"A Japanese company and an American
company 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 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 reorganised 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 some discussion of
getting new paddles, canoes and other
equipment, extra-vacation days for practices and,
of course, bonuses for management.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 cancelled
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
The End. Sadly, but oh so truly!
Here's something else to think about: American
auto companies have spent the last thirty years
moving all of their factories out of the US, claiming
they can't make money paying American wages.
Toyota, on the other hand, 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 and GM
racked up billions in losses."
Dennis Gartman