A Japanese company and an American company had a boat race, the Japanese won by a mile. The Americans hired analysts¹ to figure out what went wrong. They reported that the Japanese had one person managing and seven rowing, while the Americans had seven managing and only one rowing. The American company immediately restructured its team. Now they had one senior manager, six management consultants² and one rower.

In the rematch the Japanese won by two miles. So the American company fired the rower.

一家日本公司和一家美国公司进行了一场划船比赛。日本队赢了一英里。美国人便请来了分析家探讨问题出在哪里。他们的报告说日本队有一人掌舵七人划桨，而美国队是七人掌舵一人划桨。美国公司立刻对队伍进行了重组。这次他们有一个高级舵手、六个舵手顾问、一个划桨员。

在第二次比赛中，日本队赢了两英里。因此，美国公司解雇了划桨员。