Japanese versus American Business Leadership Satire Story

Not everything that is faced can be changed … but nothing can be changed until it is faced.

- James Baldwin

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Do you like to read satire stories? As long as they are not overdone, we enjoy reading or writing an article done in satire. This is one such story… about American versus Japanese business leadership.

A Japanese company and an American company 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. So American management hired a consulting company and paid them a large amount of money for a second opinion.

They advised that too many people were steering the boat, while not enough people were rowing. 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 the discussion of getting new paddles, canoes, and other equipment, extra vacation days for practices, and bonuses.

The next year the Japanese won the race 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 of the firm as bonuses. The next year’s racing team was outsourced in its entirety to a company in the Far East.

Some elements of truth here, don’t you think?

Mike Schoultz is the founder of Digital Spark Marketing, a digital marketing and customer service agency. With 40 years of business experience, he consults on and writes about topics to help improve the performance of small business. Find him on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.