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 ..

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 quarter's results:

Toyota makes 4 billion in profits while Ford racked up 9 billion in losses.
Ford folks are still scratching their heads.


















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<rj>

<RJ> wrote:
The Detroit Mindset of the auto companies, the Former Big Three, has
cost them everything and the contract talks will put the last nails in
the coffin.