The importance of management

This story here reminds me of the time in the 1970's when, Jack Burns, the newly appointed CEO of the American distributorship of the just merged motorcycle manufacturers of Great Britain, (Triumph, BSA, Royal Enfield, and Matchless) completed his initial visit to US dealers of all these brands.  All these large displacement motorcycles were sold around the world for many years and had loyal bodies of owners who would argue endlessly and vigorously their own particular brand's superiority over the others.  They also shared common characteristics.  They were powered by large  displacement, 500-750 cc 4-stroke engines,  the design and styling was classic ruggedly masculine, the engines had a race car high performance sound, and they handled nimbly. They defined performance road motorcycles of that time in history. And, oh yes, they shared the same foibles.  They were all notoriously unreliable as a result of antiquated manufacturing  processes and the diabolically perverse Lucas electrical systems that made every trip a breath holding experience.  Despite their shortcomings nearly fifty thousands of these sporting vehicles were being sold in the US every year. The recent introduction of similarly sized, well designed modern motorcycles from Japan, substantially more refined and reliable than the British makes, was cause for concern and the reason they consolidated manufacturers and hired Jack Burns.

After his dealer survey Jack called for a meeting of the Board of Directors in London beginning his presentation for shock effect:  "I have completed my visit to all 1,500 dealers in the US and what I found was truly shocking.  Our machines are sitting on showroom floors right next to ones now being imported from Japan.  Our brand new machines are leaking oil from the engine casing directly onto the dealers's showroom floor.  The Japanese machines do not leak oil, I repeat, do not leak oil on the showroom floors.  We have a major manufacturing and quality control problem.  We must fix this problem immediately or we will not be able to compete with the Japanese."  There followed a silence of maybe 10 minutes. Finally an elderly Board member cleared his throat announcing in all his British dignity:  "Look here Jack, what you are telling us is a tempest in a teapot.  After all the purchasers of these motor bikes don't keep them in their living rooms now do they?"

Ten years later only a handful of British makes were sold in the US, but over 2 million Japanese motorcycle were being sold annually.