Illustration

　　ABC Consulting has offices in several major cities in Eastern Europe.Sometimes consultants in one office work on projects for other offices.The transfer price charged is $1，100 per day of consulting.

　　The Managing Director of the Kyiv office of ABC Consulting discovered that he could hire reliable consultants on a freelance basis for $500 per day. On a recent project，in July，he used the services of a local freelance consultant for five days，paying $2，500 in total. “I‘ve saved the Kyiv office $3，000!”he declared triumphantly at the end of the week.

　　During the week in question，the Moscow Office of ABC Consulting had a free consultant who could have done the work that the freelance consultant was hired to do. This consultant earns a fixed salary，so the additional cost to the company of this consultant working on the project in Kyiv would have been a flight ticket of $500 and accommodation of $500 in total.

　　The decision of the Managing Director of the Kyiv Office to hire the freelance consultant cost the ABC Group an additional $1，500 (the fee paid to the freelance consultant of $2，500 less the savings on travel and accommodation of $1，000)。

　　This is an example of goal incongruence.The managing director of the Kyiv office has made a decision that is good for the Kyiv office，but not good for the overall group.The reason for this was that the internal transfer price was too high.