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Saturday, March 12, 2016

Business Lessons to Cross the Boundary: Part 2

This is the second piece in the series titled “Business Lessons to Cross the Boundary”. While the first piece of literature aimed to introduce lessons from sports management to individual practicing and aspiring managers, in this piece we look at some of the tenets of team building, team ethic and team climate engineering. We also inspect some traditional wisdom of cricket in the context of business. Given that the ICC T20 World Cup has just begun, we could not have asked for a better timing to compare cricket with business.

Team Performance and Team Building is a Cyclical Process
In physics we talk of momentum that carries a body forward on its own even without the application of an external force. The bicycle that nudges ahead a few inches on its own after one has paddled really fast bears testimony to the importance of getting the momentum going for a team and a corporation. As every winter gives way to spring, each crest in a business cycle gives way to a trough and each boom to a recession. Holding the team together becomes a challenge amidst downturns. How many times have we seen cricket legends calling it a day in the aftermath of a poor showing by their team? How many times have we seen top talent exit a corporation during meltdowns? Cricket can be a hard taskmaster and a harsh teacher.

Winning is a perfect metric of team performance and a team that is great continues to rebuild and reinvent itself during good times. A great corporation continues to circulate talent from the grass root levels during good times. Victories attract talent, institutionalize talent and produce further victories. This is true for both teams in sport and corporations in business. On the flip side, once a team ends winning streak it inevitably cracks. Splinter groups fragment away and top talent flows out like liquid gold. Continuing the winning streak requires the team to paddle really fast under the water like a duck. It may look like momentum from the ringside, but the duck knows that it paddling really hard to swim against the tide. The cycle of winning means everything. Once lost it may be hard to regain.

 A Team is a Portfolio of Talent, Products and SBUs
It is common practice in the sub continent to hang on to daddy’s brands in both business and sport. In economics we talk of corporate dinosaurs. These are firms that fail to evolve with time and are afraid to tinker with the combination of the yesteryears. Did not team India stick around with the legends of the yesteryears for more than a while? Do not corporations commit the error of sticking to daddy’s brands calling them legendary? The answer is simple. A corporation is a portfolio of talent, products and strategic business units. Australia took a harsh but never the less correct step by pulling the curtains on the career of a great captain and cricketer like Steve Waugh. It must have been painful but was needed to keep the tem alive.

The Hand That Cracks the Whip Must Also Pat Other’s Backs
In a study done by leading business research company the average tenure of a CEO in the United States of America was found to be in the range of two to three years. The finding was based on the study of Fortune 500 companies in the aftermath of the global meltdown. The mantra of perform or perish is easier said than done. Both in cricket and business, it boils down to managing people. People, when they perform make the team perform and move up. But what happens when they do not perform?

In such crunch situations it is the leader who has to take up the job of doing the balancing act. The balancing act has to be done not just to retrench and motivate but to demonstrate values that the team or the organization believes in. This is where things can be challenging. When we look back today at the years gone by and how the Indian captain has evolved from the brash and youthful “Mahi” to the mature and calm “MSD”, one realizes that the true worth of a captain lies in earning the respect of the team by defending the performers and being decisive on the non-performers. Another thing, if the captain wins the applause for a good showing on the field he must with all due humility take the lion’s share of responsibility for failures as well. Walking into the Selection Committee’s office after a series defeat and walking into a board meeting after a poor financial report mandate that the leader steps forward to defend his men not to put the blame on their shoulders. Probably this is what equates leaders like M.S.Dhoni, Ricky Ponting, Nitin Paranjpe and Narayana Murthy. The importance of a leader earning respect from his team can never be understated.

Ishan Institute of Management & Technology is one of the best MBA colleges in Delhi NCR for a reason. Reasoning must outscore rhetoric, both in cricket and in business. We strive to drive home this point through case studies and assignments chipped into the academic curriculum.