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. Their conclusion was the Japanese had eight
> people rowing and one person steering, while the American team had eight
> people steering and one 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 rowing team's management
> structure was totally reorganized to four steering supervisors, three area
> steering superintendents and one 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 cancelled 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.
>
>