PSU Magazine Spring 2003

16 PSU MAGAZINE SPRIN 200 o a dog spies a I-bone, sinks in his fangs and hightails for home. He crosses a bridge over a pond, looks down at the water's glassy surface and thinks he sees another dog glaring up at him– with another succulent steak clenched between its fangs. Our dog figures he can double his holdings , so he opens wide to grab the second steak-drop– ping his own in the process and losing everything to his reflection. The point7 If you guessed, "Setting growth as the primary performance target may be ill-advised," you think like a business prof. At least, you think like Jeremy Short, assistant professor in the School of Business Administration. Short has taken the ancient fables of Aesop to a new frontier by cleverly using them to illustrate the potentially dry principles of strategic manage– ment. Imagine tackling a chapter on "per– formance attribution biases" without going MEGO (my eyes glaze over). The story of "The Fox and the Grapes" can help. The fox , you may recall, longs for grapes that are hanging too high for him to reach. After many attempts to jump up and snap the tasty morsels, the fox realizes he doesn't have it in him. But instead of accepting responsibil– ity for his leaping limitations, he announces to all his friends that the grapes no doubt are sour and not worth the trouble. That, notes Short, is what happens when managers blame things outside their control for their company's bad year, even when the hard numbers don't back up their beliefs. Like airlines railing at the weak economy- even though Southwest Airlines is going gangbusters. n a positive note , consider what the fable of "The Crow and the 0 Pitcher" tells us about the Rubbermaid company. And about Short. There's this crow who's really, really thirsty, as in parched. He spots a pitcher and scuttles over to it thinking there might be a little liquid within. Sure enough, in the bottom is a lovely bit of water. Only problem is the