counsel, Thomas W. Luce 3d: When they’re in a crisis, the first thing they do is hire a consultant. Then, they have meetings to define the crisis. Afterward, they appoint a committee to talk about the crisis. If you see a snake, Perot said, just kill it - don’t appoint a committee on snakes.
   
Yale Book of Quotations
edited by Fred Shapiro
New Haven, CT: Yale University Press
2006
Pg. 589:
H. Ross Perot
U.S. businessman and politician, 1930—
 
[Contrasting the corporate cultures of his former company, EDS, and General Motors, which had acquired EDS:]
“The first EDSer to see a snake kills it. At GM, first thing you do is organize a committee on snakes. Then you bring in a consultant who knows a lot about snakes. Third thing you do is talk about it for a year.”
Quoted in Business Week, 6 Oct. 1986.