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# Lean Chickens 1 Fat Lions 0
- URL: https://www.kevinmeyer.com/lean-chickens-1-fat-lions-0/
- Published: 2012-01-31T23:52:51.000Z
- Updated: 2026-05-06T18:08:27.000Z
- Author: Bill Waddell
- Tags: Basic Excellence, Companies, Financial Issues, Outsourcing Lemmings, #Migrated-1752356847400, #wp, #wp-post, #Import 2025-07-12 14:48

So .... Golden Bear Ltd gets the contract to produce the official mascot for the 2012 British Olymic Team, and decides labor costs - excuse me, labour costs - are way too high in England to make them there. So they make them in China and, as a result of 26p per hour Chinese labor is able to sell this thing for $20 (12.99 pounds).

Meanwhile, West Paw Design in Montana makes something called a Spring Chicken - 2" bigger and filled with recycled material (instead of God knows what Golden Bear's Chinese friends put in the Lion), pays something like $15 an hour and sells it for $14\. West Paw is a profitable, rapidly growing, enterprise.

Maybe the difference is that British accountants are mostly a serious, professional bunch who would not be caught dead working without a suit and tie, and just maybe those ties are choking the flow of oxygen to their brains, while the last West Paw accountant I saw was wearing blue jeans and a sweat shirt to work.

Maybe the problem is that Golden Bear has to factor the cost of their "*Hong Kong office which, co-ordinates production and oversees quality in the manufacture of product*.", while West Paw "*coordinates production and oversees quality*" through kanbans and hiring the best people Bozeman has to offer.

Or maybe the problem is that I have never seen Golden Bear - or any other British company for that matter - at the Lean Accounting Summit while West Paw sent a small army last year. West Paw seems to have 'labour' in a bit better perspective.

In all seriousness, there is no excuse for a manufacturer in England, the USA or anywhere else, making critical decisions based on traditional accounting.