The Boat Race

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  • FlyersFan
    Senior Member
    • Mar 2007
    • 12128

    The Boat Race

    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
    I am the M'bah a'Flyers Fan !
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