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.