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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 andstarted off the race.
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This is the version of the storythat we've all grown up with.
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But then recently, someone toldme a more interesting version of
this story. It continues.
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The hare was disappointed at losingthe race and he did some Defect
Prevention (Root Cause Analysis). He
realised that he'd lost the race onlybecause he had been overconfident,
careless and lax.
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If he had not taken things forgranted, there's no way the tortoise
could have beaten him. So he
challenged the tortoise to anotherrace. The tortoise agreed.
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This time, the hare went all outand ran without stopping from
start to finish. He won by several
miles.
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The moral of the story Fastand consistent will always
beat the slow and steady.
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If you have two people in yourorganisation, one slow, methodical and
reliable, and the other fast and still
reliable at what he does, the fast and
reliable chap will consistently climb theorganisational ladder faster than the slow,
methodical chap.
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It's good to be slow andsteady; but it's better to be
fast and reliable.
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He thought for a while, and thenchallenged the hare to another
race, but on a slightly different
route.
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But the story doesn't end here. Thetortoise did some thinking this time,
and realised that there's no way he
can beat the hare in a race the way itwas currently formatted.
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The hare agreed. They started off. Inkeeping with his self-made
commitment to be consistently fast,
the hare took off and ran at top speeduntil he came to a broad river.
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The finishing line was a couple ofkilometers on the other side of the
river.
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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.
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The moral of the story? First identifyFirst identifyyour core competency and thenyour core competency and then
change the playing field to suit yourchange the playing field to suit your
core competency.core competency.
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In an organization, if you are a goodspeaker, make sure you create
opportunities to give presentations that
enable the senior management to notice
you.
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If your strength is analysis, make sureyou 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.
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The story still hasn't ended.
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The hare and the tortoise, by thistime, had become pretty good friends
and they did some thinking together.
Both realised that the last race couldhave been run much better.
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So they decided to do the lastrace again, but to run as a team
this time.
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They started off, and this time the harecarried the tortoise till the riverbank.
There, the tortoise took over and swam
across with the hare on his back.
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On the opposite bank, the hare againcarried the tortoise and they reached the
finishing line together. They both felt a
greater sense of satisfaction than they'd
felt earlier.
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The moral of the story? It's good to beIt's good to beindividually brilliant and to have strong coreindividually brilliant and to have strong core
competencies; but unless you're able to work incompetencies; but unless you're able to work in
a team and harness each other's corea team and harness each other's core
competencies, you'll always perform below parcompetencies, you'll always perform below parbecause there will always be situations at whichbecause there will always be situations at which
you'll do poorly and someone else does well.you'll do poorly and someone else does well.
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Teamwork is mainly aboutsituational leadership, letting the
person with the relevant core
competency for a situation takeleadership.
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There are more lessons to belearnt from this story.
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Note that neither the hare nor the tortoisegave up after failures. The hare decided to
work harder and put in more effort after
his failure.
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The tortoise changed his strategy becausehe 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.
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Sometimes it is appropriate to changestrategy and try something different. And
sometimes it is appropriate to do both.
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The hare and the tortoise also learntanother vital lesson. When we stop
competing against a rival and instead
start competing against the situation, we
perform far better.
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When Roberto Goizueta took over asCEO of Coca-Cola in the 1980s, he was
faced with intense competition from Pepsi
that was eating into Coke's growth.
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His executives were Pepsi-focussed and intent on
increasing market share 0.1 per
cent a time.
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Goizueta decided to stop competingagainst Pepsi and instead compete
against the situation of 0.1 per cent
growth.
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He asked his executives what was theaverage 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.
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The competition wasn't Pepsi. It was thewater, 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.
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To this end, Coke put up vendingmachines at every street corner.
Sales took a quantum jump and
Pepsi has never quite caught upsince.
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To sum up, the story of the hare and tortoise teaches usmany things.
Important lessons are:
that fast and consistent will always beat slowthat fast and consistent will always beat slow
and steady;and steady;work to your competencies;work to your competencies;
pooling resources and working as a team willpooling resources and working as a team willalways beat individual performers;always beat individual performers;
never give up when faced with failure;never give up when faced with failure;
and finally, compete against the situation. Notand finally, compete against the situation. Notagainst a rival.against a rival.
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In Short, BE
STRATEGIC!
In Short, BE
STRATEGIC!
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