A Moder Day Parable

These days we get so much information over the Internet. Some of it useful, a great deal of it, not. Every now and then you run across something that is a jewel and I thought people in our community might enjoy this one. It was sent to me through the Internet so whoever wrote it, one of those great writers that lives in obscurity on the Internet, I salute you and say, 'Right on!'. Also please note that since you're obscure I couldn't give you credit for this parable that you so deserve.

A Modern Parable.

A Japanese company ( Toyota ) and an American company (General 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 teammade up of senior management was formed to investigate and recommendappropriate action.
Their conclusion was the Japanese had 8 people rowing and 1 persons teering, while the American team had 7 people steering and 2people rowing.
Feeling a deeper study was in order; American management hired aconsulting company and paid them a large amount of money for asecond 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 toprevent 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 unableto even finish the race (having no paddles,) so he was laid off for unacceptable performance, all canoe equipment was sold and the nextyear's racing team was out-sourced to India ..Sadly, the End.

Here's something else to think about: GM has spent the last thirtyyears moving all its factories out of the US , claiming they can'tmake money paying American wages.
TOYOTA has spent the last thirty years building more than a dozenplants inside the US.
The last quarter's results:TOYOTA makes 4 billion in profits while GM racked up 9 billionin losses.Ford folks are still scratching their heads, andcollecting bonuses...IF THIS WEREN'T SO TRUE IT MIGHT BE FUNNY

This is where leadership in some of our countries corporations have led us.
Something is wrong, Washington can't fix it because they are part of the problem.
Our two presidential candidates are arguing about everything else but the American Economy. Mostly because it's no longer an American Economy, it's a Global Economy and we have to face that fact. We can not turn our backs on country's like Columbia and others.
They are potential markets and if they are not buying our products they will be buying someone else's.