A modern parable.

Comment #6

jarasan — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 14:05:49 GMT

I'm on my second Toyota 4Runner, 200K+ miles, the first had 180K on it and people were in a bidding war over it in front of my house when I sold it! I also have a tow vehicle a 1984 Suburban K20 4x4 it has 200K+ on it also, but it gets 12 MPG, but it is very well built and I wish USAmerican cars were built like that with better gas mileage.

Comment #5

ICNUMBERS — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 19:16:24 GMT

I think that it's all just poor business mgmt,and greed I'll take a foreign car or just about anything that's not American made for that matter. Americans are just too greedy and nonchalant about there products they puts no love into their ideas just pure luxury and materialistic aspects. I can't understand how the empire fell when the average car exceeds the price of a house and or a loan to start a small business. My grandpa used 2 have a saying. "You can't afford a Ford" and a "Chrysler will have you in a Chrisis." His circle was taught that outside of a Toyota, and Honda, GM was the next best thing but at this rate I sure can't tell.... [ More ]

Comment #4

GASMETERGUY — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 16:46:34 GMT

I find it amusing that Ford nows says their quality equals that of Toyota. Toyota should be struggling to equal Ford's quality; not the other way around

Comment #3

jarasan — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 03:31:32 GMT

Too much union, govt., and/or bad mgmt. will kill USAmerican business.

Comment #2

konane — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 03:23:44 GMT

Unions have held all US manufacturing hostage and now we're seeing the results.

Comment #1

emilyg — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 00:24:39 GMT

True.

Original Blog Entry: A modern parable.

jarasan — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 00:11:06 GMT

A MODERN PARABLE

A Japanese company (Toyota) and an American company (Ford) 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 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 American team had 8 people steering and 1 person rowing.

Feeling a deeper study was in order, American 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 canoe while

not enough people were rowing.

Not sure of how to utilize that information, but wanting 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 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 out-sourced to India.

Sadly, The End.

Here's something else to think about:

Ford has spent the last thirty years moving all its factories out of the

US, claiming they can't make money paying American wages.

TOYOTA has spent the last thirty years building more than a dozen plants

inside the US .

The last quarter's results:

TOYOTA makes 4 billion in profits while Ford racked up 9 billion in losses.

Ford folks are still scratching their heads.

IF THIS WEREN'T TRUE, IT MIGHT BE FUNNY.............................

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