"terry" wrote in message
...
Item, somewhat tongue in cheek, on radio here.

A MODERN PARABLE . . .

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 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 .

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.