Thread #14454

The Race!

3 archived posts · 314 historical views

EvilRBNovember 15, 2008
#204969

The Race!

Got this from another forum and it's so sad that it's true!

A Japanese company (Toyota) and an American company (Ford) 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 .

The End.

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 quarter's results:

TOYOTA makes 4 billion in profits while Ford racked by 9 billion in losses.

Ford folks are still scratching their heads.
------------
IF THIS WEREN'T TRUE, IT MIGHT BE FUNNY.
View original BBCode
Got this from another forum and it's so sad that it's true!

[B]A Japanese company (Toyota) and an American company (Ford) 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 .

    The End.

    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 quarter's results:

    TOYOTA makes 4 billion in profits while Ford racked by 9 billion in losses.

    Ford folks are still scratching their heads.
    ------------
    IF THIS WEREN'T TRUE, IT MIGHT BE FUNNY.
[/B]
EvilRBNovember 15, 2008
#204971
I also liked one of the responses:

Irie_eyes;1600589 wrote:sad but true, GM's story would be different but just as brutal.

"GM knew that 'they made great canoes, it must be the paddlers' so they took the same canoe but said it was a 'different make and model' but the paddlers were still bailing water out due to half-inch gaps"


reminded me of the movie "Gung Ho" which is actually not a Japanese expression.
when i looked it up on wikipedia, this is what it said under trivia:
"Toyota's executives used this film as an example of how not to manage Americans."


And this one:

Lord_Vader;1600661 wrote:You forgot to add that the US Govt will now give upper management $25 Billion to help keep the canoe afloat.
View original BBCode
I also liked one of the responses:

[quote=Irie_eyes;1600589]sad but true, GM's story would be different but just as brutal.

"GM knew that 'they made great canoes, it must be the paddlers' so they took the same canoe but said it was a 'different make and model' but the paddlers were still bailing water out due to half-inch gaps"


reminded me of the movie "Gung Ho" which is actually not a Japanese expression.
when i looked it up on wikipedia, this is what it said under trivia:
"Toyota's executives used this film as an example of how not to manage Americans."[/quote]

And this one:

[quote=Lord_Vader;1600661]You forgot to add that the US Govt will now give upper management $25 Billion to help keep the canoe afloat. [/quote]
Gao JianNovember 15, 2008
#204980
sadly very true. Funny shiz RB
View original BBCode
sadly very true. Funny shiz RB