The creator of the Dilbert strip cartoon which ridicules managers has made a fool of some real-life executives with the help of their boss.

Mr Scott Adams, who created the cartoon which is pinned up in offices all over the world, disguised himself as a consultant called Ray Mebert and spouted nonsense to a Silicon Valley company, while its executives, led by their boss, nodded agreement.

The spoof at Logitech International, one of the biggest manufacturers of computer mice, was pulled off with the connivance of its cofounder, Mr Pierluigi Zappacosta. He called together executives for a meeting with "Mebert" to draft a new mission statement for Logitech's New Ventures Group.

Mr Adams, disguised with a wig and false moustache, told the group his credentials included work on Procter & Gamble's "Taste Bright Project", a supposedly secret effort to boost sales by improving the taste of soap. "There actually are some people who admitted in focus groups that they would sometimes taste soap," explained Mebert while executives nodded in agreement.

Mebert derided the New Ventures Group's existing goal - to provide Logitech with profitable growth and related new business areas - and got the executives to adopt a new one suggesting ideas and jargon. The new mission statement read: "The New Ventures Mission is to scout profitable growth opportunities in relationships, both internally and externally, in emerging, mission-inclusive markets, and explore new paradigms and then filter and communicate and evangelise the findings."

Then, drawing a picture of Dilbert and pulling off his wig, Mebert told the executives: "You've all been had."

The San Jose Mercury, which revealed the hoax at the weekend, said the executives took the joke well. "If Adams hadn't revealed himself, I wonder how many of us would have gone home and tried tasting our soap?" asked the senior programme manager for control devices, Mr Jack Zahorsky.