food for thought

[KlotzBanshee]

Sorry to those who've already heard this, but its worth a laugh.

 

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. As a footnote to a very long report on their findings, they made mention of a structural difference in the composition of the two teams: the Japanese had 8 people rowing and 1 person steering, while the American team had 8 people steering and 1 person rowing.

 

The American management hired a Consulting Company at a hefty fee 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 steering manager. They also implemented a new performance system that would give the 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 also 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.

 

 

I live in Michigan, and am in the auto industry...there is alot of truth to this...I know its just a story, but it hits home to many of us.

[odaen]

hahaha, sad but true about corporate america

[pipebomb]

Too true, too true. thats how IBM went to crap. Too many cheifs, not enough indians.

[rocketboy]

dam n i wish this was a joke but it is a sad reality in todays market ...... wonder if the following race year the india team had their outsorced canoe break down because of poor quality and all the rowers drowned and went to allah ,meeshnew or buddah or fuckin who ever < my happy ending

Edited April 17, 2006 by rocketboy

[locogato11283]

yea its just like the fuckin assholes you see on the highway that work for the state. 1 fuckin guy working and 4 standin around. that REALLY pisses me off. they have all this labor not doin a fuckin thing at what, like 15 to 20 bucks an hour? gee, wonder where my hard earned tax dollars go. to a bunch of worthless fucks that get away with it because our DOT is a bunch of idiots. i wonder how much money could be saved a year if we actually only paid the people that work out there??? oh and i really love the asphalt patch guys. drivin around all day fillin holes up that in about 3 or 4 days will be big holes again...hey lets pay someone time and time again to fix a hole the wrong way..if they would just fix it right the first time, it would save a ton of money. but nah, lets just fuck everyone out of their tax dollars...i could have like 2 new bikes a year with all the money i pay in to these assholes in taxes....

[Cotton eyed Joe]

I know several small time companies (Less than $8 million gross sales per year) and they pay shop managers $165K, that have no idea whats going on in the shop. Office managers and salesman that are making $200K+% of sales, and most of the sales are done through lead people that go out to the job sites. No one calls the salesmen because they don't know what you're talking about when you talk to them.

 

There is one company here that could get rid of $500,000 per year in bs wages and positions, and everything would run the exact same way as it does now. You just wouldn't have all this fuckin micromanagement going on screwing things up.