The Indian Premier League (IPL) is replete with interesting management and leadership angles. Though on paper it is made out to be sport, in practice it’s actually a no-holds barred corporate battleground. The pitch is simply the front line of this fierce competition for market share, eyeballs, ad revenue, cash, publicity, reputations and profit.
The players are highly trained professionals primed to deliver results. The franchisees and team owners are entrepreneurs seeking ROIs that are significantly higher than cost of capital.
The controlling body, namely the IPL administration and BCCI, are the principals wanting to spin money out of their monopolistic hold on a winning idea, namely the slickly packaged product in 20-20 format.
To ensure consumer buy-in the marketing strategists have cleverly worked out the conjunction with Bollywood.
The Indian public got a rude shock just when it was getting ready to spend the holiday season in various IPL stadia around the country! The implications of this shift are easy to understand: the logistics of moving teams, support staff, equipment, broadcast assets and all kinds of resources to South Africa within a very compressed timeframe, the renegotiation of all kinds of contracts, payment of compensating Indian vendors and all kinds of operational aspects. The bottom-line is that costs will be higher and profits will be lower for every team and for IPL-BCCI
However, the strategic implication of the shift does not seem to have got the attention it deserves. The long term, strategic impact of the shift goes far beyond IPL or cricket. In my view there’s been a complete leadership failure: a failure to grasp what it means to India as a whole.
A major event like the IPL has a deep impact on the collective consciousness of the Indian public even if it’s only a cricket tournament. In an otherwise depressing and scary year, people need reassurance that their country is capable of weathering tough times and multiple threats.
After the Sri Lankan cricket team’s horrendous experience in Lahore the threat to India has become even clearer. This is exactly the time for leaders of this great country to demonstrate to all of us that we have the power, resolve and resources to protect our way of life and our sovereignty.
Election or no election, the state must have the gumption to find the resources to prevent and neutralise a few terrorists from disrupting an event that buoys up not just the morale of the country but also its economy.
By allowing the IPL to shift to South Africa the government has acknowledged its inability to supply security to the country. It has therefore failed in its primary duty, namely, protection of the motherland from threats emanating from across the border. I can’t think of a greater failure of leadership.
The move to South Africa has broadcast to the world, particularly the enemy, that India can’t protect its players and public within its own territory. Foreign investors and India-bound delegations have already taken serious note of this message. A small band of determined terrorists has been allowed to call the shots.
Is the mighty Indian state helpless when the enemy throws down the gauntlet? That is an invitation to come across and do more damage. The wounds of the Mumbai attacks run very deep; the anger and pain can only be exacerbated by this callous disregard to national pride and safety. A government that admits its inability to guarantee safety is flirting with treason. Perhaps the Indian voter will teach the political class some unforgettable electoral lessons soon.
The shift to South Africa apart, the IPL has some other interesting and important facets this season. The coach of the Kolkata Knight Riders, John Buchanan’s bombshell about four captains has certainly got the cricketing pundits fulminating! It’s fascinating to watch these pundits arrogate all knowledge about leadership and people management to themselves. Little do they know that the art of leading people to extraordinary results transcends sport.
Buchanan’s idea is entirely against the run of play and, therefore, runs afoul of all conventional wisdom. Therefore the all-round hostile reaction to it is entirely predictable. All new ideas have initially met the same fate throughout history. But growth and progress have only happened when conventional wisdom has been negated by someone, somewhere and new methods, technologies and mindsets take root. Breaking the intertial pull of the status quo needs extra energy and courage.
Poorly performing IPL teams and similar other organisations must perform some searing introspection along the following lines: Have we attained results true to potential? If not, what can we do to improve the results?
Can we look at a different way of doing things? What can we learn from other successful organisations?
Given that the old formulae have delivered drab results what do we lose by trying new approaches?
Most important of all, no organisation, however successful hitherto can continue on the same trajectory henceforth. That’s because the entire paradigm of business and economics and indeed, sport has changed. Value drivers of the past are worthless today. Operational excellence is inadequate for survival. For that, every member of every team in business as in sport has to deliver on time, every time.
Since the IPL in particular and sport in general is today an amalgam of many knowledge-bases and technologies a multidisciplinary approach is the correct way to build, manage and lead teams. A comprehensive understanding of leadership is as important as cricketing skills if the team is to post sustainable results. The kind of leadership needed today is the kind that harnesses collective talent in entirely new ways and focuses it on results like never before.
Trust-based relationships
The basis of this style is trust-based relationships. Commando squads or aerobatic teams are good examples, where the leader cedes leadership to elements of the team for specific manoeuvres. The hallmark of such teams is the absolute trust each member has in the character and competence of other members of the team.
The leader is one who zealously guards the trust (and its determinants: character and competence) level in the team. Trust leads to respect and that in turn feeds into motivation. Initiative, speed, quality all then combine into results every time in such a team. The team is self policed, internally disciplined, entirely loyal to each other and dedicated to team results.
“Team victory over personal glory” is the inviolate motto. The Commanding Officer of such a team is a true role model; he is worshipped because of his character and competence and that is enough to lift his followers to sublime levels of performance. It’s no surprise therefore that commando teams, the NSG and the Surya Kirans (IAF Aerobatic Team) have done the country proud time after time by achieving mission objectives.
Co-Leadership
Many organisations have applied the principle of co-leadership successfully. In fact, the CEO, COO and CFO are all actually co-leaders focusing on different aspects of delivering corporate results and all are accountable to the board of directors. In a parliamentary democracy like ours, the Prime Minister is the first amongst equals. In service organisations such as Rotary, the President is the leader of very highly accomplished members of the club; his priority is to lead change by engaging deeply with his members.
Many academic institutions (including some top B-Schools) rotate the directorship amongst faculty. If all stakeholders are committed to trust based on character and competence co-leadership is a very good idea indeed.
In any case, during such uncertain times experimentation and adaptation are survival imperatives. Captains of sporting teams are on-field leaders who report to other stakeholders who demand results. So IPL teams may well try Buchanan’s idea! If it works we’ll learn something and if doesn’t, well then too we’ll learn something! Isn’t it better to chase a new idea than to languish at the bottom of the table and be taken over.
No comments:
Post a Comment