The Way American Businesses Work

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 paddling and 1 person
steering, while the American team had 7 people steering and 2 people
paddling.

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 paddling.

Not sure of how to utilize that information, but wanting to prevent another
loss to the Japanese, the paddling 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
paddling the boat greater incentive to work harder. It was called the
'Rowing Team Quality First Program,' with meetings, dinners and free pens
for the paddlers. 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 paddler, halted development
of a new canoe, sold all the paddles, and cancelled 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 paddler 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: GM 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 GM racks up 9 billion in losses.

         

TWENTY ODD YEARS ago, GMC was the biggest car manufacturer in the world, Toyota was a close  second...

GM wanted to regain the top position, after Toyota had passed them easily a couple of years later and kept rolling on ahead..

So GM borrowed big and bought up several other companies (like Saab and Daewoo, and a big slice of Isuzu..).

THEN when the GFC happened along, GM's house of cards corporate model was exposed as the dog it is, and it promptly crashed and burned..

AFTER being rescued by the US guvm'nt as one of those basket cases "too big to allow to fail..", after restructuring, GM was eventualy refloated -- now in it's more rightful place as the worlds #4 car manufacturer,  after Toyota, Volkswagen, (and somebody else was in there back in 2010 -- might have been Ford or Hyundai, or maybe that reborn Fiat-Chrysler conglomerate ?).        


NOW, TODAY, just a few years later --  Volkswagen is now #1(by corporate rank..) ,   Toyota second (though, still just leading VW on car sales alone..)..
AND GM  is down to being the world's  number 7   !!!

(General Motors group was #3 for total car sales in 2015, but when other factors were taken into account, it slipped down to 7th place among car makers, ranked by corporate size and other measures..).

https://news.markets/shares/toyota-remains-the-worlds-biggest-car-company-9737/

http://www.tharawat-magazine.com/facts/10-largest-car-companies/

 http://www.drive.com.au/motor-news/rankings-worlds-biggest-car-companies-20120420-1xc14.html?eid=cpc:nnn-15omn0938-optim-nnn:google_adwords-bau_paid_search_campaign-dom-textad-nnn-drive-nnn&campaign_code=15caf041&promote_channel=sem&utm_source=google_adwords&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=bau2015&gclid=Cj0KEQjwlNy8BRC676-W0JezxbwBEiQA4Ydg0XNVTaFKmxbtUN4AkjlxJ6E1dGt5dLXr8IoNZKs5w1MaAk1R8P8HAQ       

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automotive_industry