ABSTRACT
Cultural differences can often be illustrated through humor, although at times this can be a risky proposition. Consider the following story about two cows: 1
German company. You have two cows. You engineer them so they are all blond, drink lots of beer, give excellent-quality milk, and can run fifty miles an hour. Then you lose your competitive edge because your cows demand thirteen weeks of annual vacation.
Japanese company: You have two cows. You redesign them so they are one-tenth the size of ordinary cows but can produce twenty times the milk. They learn to travel on unbelievably crowded trains. Most were at the top of their class at cow school.
French company. You have two cows. You go on strike because you want three cows. You go to lunch and drink some wine. Life is good.
Russian company. You have two cows. You drink some vodka. You count them again and now you have five cows. You drink some more vodka. You count them again and now you have forty-two cows. The mafia shows up and takes however many cows you actually had.
Brazilian company. You have two cows, but you don’t know where they are. Walking along the beach one day, you meet a beautiful woman. You break for lunch. Life is good.
American company (New York). You have two cows. You sell one, lease it back to yourself, and do an initial public offering (IPO) on the second one. You force the two cows to produce the milk of four cows. You are surprised when one cow drops dead. You spin an announcement to Wall Street analysts that you have downsized and are reducing expenses. Your stock goes up.
American company (California). You have millions of cows. Most are illegals.
