I don't know whether to laugh or cry

[Bruce]

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 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 8 people steering and 1 person rowing.

So American management hired a consulting

company and paid them a large amount of money for a second opinion. They advised that too many people were

steering the boat, while not enough people were rowing. To prevent another loss to the Japanese, the rowing team's

management structure was totally reorganized to 4 steering supervisors, 3 area steering superintendents and 1

assistant superintendent steering manager and 1 rower.

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, sold 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.

[belgareth]

My only question is: Why did

you put it in humor? Sounds mostly like business as usual.

[ace]

It would be very funny if it weren´t

true.. or maybe it IS funny because that IS the truth? hmm... lol

[girlnextdoor]

How about we say it's

funny in a sad way?

And ace, yeah, the truth is sometimes funny.

[ace]

ok that sounds fair.. we´ll leave it

at that.. well said!

[Lorenzo_91]

That's positive, we are on

the way forward. I mean it we are an unstoppable machine and watch us go into a major Bull market this year.