The Boat Race

[FlyersFan]

A Japanese company (
Toyota ) and an American
company (Ford Motor Co.) 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 th
e 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 7 people steering and 2 people
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, 2 area steering
superintendents and 1 assistant superintendent steering
=2
0 manager.

They also implemented
a new performance system that would give the 2 people 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 rowers. There was discussion of getting new
paddles, canoes and other equipment, extra vacation days for
practices and bonuses. The pension program was trimmed to
'equal the competition' and some of the resultant savings were
channeled into morale boosting programs and teamwork
posters.



The next year the
Japanese won by two miles.


Humiliated, the
American management laid-off one rower, halted development of a new
canoe, sold all the paddles, and canceled all capital investments
for new equipment. The money saved was distributed to the
Senior Executives as bonuses.

The=2
0next year, try as
he might, the lone designated rower was unable to even finish the
race (having no paddles,) so he was laid off for unacceptable
performance, all canoe equipment was sold 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 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 makes
4 billion in profits while Ford racked up 9 billion in
losses.
Ford
folks are still scratching their heads, and collecting
bonuses.
IF
THIS WEREN'T SO TRUE I
T MIGHT BE
FUNNY