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AA vs. SWA Competition

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MetroSheriff

Hittin' the road...
Joined
Nov 25, 2001
Posts
854
The two Dallas based airlines, Southwest Airlines and American Airlines, 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, Southwest won by a mile.


Afterwards, the American team became very depressed and discouraged. The American management decided that a reason for the crushing defeat had to be found. A "Measurement TeAAm" made up of senior management was formed. They would investigate and recommend appropiate action.


They concluded that Southwest had 8 people rowing and one person steering, while American had one person rowing and 8 people steering. So American management hired a consulting company and paid them incredible amounts of money. They advised that too many people were steering the boat and not enough people were rowing.


To prevent losing to Southwest next year, the rowing team's management structure was totally reorganized. There would be 4 steering supervisors,
3 area steering superintendents and 1 assistant superintendent steering manager. American also implemented a new performance system that would give the 1 rower a greater incentive to work harder.


The "Rowing Team QuAAlity First Program" had meetings, dinners and included free pens for the rower. "We will give the rower empowerment and enrichments through this quality program," management said.


The next year, Southwest won by 2 miles.


Humiliated, American management laid off the rower for poor performance, halted development of a new canoe, sold the paddles, and canceled all capital investments for the new equipment. Then they gave a "High Performance" award to the steering management and distributed the money they saved, as bonuses to the senior executives.
 
Sad but true, in many cases, and those airline names can be swapped with dozens elsewhere. Sounds terribly like British Airways latest plans for self-induced angst.
 
Now that you have hit the nail on the head did you send it to senior management????? It is a public company and they are throwing tax payers money away--for what???
 

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