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Funny story

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vfx

Well-Known Member
Aug 18, 2006
14,790
52
CA CA
Toyota and GM 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 GM people, 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 that the Toyota team had 8 people rowing and 1 person steering, while the GM team had 8 people steering and 1 person rowing. So GM 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 Toyota team, the GM team 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 Toyota team won by two miles.

Humiliated for the second time, GM 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 next year's racing team was outsourced to India and the money saved was distributed to the Senior Executives as bonuses.