Cricket's tryst with Organisation Management

Place: New Delhi                            Date: 31 January 1999                             Time: 7:03 AM

The Sunday morning had a peculiar chill to it. Miles away in the arena of Chepauk stadium Chennai, the Indian gladiators were to face the Pakistani stalwarts on the last day of the test match.

As the sun burned away, history was written, some important management lessons were on offer. But I was left with a broken heart(90's the beautiful time when more heart breaks were owed to Indian cricket than to pretty women). Mr. Sachin Tendulkar with a breathtaking 136 was man of the match despite the fact that India had lost!

The Master

Place: Mumbai                                 Date: 19 June 2013                                  Time: 9:05 AM

After a series of heartbreaks, I have decided to put it all behind. Its time to find answers, if not to all the heartbreaks, then to at least why India lost.

In my opinion, building an innings is comparable to building an organization. Taking a cue from scientists studying universe by focusing on the behavior of the smallest building blocks i.e. atoms, we decided to understand the dynamics of an organization through a basic tower building activity.

Question 1: How many people would you require to build a tower of 6x6 cm cubes?

If your answer to the above problem is 1, you are ready to begin with learning the process of how an organization is formed. Unity is a reflection of craftsmanship. Craftsmanship although high on skills and heroism, lacks in organization management and is reluctant to change. It's devoid of well defined processes and is a collection of a number of meaningful and important jobs.

The essence of an organization lies in breaking a task into simpler and more basic processes. The objective is to define the responsibilities associated with each role and making the process more meaningful by innovating and removing the redundancies associated to it while maintain a clear chain of communication. Likewise, the tower building can be further sub divided into defining the objective, procuring the resources, technical research, market for the product etc.

Revisiting the India's loss to Pakistan, it's evident that the loss had more to do with the lack of management than to the lack of skills. The lone man army of 90's depicted craftsmanship and randomness. After 14 years of refinement we have better defined roles and responsibilities within our cricket team. Experienced players like Sachin are anchoring the innings, Kohli provides the required strength and momentum, Yuvraj and Sir RJ provides the balance whereas Raina and Dhoni are the finishers. It's like a well oiled machine where every part has a specific job and a common ultimate objective.

Question 2: Does the no change, how many people would you require now to build a tower of 6x6 cm cubes?

Is it a vague number? Increasing the variables leads to increase in complexity. "Too many cooks spoil the broth". The organization management is about striking the balance between the complexity and unity. As far as the roles are meaningful, well defined and indispensable the fragmentation is welcomed else it leads to conflicts.

The current balance of the Indian team is enhanced as Dhoni besides being the skipper, takes up the mantle of wicket keeper batsman. This removes redundancy and hence makes the Indian team a more efficient and effective organization(team).

Takeaway: The India industry is based on craftsmanship. The tailors, cobblers, small merchants etc. constitute the major chunk of business activities in India and majority of them lack organization management in their approach. Through management, we can link the scattered craftsmen together, define and streamline their process and hence can eventually attain higher productivity by striving for excellence through efficiency and effectiveness.

PS: Special thanks to Mr. Sachin Tendulkar.