A Japanese company (Toyota) and an American company (Ford) 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 crushing defeat. A senior management team 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 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, sol d 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 outsourced to India .
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.