Big 3 Management answers

[Donutblue]

Found this posted in the AMC Forums - funny, but a lot of truth to it.

Subject: Corporate Ingenuity in America
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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 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's 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 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 was distributed to the Senior Executives as
bonuses and the next year's racing team was outsourced to India.