Hare and Tortoise - A changed story.

[Guest guest]

Dear Avid Readers in TBP,

 

Love and Love alone....

 

Here is a Changed Version of Hare and Tortoise story, received from

a different source. I hope the Moderator allows it to be posted in TBP digest

and you all enjoy reading it !!!

 

Love and Love alone....

 

P. Gopi Krishna

 

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Once upon a time a tortoise and a hare had an argument about who

was faster. They decided to settle the argument with a race. They agreed on a

route and started off the race.

 

The hare shot ahead and ran briskly for some time. Then seeing that

he was far ahead of the tortoise, he thought he'd sit under a tree for some time

and relax before continuing the race.

 

He sat under the tree and soon fell asleep. The tortoise plodding on

overtook him and soon finished the race, emerging as the undisputed champ.

 

The hare woke up and realised that he'd lost the race. The moral of

the story is that slow and steady wins the race.

 

This is the version of the story that we've all grown up with.

 

But then recently, someone told me a more interesting version of

this story. It continues.

 

The hare was disappointed at losing the race and he did some Defect

Prevention (Root Cause Analysis). He realised that he'd lost the race only

because he had been overconfident, careless and lax If he had not taken things

for granted, there's no way the tortoise could have beaten him. So he challenged

the tortoise to another race. The tortoise agreed.

 

This time, the hare went all out and ran without stopping from start

to finish. He won by several miles.

 

The moral of the story？ Fast and consistent will always beat the

slow and steady.

 

If you have two people in your organisation, one slow, methodical

and reliable, and the other fast and still reliable at what he does, the fast

and reliable chap will consistently climb the organisational ladder faster than

the slow,methodical chap.

 

It's good to be slow and steady; but it's better to be fast and

reliable.

 

But the story doesn't end here. The tortoise did some thinking this

time, and realised that there's no way he can beat the hare in a race the way it

was currently formatted.

 

He thought for a while, and then challenged the hare to another

race, but on a slightly different route.

 

The hare agreed. They started off. In keeping with his self-made

commitment to be consistently fast, the hare took off and ran at top speed until

he came to a broad river.

 

The finishing line was a couple of kilometers on the other side of

the river.

 

The hare sat there wondering what to do. In the meantime the

tortoise trundled along, got into the river, swam to the opposite bank,

continued walking and finished the race.

 

The moral of the story? First identify your core competency and then

change the playing field to suit your core competency.

 

In an organisation, if you are a good speaker, make sure you create

opportunities to give presentations that enable the senior management to notice

you.

 

If your strength is analysis, make sure you do some sort of

research, make a report and send it upstairs. Working to your strengths will not

only get you noticed but will also create opportunities for growth and

advancement.

 

The story still hasn't ended.

 

The hare and the tortoise, by this time, had become pretty good

friends and they did some thinking together. Both realised that the last race

could have been run much better.

 

So they decided to do the last race again, but to run as a team this

time.

 

They started off, and this time the hare carried the tortoise till

the riverbank. There, the tortoise took over and swam across with the hare on

his back.

 

On the opposite bank, the hare again carried the tortoise and they

reached the finishing line together. They both felt a greater sense of

satisfaction than they'd felt earlier.

 

The moral of the story? It's good to be individually brilliant and

to have strong core competencies; but unless you're able to work in a team and

harness each other's core competencies, you'll always perform below par because

there will always be situations at which you'll do poorly and someone else does

well.

 

Teamwork is mainly about situational leadership, letting the person

with the relevant core competency for a situation take leadership.

 

There are more lessons to be learnt from this story.

 

Note that neither the hare nor the tortoise gave up after failures.

The hare decided to work harder and put in more effort after his failure.

 

The tortoise changed his strategy because he was already working as

hard as he could. In life, when faced with failure, sometimes it is appropriate

to work harder and put in more effort.

 

Sometimes it is appropriate to change strategy and try something

different. And sometimes it is appropriate to do both.

 

The hare and the tortoise also learnt another vital lesson. When we

stop competing against a rival and instead start competing against the

situation, we perform far better.

 

When Roberto Goizueta took over as CEO of Coca-Cola in the 1980s, he

was faced with intense competition from Pepsi that was eating into Coke's

growth.

 

His executives were Pepsi-focussed and intent on increasing market

share 0.1 per cent a time.

 

Goizueta decided to stop competing against Pepsi and instead compete

against the situation of 0.1 per cent growth.

 

He asked his executives what was the average fluid intake of an

American per day? The answer was 14 ounces. What was Coke's share of that? Two

ounces.

Goizueta said Coke needed a larger share of that market.

 

The competition wasn't Pepsi. It was the water, tea, coffee, milk

and fruit juices that went into the remaining 12 ounces. The public should reach

for a Coke whenever they felt like drinking something.

 

To this end, Coke put up vending machines at every street corner.

Sales took a quantum jump and Pepsi has never quite caught up since.

 

To sum up, the story of the hare and tortoise teaches us many

things.

Important lessons are:

 

- that fast and consistent will always beat slow and steady;

- work to your competencies;

- pooling resources and working as a team will always beat individual

performers;

- never give up when faced with failure;

- and finally, compete against the situation. Not against a rival.

 

In Short, BE STRATEGIC!