japanese management
 

maybe old .. but .. not old enough


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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 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.

They advised that too many people were steering the boat, while not
enough people were rowing.

To prevent another loss to the Japanese, the American 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
ONE 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 in payroll was distributed to the Senior Executives
as bonuses and the next year's racing team was outsourced to Bangladesh.






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RE: japanese management
 

Stealth
Normally I'd have to laugh at this, but today it hit a nerve. Prior to GM spinning off their component divisions in the late 90's I have had the distinct pleasure of working there for 31 years. Warren, Ohio is where I worked and in 1971 there were 13,000 (great paying, great benifit ) jobs in this little Northern Ohio County. Now less than 700 production workers. But still the HQ. Two gals called me last week that I hired in the late 80's (both with over 20+ years of experience and in late 40's) Financial Jobs gone In May and will be moved to INDIA. They are out on the street! Phi Q to U 2 Jack Smith!

RE: japanese management
 

Bill,

i also been there, done that .. GE Schenectady











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RE: japanese management
 

I knew you had worked in Schenectady, but now it's confirmed.

You can spell Schenectady.

JCS