Here's something from

years gone by, but is still relevant.



THE RACE

A Japanese company (Toyota)

and an American company (General 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 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 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, 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 out-sourced to India.


Sad, but oh so true! Here's

something else to think about: GM 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 made $4 billion in profits while GM racked

up $9 billion in
losses.

The GM folks are still scratching their heads (and waiting for more
bailout

money.)


If this wasn't so sad, it might be funny!