A Japanese company and a North American company decided to have a canoe race on the St. Lawrence 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 North 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 North American team had 8 people steering and 1 person rowing. So, North 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 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 North American management laid off the rower for poor performance, halted development of a new canoe, sold the paddles, and canceled all capital investments in new equipment. The money saved was distributed to the Senior Executives as bonuses and the next year’s racing team was outsourced to India.
6 replies (most recent on top)
Such a complicated story that has so many embellishments.
Ranpo did not do that even with complicated stories.
The Tell-Tale Heart.
So - your story.
One team loses the race.
Then they go to the forest for take-no-more.
Swinging in hot summer wind.
End of story.
That is a really great analogy. Summarizes the root cause of ExxonMobil's problems in a concise and humorous way. Funny but so true. Kudos to the OP!
A nice Canadian joke. You missed that we invested in tank boats (tar sands) and bought a really expensive ufo looking boat (XTO) to win.
Exxon's doom was sealed when they create/moved to new campus.
And by the third race, the other team had 9 rowing. Steering was automated.
This is spot on that management is the sole reason that Exxon has become a disgrace in the business world, a complete embarrassment. The downfall of this company is not COVID, Exxon was in trouble at least a couple years prior and it is all the leadership's mismanagement that got us here. If anyone needs to be PIP'd or leave the company it needs to start with Darren Woods and all of his cronies. Then start replacing almost all of the company's management, get rid of most of their roles and other bloated roles and titles, and focus on the real actual work of Exxon.