Mklangelo

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 team 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 team 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. The consultants advised that too many people were steering the boat, while not enough people were rowing.

To prevent another loss to the Japanese, the American's 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 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 outsourced to India.


(This has been going around the internet but today I ran across it for the first time)

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Malone

Right...you should be more sparing with the word "true."

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JHB

I thought those companies made cars...

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JosephB

This might have been amusing about 20 years ago.

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"The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources."
-- Albert Einstein

"I am really only interested in a fiction of miracles."
-- Flannery O'Connor

Sam Winchester

What response, exactly, were you hoping for from this thread, Mklangelo?

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Perception of reality is not the same thing as reality itself.

Mklangelo

What response does anyone hope for when something is simply put out for consideration, you idiot? It's something I found interesting and entertaining and pretty much hits the nail on the head of how Americans approach problems. They throw money and hire consultants. The company, as are many American companies is over managed.


I think it's why Ford is losing money and why Toyota is making money. Ford has steadily moved it's operations over seas while Toyota has moved their's here.

There. I've broken it down for you.

And I was pretty sparing with the word "true" I used it once. Any less than once would be none. Imbecile.

__________________
A man cannot be comfortable without his own approval.

- Mark Twain

Mklangelo

Why yes, they do. Your on top of it alright.

__________________
A man cannot be comfortable without his own approval.

- Mark Twain

Malone

Yes, using the word "true" zero times would have been much for fitting for this particular case.

__________________
There Is A Policeman Inside All Our Heads: He Must Be Destroyed

Sam Winchester

Would you like to calm down now, or should I go buy you a dummy? A box of tissues?

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Perception of reality is not the same thing as reality itself.

winkash

Hi, MK. I think this fable shows the result of a quite old recipe: a mixture of overweight luggage and misapplied individualism.

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"All, all is theft, all is unceasing and rigorous competition in nature; the desire to make off with the substance of others is the foremost - the most legitimate - passion nature has bred into us and, without doubt, the most agreeable one."
Marquis de Sade

Matthatter

I agree with Malone's comment, the story wasn't true so it shouldn't have been described as such, but the other comments were just rude. I guess they were just bummed out to waste their time on something that wasn't true? I didn't laugh, but I found it amusing.

Sometimes it seems regular, long-time posters rush to put someone down as soon as another respected poster does it first. You guys didn't get this out of your system in grade school?

Sam, why are you telling him to calm down? You saw other people come down on him and you kicked him while he was down. I can understand the guy being a little irritated by it.

Sam Winchester

I'm sorry, Matt, I didn't realise asking someone a question could be construed as "kicking them while they're down". I didn't see anyone else come "down" on him. What I saw was a thread which seemed rather pointless, and I simply asked him what response he wanted it to receive.

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Perception of reality is not the same thing as reality itself.

JosephB

You'll are being too literal.

Haven't you ever responded to something by saying, "Boy, that's the truth." or "Ain't it the truth""

"Sad but true" is just one of these common responses. You all haven't heard that before?

__________________
"The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources."
-- Albert Einstein

"I am really only interested in a fiction of miracles."
-- Flannery O'Connor

Malone

It made me think this was true until almost half way through. I've heard the expression, but it still mislead me. But, I'm just an imbecile, so that figures.

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There Is A Policeman Inside All Our Heads: He Must Be Destroyed

CodeRed

Hmmm... I vote for a celebrity death match - except replace 'celebrity' with a fragrant oil of some kind...

I think that would be a stellar way to relieve some of the tensions on this board.

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All my best thoughts were stolen by the ancients. Ralph Waldo Emerson