A Modern Parable

[hubbycap]

A Japanese company ( Toyota ) and an American company (General Motors, but not necessarily) 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 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 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 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 SO TRUE IT MIGHT BE FUNNY...

[overlord1]

Ford lost a lifelong customer in me a couple of years ago after my then 6 month old Ford Escape with 8K miles on the odo developed a serious mechanical problem while on vacation in Alaska of all places. Neither the local Ford dealer in Anchorage nor Ford corporate gave a d**n about the fact that I would be without a vehicle for a week while on vacation. They would not even arrange a rental car for me at my own expense! To add insult to injury it was insinuated that I was responsible for the problem on my 6 month old $32K Escape Limited. I later learned through the NTSB website that the problem I had was quite common on the Escape. The fact that I'd been a loyal Ford customer having purchased no less than 10 of their vehicles for both personal use and business use over the years did not matter in the least to them. When I got back home I sold that POS at a huge loss and swore to never even consider another Ford product for future purchase. My Silverado is my first GM product and so far I'm impressed. Imho Ford's financial woes are self inflicted both by manufacturing mediocre products and by providing abysmal customer service. It's not a surprise to me that Toyota overtook Ford as the no. 2 car maker in the world and now threatens GM's no. 1 position. I consider myself very patriotic and won't consider buying a foreign made vehicle so long as I can get a well made American one. I only wish I had considered GM vehicles sooner as in my opinion they are superior to Ford in every way. Ford has learned the hard way that patriotism and "buy American" will only get you so far if you continue to kick your customers in the teeth and then ask them how they liked it.