A Modern Parable

This parable was sent to me by a close friend. I am sure that someone probably sent it to him via an e-mail. It is both relevant and timely enough to post here.



A Modern 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 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 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 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.

Ford folks are still scratching their heads, and collecting
bonuses... and now they want a bail out!

IF THIS WEREN'T SO TRUE IT MIGHT BE FUNNY.