Orange is the new power color

The small things added up in long negotiations, of course. Having the ashtray on her side of the desk. Allowing people in her office to smoke cigars, too -- but only from her smaller stock of seconds, so they would have to ask. And they did. They felt excluded if she was indulging and they weren't. The cigars she gave slowly grew shorter, too, to symbolize a loss of power. Of course, with her first cigar finished, she went in for a bigger one.

Eventually, people made concessions they never meant to.