A few years ago, a group of business and tradespeople in a small but growing midwestern U.S. town needed a bigger firehouse. They understood from personal experience how the world works, but because of pressure from the town they opened the project to all bidders and didn't use a prequalification process. The low bidder, $at 2.5 million, was a contractor with a reputation for being difficult to do business with. The business and tradespeople suspected the contractor was not qualified, but they had not required any prequalification process to screen bidders.