[771] in Humor
HUMOR: Japanese Management Style
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Andrew A. Bennett)
Thu Mar 16 23:23:18 1995
To: humor@MIT.EDU
Date: Thu, 16 Mar 1995 23:20:34 EST
From: "Andrew A. Bennett" <abennett@MIT.EDU>
A classic.
-Drew
Date: Thu, 16 Mar 1995 20:49:35 +0000 (GMT)
From: Espacionaute Spiff domine! <MATOSSIAN@aries.colorado.edu>
From: "Mitchell K. Hobish" <mitch@smarty.smart.net>
Date: Thu, 16 Mar 1995 08:29:43 -0500
Subject: Japanese Management Style (fyi)
AMERICAN MANAGEMENT STYLE
The Americans and Japanese decided to engage in a competitive boat race.
Both teams practiced hard and long to reach their peak performance. On the
big day, they both felt ready.
The Japanese won by a mile!
Afterward, the American team was discouraged by the loss. Morale sagged.
Corporate management decided that the reason for the crushing defeat had to
be found, so a consulting firm was hired to investigate the problem and
recommend corrective action.
The consultants' findings:
The Japanese had eight people rowing and one person steering; the American
team had one person rowing and eight people steering.
After a year of study and millions spent analyzing the problem the
consulting team concluded that too many people were steering, and not
enough people were rowing the American team.
So, the race day neared again, the following year. The American team's
structure was completely reorganized. The new structure: four steering
managers, one staff steering manager, and a new performance review system
for the person rowing the boat to provide work incentive.
The Japanese won by two miles!!
Humiliated, the American corporation laid off the rower for poor
performance, and gave the managers a bonus for discovering the cause of the
problem.
