MS DHONI has perfected the fine art of making his detractors seek alternative occupations. And after the first two tests against Australia, where he overcame question marks on both his test batting ability, and his captaincy skills in that form of the game; MSD is once again riding the euphoric wave.
There are many endearing facets to the Dhoni saga. The path he has tread to Indian cricketing immortality, has been quite different from that of many of his predecessors. But in terms of impact, his influence on the game and on the minds of a new generation has been absolutely colossal.
As modern day corporations gear up to meet the demands of a changing era, there are many insights they can import from the Dhoni story. From the almost anti-purist arc of his swashbuckling blade, to the unconventional calmness of his leadership approach, emerging from his vantage point behind the stumps; Dhoni illuminates a series of lessons for those in corporate think tanks.
Leaders in the white collar world could do well to heed these pointers from India’s very own Super King; because the place at the very top often belongs to those who endeavor to be daringly different.
Picking employees from less fancied places
The Indian cricket team historically has been dominated by players coming from the big cities. Usually cricketers from Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore and Chennai populate the national lineup. For someone who played Ranji Trophy matches for both Bihar and Jharkhand, finding his way into national prominence was always going to be an uphill task. But once Dhoni made it, thanks in part to the BCCI’s small town talent spotting initiative; there was simply no looking back-both for him, as well as for Indian cricket.
Often organizations are obsessed with selecting recruits from only a certain grade of institutions. This policy, for some strange reason, never seems to get revisited, even in these changing times, where talent can be found everywhere. The example of the Indian cricket team, should serve as an apt reminder to captains in the business world. Not only do players coming in from smaller centers seem to try much harder, the variety in perspective in itself, makes them a valuable addition to the potency of any unit. Perhaps it is time for the corporate world to spend some serious time and thought, in terms of unearthing their own Dhoni’s. And this can only be achieved if all recruits, no matter what their backgrounds are, are placed on the same equal footing.
Elevating the salience of an ‘invisible’ function
Before Dhoni, the Indian wicketkeeper was meant to be the silent worker behind the stumps-ideally as visible as a blot on the sight screen. In a country obsessed with batsmen, not many children growing up, saw donning the gloves as a glamorous alternative. But the advent of MSD; put the spotlight on a hitherto unsung discipline. Perhaps following in the wake of the legendary Adam Gilchrist helped his cause. Whatever be the reasons, the perception of the Indian wicket keeper, has been forever changed by the swashbuckling exploits of Dhoni.
Many organization suffer from a rather lop sided functional perspective. In a sense they are either seen as strong R&D, or savvy marketing, or astutely managed financial units. And this bias in perception; is usually to the detriment of the company. It turns a blind eye to the strategic possibilities that efforts in the ‘other’ disciplines can present. For instance for a company famous for its innovative capabilities, turning up the ante on its marketing endeavors, can only serve its long term positioning better. In today’s ultracompetitive world, just as a cricketing team needs to extract more out of every player, so do new age corporations require every department to punch above their weight.
Sticking to one’s own game plan
It could be argued that Dhoni’s technique; is as far from the traditional coaching manual, as a new combat video game is from Sun Tzu’s ‘The Art of War’. But what is salient in his tale, is that he resisted all the temptations to drift towards cricketing conformity, as far as batting fundamentals were concerned. Hence the world was able to savor the ‘helicopter shot’, amongst other things. Dhoni’s staunch belief in his own methods however unconventional, in many ways laid the foundations for his journey towards superstardom.
Employees entering a corporate culture, feel an organizational pressure to streamline their actions, as per the ‘company code’. But in an age, where innovation is becoming fundamental to the success of any company, the only manner in which a culture of creativity can be stimulated, is by allowing these ‘behavioral outliers’, the freedom to be their own selves. Many new recruits intimidated by the pressure of the tried and tested systems, often abandon their endeavors to try and seek a different way of doing things. It is only those who have an unshakeable ‘Dhoni like faith’ in their unique skills; that succeed in hitting the innovation conundrum clean out of the park.
Reading and leveraging the changing trends
Surely timing has been a critical factor in the nurturing of the Dhoni phenomenon. Had he entered the fray a few decades ago, the very strengths we now marvel at might have been considered as glaring anomalies, almost impossible to overlook in those times. But his arrival on the cricketing scene, coincided with the period that the limited overs version of the game, really began to assert itself as the popular choice of the masses. And the strong trajectory of that perception really gave Dhoni, the escape velocity his career needed; to break from the gravitational confines of the traditional past, and launch into his own orbit.
The business world is all about anticipation. Corporate think tanks need to develop their sensorial inputs, in terms of what is likely to be the next wave. Changing societal, environmental, governmental and consumer trends; all have the power to completely disrupt ones carefully crafted business plan. What was once valued, can face the prospect of obsolescence because something changed-often at such a subtle level that almost no one has noticed its swell. For instance the success of reality television in our country today, is also down to the fact that the viewer’s attitudes and aspirations have greatly changed from before. Only those corporate players who like adept surfers, know exactly which wave to ride, will be the ones successfully coping with the oceans of change, sweeping the business world these days.
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To be fair this is just scratching the surface, as far as lateral revelations pertinent to the corporate world, emerging from Dhoni’s career go. His captaincy exploits definitely merit a separate mention (coming soon). But the very idea is to learn from his unorthodox approach. The intention is to draw inspiration from his unlikely success story. The aim should be to assimilate his contrarian ideas. All with the goal of ensuring that the search for new management insights, never quite leaves us stumped…
The writer is a creative thinking trainer and an independent brand consultant. He is the author of the book, ‘The Madness Starts at 9’ and also the patron saint of a footballing movement called Juhu Beach United, that celebrates, ‘the unfit, out of breath working professional of today’.
