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The real sad part of this story is that thousands
of union workers will be out of a job if the car companies go under. And all the
while they will be blaming management, not admitting or even realizing that THEY
THEMSELVES are just as much to blame with their attitude to stick it to the
Company,...... just make sure you don't mess with the union's high wages,
excellent benefits and restrictive work rules!! It only adds $1200 plus to
the cost of an American car vs. the cost of a "Japanese car".
It doesn't take many $1200 to make $4 billion in
profit. I think there is enough blame to go around!!
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Tuesday, November 18, 2008 4:43
PM
Subject: [FWDLK] Fw: (no subject)
You have probably all seen this one before but
the recent messages seem to be running along this subject.
John
A
Modern Parable.
A Japanese company (Toyota) and an
American company (Ford Motors) 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 7 people steering and 2 people
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, 2 area steering superintendents and 1 assistant
superintendent steering manager.
They also implemented a
new performance system that would give the 2 people 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
rowers. There was discussion of getting new paddles, canoes and
other equipment, extra vacation days for practices and
bonuses. The pension program was trimmed to 'equal the
competition' and some of the resultant savings were channeled into
morale-boosting programs and teamwork posters.
The next year
the Japanese won by two miles.
Humiliated, the American
management laid off one rower, halted development of a new canoe,
sold all the paddles, and canceled all capital investments for new
equipment. The money saved was distributed to the Senior
Executives as bonuses.
The
next year, try as he might, the lone designated rower was unable to
even finish the race (having no paddles,) so he was laid off for
unacceptable performance, all canoe equipment was sold and the next
year's racing team was out-sourced to India.
Sadly, 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, and
collecting bonuses...
IF THIS
WEREN'T SO TRUE IT MIGHT BE FUNNY
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