Ford vs. Toyota

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© Copyright 2007 – David Todeschini – all rights reserved

 

      I am tired of hearing all this stuff about "Buy American".... don't get me wrong; I love America, and there is nothing that I would rather do than to do my part to keep American jobs here on these shores... but should I have to make that decision in light of what is really going on? Should I buy inferior products and suffer the consequences merely to make as much difference in the unemployment level as I would by taking a wizz off the pier in Coney Island?. I'm willing to bet you wouldn't either.

     Yesterday I got an e-Mail that made me feel a bit more comfortable about making sound buying decisions based on quality, durability, and resale value - not some hyped-up propaganda which implies that I would be un-American if I bought a car made by other than an American company. Here it is. Read it and weep.... or whatever.

A Modern Parable.

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 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.

The consulting firm 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 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 a 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.

Sadly, The End.