Thursday, January 11, 2007

Found on a message board

A Japanese company and an American company 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.

So American management hired a consulting company and paid them a large amount of money for a second opinion. They advised that too many people were steering the boat, while not enough people were rowing.

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 cancelled 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 outsourced to India.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Sounds like our government LOL. Helen

Anonymous said...

Opps!!  now that is scarey...like our American govt...???  hmmm???  maybe we need to send this in bulk to the White House...but then by the time it got to who needed to read it...it would be old and outdated...blurred...and a mess....???  sheesh....Hugs from KY...Ora

Anonymous said...

WOW!!!  
Pam

Anonymous said...

I am just tired reading it. It amazes how real in another set of circumstances that does happen. I wonder where my grand kids will be after I am gone.


In Christ,
Gabrielle

Anonymous said...

This one is worth copying and sending on to the children.

Anonymous said...

Sounds just like Pat's former place of employment

Anonymous said...

    I am sending a link to this entry to everyone that I know ... what really produced a "Hearty Ho-Ho-Ho" was the final solution to outsource to India.
LOIS

Anonymous said...

Oh, dear....this is too darn true to be funny.  -  Barbara