CORPORATE ROWING

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. Afterwards, the American team
became very discouraged and morally depressed. The American management
decided that the reason for the crushing defeat had to be found. A
"Measurement Team," made up of senior management was formed.
They would investigate and recommend appropriate action.

Their conclusion was that the Japanese had 8 people rowing and 1 person
steering, while the Americans had 1 person rowing and 8 people steering.

So American management hired a consulting company and paid them incredible
amounts of money. They advised that too many people were steering the boat
and not enough people were rowing. To prevent losing to the Japanese again
next year, the 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: "We must give the rower
empowerment and enrichments through this quality program."

The next year the Japanese won by 2 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. Then they gave a High Performance
Award to the steering managers and distributed the money saved as bonuses to
the senior executives.