THE GREAT CANOE RACE
(a modern parable)
A Japanese company (Toyota) and an American company (General Motors) decided to have a canoe race on the Missouri River. Both team 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 an 1 person steering, while the American team had 8 people steering an 1 person rowing.
Feeling a deeper study was in order, American management hired a consulting company and paid them a huge amount of money for a second opinion. They advised, of course, that too many people were steering the boat and not enough people rowing.
Not sure of how to utilize that information, but wanting to prevent another loss to the Japanese, the rowing teams management structure was totally reorganized to 4 steering supervisors, 3 area steering superintendents and 1 assistant 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, free pens and scratch pads for the rower. There was discussion of getting new paddles, canoes and other equipment and 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 the new equipment. The money saved was distributed to the Senior Executives as bonuses and the next years racing team was out-sourced to India.
(Sadly) The End
Sad, but oh so true! 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 quarters results: Toyota makes 4 billion in profits while Ford racked up 9 billion in losses. Ford folks are still scratching their heads.
IF THIS WASN'T SO SAD IT MIGHT BE FUNNY!
I received the same e-mail and researched how many manufacturing plants Toyota has in USA: 13 Total. But they are still struggling because the Texas plant was built 3 years ago to make the Toyota tundra trucks and their plant backfired, so they are trying to convert it to manufacture compact cars. My brother worked for them and they treat their employees like crap. They have social Friday, in which each employee works one extra hour for free! How about it.
ReplyDeletePatty F, Alabama.
Treated like crap or not...they do have jobs unlike the outlook for many Ford, GM and Chrysler auto-workers. If you are complaining about them working one extra hour on a Friday, that is laughable. At our company they have been asking us to work a minimum of 45 hours per week with no extra pay for the past year now.
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