Cricket
and business are not estranged twins born to the same mother. Yet one does beg
to differ in the context of India, where achievements in Cricket have coincided
with economic growth. Starting with this piece, academicians at Ishan Institute of Management
& Technology, one of the best MBA colleges
in Delhi NCR shall endeavour to cross the boundary from cricket to business and
extract business lessons that the game can teach all of us.
At the
very outset it may be commented that when India won the first World Cup in
1983, India was very much an inward looking country in the context of both
Cricket and business. It makes enormous good sense to assert that the
performance of Indian teams touring overseas for Cricket was similar to that of
Indian corporate enterprises in foreign markets. In Cricket parlance we refer
to the ability and attitude to take the battle to the opponent’s camp. An
inward looking import substitution policy
for international trade, an aversion to competition from multinational
corporations and lack of attitude to invade foreign markets were strikingly
similar to the soft natured touring Indian teams that played to save face by
playing for tame draws in tests.
Out of My Comfort Zone
As the
former Australian captain and legend Steve Waugh has put it in the title of his
autobiography “Out of My Comfort Zone”, business and sport are about stepping
out of one’s comfort zone and playing to win. In order to win teams in sport
and corporate enterprises must risk losing. Teams that seek to achieve
greatness in sport must learn to win overseas. Similarly corporations that look
to win must learn to penetrate overseas markets and grab market share in
foreign markets. It is not a mere coincidence then that at the same point of
time when Indian corporations were learning to invade foreign markets in their
attempts to convert to being global firms, Indian cricket team also began its
act of transformation under Sourav Ganguly. The year 2007 belonged to India both
in corporate boardrooms and on the cricket fields. While Tata Motors acquired
Jaguar, Team India under M.S.Dhoni lifted the inaugural edition of T20 World
Cup.
Talent Alone is Not Enough
As in
the world of sport so also in business talent alone is not enough. The first
time Sachin Tendulkar took to the cricket field and smashed the legendary Abdul
Qadeer out of the park, the world sat up and took notice. There was another God
gifted cricketer in that generation who made the most impressive debut-Vinod Kambli.
What happened next is the stuff of legend and analysis. Why do some fresh
business school graduates make a dream debut in corporate sector and yet
flounder as they move towards seniority? Why do some batsmen get out playing
the same shots in the matured stages of their careers that once fetched runs
and plaudits? Why do some managers struggle to cope with targets, as they climb
up the corporate ladder? At Ishan Institute of Management & Technology, our
Placement Cell believes that managers just like cricketers must have attitude.
Attitude determines how long a professional can stay put at the peak of their
game once they have achieved it. The ability to “dig in” becomes a key
differentiator between champions and lesser mortals. It is difficult to achieve
greatness and even more difficult to stay put once one has reached there. Great
teams, great sportspersons and great managers have discovered this truth by
throwing in the towel and succumbing to the burden of greatness.
Reinvent Your Game Constantly
As said
above it is difficult to win and more difficult to maintain the winning streak.
West Indies did it in the 1970s and 1980s. Australia did it for a long time
under Steve Waugh, Ricky Ponting and now Michael Clarke. Tata Sons have
achieved that in business. Hindustan Unilever and Infosys have achieved that as
well. The winning streak in sport comes very close to the concept of
sustainability in business. It is subversive if not paradoxical that Australia
has won the ODI Wold Cup in 1987, 1999, 2003, 2007 and in 2015. Yet when it comes to T20 World Cup archives,
the same Australia does not have an enviable record. It happens to great
companies as well. Colgate Palmolive found this in the early 1990s. So did
Infosys when after the global meltdown, it was down for a while before bouncing
back. Great sportspersons and managers reinvent their game. Great teams and
corporations reinvent their game. It is an authentic truth that factors that
lead to victories in business and sport and are often referred to as strengths
change over time.
In our lectures for PGDM and MBA at Ishan Institute of
Management & Technology, academicians assert that strengths are subject to
three dynamic constraints:
·
Time
·
Space
·
Scale
Great
corporations and teams evolve by reinventing their strengths with respect to
time, space and scale. Batsmen who score on sub continent pitches struggle on
overseas tracks that offer seam movement and bounce. Batsmen who do wonderfully
well in test cricket may flounder in T20 cricket. Similarly shots that earn
runs in the early stages of one’s career become obvious weaknesses in the
middle stages of the career. Managers face these challenges as well.
The PGDM program at Ishan, one of the top PGDM
colleges in Delhi is designed to reinvent the academic curriculum, teaching
methodology, soft skills training and grooming for a long lasting career.