A Finnish company and a Japanese company decided to organise a yearly rowing race with 8-man teams. Both teams trained long and hard and when the big day came both teams were, in their opinion, in the best possible shape.
But the Japanese won the race by over a kilometer.
After this beating the Finns were on defeatist mood but the company top brass decided that the next year's race had to be won for imago reasons. Therefore they set up a project group to solve the problem. After a lengthy analysis the group realised that the Japanese had seven rowers and one helmsman whereas the Finns had seven helmsmen and one rower.
In this crisis situation the management showed remarkable initiative. It was decided to hire a consultant team to analyse these findings. After few months the consultants arrived to the conclusion that the team had too many helmsmen.
After hearing the report of the experts the management made prompt changes to the organisation of the team. Now the team had four helmsmen, two senoir helmsmen, one team leader and one rower. In additon, to motivate the rower a bonus point system was developed. "We have to broaden his job description and give him more responsibility".
The next race the japanese won by two kilometers. The management immediately fired the rower for bad results but still paid bonus to the management for their efforts. The consultation firm made a new analysis of the situation and concluded that the tactic had been correct. The material just needed to be improved.
For the next race Finns are developing a new boat.
