| Thought I'd share this story. I loved my rice burner ('84 Honda) and wish I hadn't sold it.
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 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 co mpany 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 rac ked up 9 billion in losses.
Ford folks are still scratching their heads, and collecting bonuses...
IF THIS WEREN'T SO TRUE IT MIGHT BE FUNNY | 
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