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 paddling and 1 person steering, while the American team had 7 people steering and 2 people paddling.
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 paddling.
Not sure of how to utilize that information, but wanting to prevent another loss to the Japanese, the paddling 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 paddling the boat greater incentive to work harder . It was called the 'Rowing Team Quality First Program, with meetings, dinners and free pens for the paddlers. 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 paddler, halted development of a new canoe , sold all the paddles, and cancelled 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 paddler 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:
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 makes 4 billion in profits while GM rack s up 9 billion in losses.
GM folks are still scratching their heads, and collecting bonuses....
IF THIS WEREN'T SO TRUE IT MIGHT BE FUNNY.
Toyota & GM
Moderators: DJKeefy, 4u Network
- LovelyLadyLux
- Egypt4u God
- Posts: 11596
- Joined: Sun Nov 29, 2009 9:12 pm
- Location: Canada
- Has thanked: 417 times
- Been thanked: 2714 times
-
- Royal V.I.P
- Posts: 2271
- Joined: Fri Dec 05, 2008 2:15 am
- Location: Luxor
- Has thanked: 3044 times
- Been thanked: 676 times
- Grandad
- Egyptian Pharaoh
- Posts: 6924
- Joined: Fri Dec 05, 2008 2:15 am
- Location: South East UK
- Has thanked: 797 times
- Been thanked: 2254 times
- Gender:
-
- Royal V.I.P
- Posts: 2271
- Joined: Fri Dec 05, 2008 2:15 am
- Location: Luxor
- Has thanked: 3044 times
- Been thanked: 676 times
- LovelyLadyLux
- Egypt4u God
- Posts: 11596
- Joined: Sun Nov 29, 2009 9:12 pm
- Location: Canada
- Has thanked: 417 times
- Been thanked: 2714 times
Re: Toyota & GM
I think I lived through that both in Canada and the USA a few times! Seemed the work increased to totally unmanageable so the solution was to add in more layers with many more experts to tell me what to do. Inverted triangle at the finest.