When cuts in headcount don't save money

Who needs secretaries or executive assistants any more?

Why have someone type a letter when anyone with a computer can do it himself?

Why have someone book travel when anyone can do it on the web?

There's a reason, as Businessweek points out after reviewing a Harvard Business Review piece:

A 2011 article in the Harvard Business Review, “The Case for Executive Assistants,” points out that surfing Expedia (EXPE) to book business trips and itemizing expense reports is hardly an efficient use of a senior executive’s time. For someone earning close to $1 million a year, an $80,000-a-year assistant needs to help the boss become only 8 percent more productive for the company to break even.