Modern Parable

Posts: 333

A Modern Parable:

A Japanese company (Toyota) and an American Company (Ford Motors) 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 team made up of senior management members was formed to investigate and recommend appropriate action.

Their conclusion was the Japanese had (Cool 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 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 team work 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 next 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 United States.

Last year's results:

Toyota made $16 billion in profits (1.3 trillion yen)!!!

Ford racked up $2.76 billion in losses.

Ford folks are still scratching their heads. And collecting bonuses.

Posts: 490

Only in America.

Posts: 1745

you better not be making fun of my 7.3 excursions lol jk funny

Posts: 2642

i got that email once!!! lol

That is why I own a TOYOTA!!!! made in Japan, Assembled in CALIFORNIA!!!!

John Very Happy

Posts: 239

That's an awesome story.

I recently resigned from a very large, convoluted corporation that insisted on doing things the hard way. They constantly set up "steering" committees and insisted on endless reports that led to no-where, created paper trails to keep track of paper trails, and had new staff hired to file more reports about those paper trails. They're now on the verge of bankruptcy... where the new company I'm working for enjoys simplicity, and is raking in million dollar profits and breaking their own records every year.

There's definitely more people rowing this boat, and we're making more miles then any others on the water... even though it seems we're constantly moving upstream.

I'm passing this on to everyone in our head office, so they don't lose site of what's important. Thanks for the great read.