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A Modern Parable.

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edward_t
North Carolina, United States

A  Modern Parable.
the names have been changed to protect the guilty from retailiating against me personally

A company (Company A ) and a company (Company Z) 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, Company Z won by a mile.

Company A's managers, 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 that Company Z had 8 people rowing and 1 person steering, while the  Company A team had 7 people steering and 2 people rowing.

Feeling a deeper study was in order; Company A 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 Company Z, the rowing team's management structure was totally reorganized to 4 steering supervisors,  2 area steering superintendents and 1 assistant superintendent steering manager.

Company A 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 Company Z won by two miles.

Humiliated, Company A management laid-off one rower, halted development of a new canoe, sold all the paddles as-is, 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 Company V.

Sadly, the End.

Here's something else to think about:  Company A has spent the last thirty years moving all its factories out of the US , claiming they can't make money paying American wages.

Company Z has spent the last thirty years building more than a dozen plants inside the US  The last quarter's results:

Company Z makes 4 billion in profits while  Company A racked up 9 billion in losses.

Company A folks are still scratching their heads, and collecting bonuses... for a while...

are any of you Company A managers?

Posted 6 Jan 2009 10:14 AM

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tugmaster
United Kingdom

that ed,is a classic! i advise everybody on this side of the water who work for a certain materials handling company to read this.its just too close to the truth.

Posted 20 Jan 2009 12:00 AM

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brian_j
Cheshire, United Kingdom

This is the company I work for, how uncanny.

Classic observation

Posted 21 Jan 2009 08:37 AM

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