A Japanese company ( Toyota ) and an American  company
(Ford 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 7 people
steering and 2 people 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 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,  2 area steering superintendents
and 1 assistant superintendent steering  manager.

They  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 the Japanese won by two miles.

Humiliated, the American management laid off one rower,
halted development of a new canoe, sold all the paddles, 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 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, and collecting
bonuses...