A Modern Day 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 management team made up of senior
executives 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 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 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 US. The last quarter's results:
TOYOTA makes 4 billion in profits while Ford racked up 9 billion in
losses.
TOYOTA pays its works $3 an hour more than Ford pays it workers.
Ford CEO's are still scratching their heads, but collecting their bonuses.
"We're all here because, we're not all there."
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