I went to Paris for a board meeting. The company arranged for me to be picked up at the airport. I was to look for a person holding a sign with my name.
When I arrived, I could not find the pick up person. I searched for him. He arrived 15 minutes later and was clearly not a local person. After driving for some time, he appeared to be driving me to the wrong destination. I checked with him and gave him the correct address.
I reported the matter to the hotel for investigation. Apparently, they have arranged the pick-up to a contractor who must have outsourced it to a third party (who used an immigrant to do the work).
This was probably done in the interest of brining down the cost or making a bigger profit margin. This has led to a drop in standard and quality. There is a need to have better control on outsourcing!
When I arrived, I could not find the pick up person. I searched for him. He arrived 15 minutes later and was clearly not a local person. After driving for some time, he appeared to be driving me to the wrong destination. I checked with him and gave him the correct address.
I reported the matter to the hotel for investigation. Apparently, they have arranged the pick-up to a contractor who must have outsourced it to a third party (who used an immigrant to do the work).
This was probably done in the interest of brining down the cost or making a bigger profit margin. This has led to a drop in standard and quality. There is a need to have better control on outsourcing!
5 comments:
Re-visiting an Old Joke ... and we had even past the good days of TOYOTA for sure ...
A Japanese company ( Toyota ) and an American company (Ford) 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.
Feeling a deeper study was in order, American management hired a consulting company and paid them a large amount of money for a second opinion. They advised, of course, that too many people were steering the boat, while not enough people were rowing.
Not sure of how to utilize that information, but wanting 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 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 as bonuses and the next year's racing team was out-sourced to India.
Sadly, The End.
Here's something else to think about:
Ford has spent the last thirty years moving all its factories out of the US, claiming they can't make money paying American wages.
TOYOTA has spent the last thirty years building more than a dozen plants inside the US. The last quarter's results:
TOYOTA makes 4 billion in profits while Ford racked up 9 billion in losses.
Ford folks are still scratching their heads.
IF THIS WEREN'T TRUE, IT MIGHT BE FUNNY.
..... And we had past the good TOYOTA days for sure .....
My encounter is almost the same as yours.
I received a letter from Citibank informing Credit card customer that they may outsource operation support OUTSIDE of Singapore. I am concern that those vendor's staff will sell my information to 3rd party or criminal Groups. I had feedback to them and hope that they will get back to me.
To increase profit, you either increase price or cut cost.
Cutting cost is easier because it's always easy to bully your employees or suppliers.
Increasing prices not so easy because it's not easy to bully your customers.
The cost savings is immediate. As a manager, you get to keep you job for another year. And maybe a bonus also.
The quality issues, customer complaints etc. as a result of thoughtless cost cutting will only appear later. By that time, the manager responsible would have been promoted to another level. And not be around to be accountable for the screw ups.
This is called a "death spiral" or the "dash to the bottom".
Good leadership like Steve Jobs at Apple will counter this trend with innovative products.
Poor leadership will tell you "It cannot be helped".
Greed from people at top
( we want more money )
Laziness from middle
( just kick & threaten the bottom )
Blind people at the bottom
( I dont see my way out )
It's a very obvious sign of disrespect.... to a board member!!!
Post a Comment