A Japanese auto manufacturer and an American one decided to have a canoe race on the Missouri River. Both teams practiced long and hard to reach their peaks of  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 senior management team was formed to investigate and recommend appropriate action.

The senior management team reviewed the video of the race and discovered that the Japanese had 8 people paddling and 1 person steering, while the American team had 8 people steering and 1 person paddling, but the management team could draw no obvious conclusion.

Feeling a deeper study was in order, the American company's management hired a consulting company and paid them a six-figure sum for a second opinion.

The consulting firm concluded that the Americans had too many people steering the boat and not enough people were paddling.

Unsure of how to utilize that information, but wanting to prevent another loss to the Japanese, the canoe 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 paddling the canoe greater incentive to work harder. It was called the “Paddling Team Quality First Program,” with meetings, dinners, and free pens for the paddler. There was discussion of getting new paddles, some state-of-the-art canoes, a hydraulically-actuated paddler's seat, extra vacation days for practices and a monthly monetary bonus.

The next year the Japanese won by two miles.

Humiliated, the American management laid off the paddler 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 outsourced to India.

The End.

Here's something else to think about:

US auto manufacturers have spent the last thirty years moving factories out of the US, claiming they can't make money paying American wages, while Japanese auto manufacturers spent the last thirty years building more than a dozen plants inside the US.

US manufacturers rack up billions in losses every year, and every year the Japanese rack up billions in profits.