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 ballpoint 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
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 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 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, and collecting

bonuses… and now want the Government to bail them out.

IF THIS WEREN’T SO TRUE IT MIGHT BE FUNNY

*** Above post is from a friend’s email ***