From mlc@MIT.EDU Mon Sep 18 16:52:06 1995 Date: Mon, 18 Sep 95 16:00:30 From: mlc@MIT.EDU (Mark Curby) To: ij@MIT.EDU, watchmakers@MIT.EDU, art@spdcc.com (Art Cohen), Michael_Grossman@wgbh.org, WARDRT@iscsvax.uni.edu (ROBERT T. WARD. Dept of Physics) Subject: rowing, reeng and nipon/usa competition Received: from PACIFIC-CARRIER-ANNEX.MIT.EDU by po8.MIT.EDU (5.61/4.7) id AA26150; Sat, 16 Sep 95 11:26:00 EDT Received: from arl-img-3.compuserve.com by MIT.EDU with SMTP id AA27533; Sat, 16 Sep 95 11:25:35 EDT Received: by arl-img-3.compuserve.com (8.6.10/5.950515) id LAA24635; Sat, 16 Sep 1995 11:25:51 -0400 Date: 16 Sep 95 11:23:51 EDT Subject: Re: F.Y.E. (For Your Enjoyoment) Message-Id: <950916152351_72623.1260_DHL48-15@CompuServe.COM> I thought you might enjoy this.. Regards, Michael =============================== AMERICAN MANAGEMENT STYLE The Amercans 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 cruching 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 enought people were rowing the American team. So, the race day neared again, the following year, the American's team's structure was completely reorganized. The new structure: four steering managers, one staff steering manager, and a new perfoemance review system for the person rowing the boat to provide work incentive. The Japanese won by two miles!! Humiliated, the American corperation laid off the rower for poor performance, and gave the managers a bonus for discovering the cause of the problem. ------- End of Forwarded Message