This joke was recently voted best in Finland.

It's a pretty new and modern one, but it's still funny:

A Finnish and a Japanese company decided to organize an annual rowing competition with teams of 8. Both teams trained hard and long. On the day of the competition, both teams thought themselves to be in top condition, but the Japanese won by a kilometer.

After the loss, there was an atmosphere of defeat in the Finnish team. However, the leadership of the company decided that they had to win next year, for image reasons. They assigned a project group to solve the problem. After long analysis of the problem, they found that the Japanese had seven rowers and one person who steers(translation?), whereas the Finns had one rower and seven steerers(?).

In this crisis the leadership showed considerable ability to perform. Consults were hired to investigate how the team was put together. After a few months' work, experts arrived at the conclusion that there were too many steerers and too few rowers. Based on the report from the experts, the leadership of the company immediately made changes to the team. There were now four steerers, two executive steerers, a team leader and a rower. Additionally, a bonus point system was developed to motivate the rower. "We have to extend his job and give him more responsibility."

The next year the Japanese won by two kilometers. The Finnish team fired the rower for bad performance, but still paid a bonus to the leadership for the efforts they had made.

For next year, the Finns are developing a new boat.