A Japanese company (Toyota) and an American company (GM) 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:
GM 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 GM racked up 9 billion in losses.
