A Japanese company and a North American company decided to have a canoe race on the St. Lawrence 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 North 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 8 people rowing and 1 person steering, while the North American team had 8 people steering and 1 person rowing. So, North 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 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 North American management laid off the rower for poor performance, halted development of a new canoe, sold the paddles, and canceled all capital investments in new equipment. The money saved was distributed to the Senior Executives as bonuses and the next year’s racing team was outsourced to India.
8 replies (most recent on top)
This is the problem. Intel employees don't understand the difference between computer chips and potato chips. Most the employees don't understand integrated circuit design and manufacturing, but they can come up with clever stories about paddles and canoes for sure.
It's 2024, time to update this Fairy Tale....
The problem isn't with the North American Company. Blame it on China !!!
Reminds of the manager consolidation exercises Intel has done over the years.
If you had less than 6 reports, your manager role was deemed inefficient and your position was eliminated. If you were a manager doing the same work with 10 reports, you were deemed efficient and got to grow your team.
Empire building, anyone?
It is clear that the problem with North America is they just needed to make more DEI hires and prioritize that above all else.
So what did the steering supervisors, steering superintendent and steering manager do when there was no rowing..
Feels like deliberate game from the management , pretending to solve the problem, playing d-mb and forcing the rower to fail while giving themselves bonuses.
TLDR
Online i see the article from 2006 (i am sure the original was much older). the artilce mentions company names too !
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.
Sweeter is the irony that when SN came back to take over TD, he kept ba----g on about how his org management style was one of team work like in Rowing.