A Japanese company (Toyota) and an American company
(Ford) decided to have a canoe race on the Missouri River.
Both teams practiced long and hard to reach their peak
performance before the race.?
On the big day, the Japanese won by a mile.
The Americans, very discouraged and depressed, decided to
investigate the reason for the crushing defeat. A management team made up
of senior management was formed to investigate and recommend appropriate
action.
Their conclusion was the Japanese had 8 people rowing and
1 person steering, while the American team had 8 people steering and 1 person
rowing. ?
Feeling a deeper study was in order, American management
hired a consulting company and paid them a large amount of money for a second
opinion.
They advised, of course, that too many people were
steering the boat, while not enough people were rowing.
Not sure of how to utilize that information, but wanting
to prevent another loss to the Japanese, the rowing team's management structure
was totally reorganized to 4 steering supervisors, 3 area steering
superintendents and 1 assistant superintendent steering manager.
They also implemented a new performance system that would
give the 1 person rowing the boat greater incentive to work harder. It was
called the 'Rowing Team Quality First Program,' with meetings, dinners and free
pens for the rower. There was discussion of getting new paddles, canoes
and other equipment, extra vacation days for practices and bonuses.
The next year the Japanese won by two miles.
Humiliated, the American management laid off the rower
for poor performance, halted development of a new canoe, sold the paddles, and
canceled all capital investments for new equipment.
The money saved was distributed to the senior executives
as bonuses and the next year's racing team was out-sourced to India . Sadly,
The End.
Here's something else to think about: Ford has spent
the last thirty years moving all of its factories out of the US , claiming they
can't make money paying American wages.
TOYOTA has spent the last thirty years building more
than a dozen plants inside the US . The last quarter's results: TOYOTA
made $4 billion in profits while Ford racked up $9 billion in losses. Ford
folks are still scratching their heads.
