Pakistan, June 26 -- Aesop's fable of the Hare and the Tortoise is one of the oldest stories in the human tradition, yet its moral has never felt more urgently contested than it does today. The hare, blessed with natural speed and talent, races ahead with breezy confidence, only to nap beneath a shady tree, certain that his lead is unassailable. The tortoise, plodding and unhurried, simply keeps moving. One steady step at a time, he crosses the finish line while the hare sleeps.

The moral, as generations of children have been told, is that slow and steady wins the race. However, in the modern corporate landscape, one might be forgiven for suspecting that Aesop got it wrong or at least that the race has changed. Today's organisations cele...