The Indian Cricket team has been performing like none of us millennials could ever imagine in the 90s. Gone are the days when we used to think the wins were one off or lucky. Over the last two decades the Indian cricket team has slowly built the brand that it is today. It’s a journey of transformation that we business builders can learn from. In doing so we will probably rejig our memories across the last two decades of cricket as well.
We spend some time delving into the WHYs, HOWs and WHATs of the team across 2 decades. There are some apparent lessons especially in the marketing front. But, we wanted to dig deeper into brand building and strategic moves. What stood out for us are:
1. Build slowly, Not dramatically
Whether you are at the starting leg of building a business or at a roadblock where you need to relook at transforming your business, we all know the foundation determines how long and how far we can take our businesses. Building the foundation of a business that can last long enough to become a brand needs to be strong. So building slowly but surely worked for our national cricket team.
Our team’s transformation journey began in the year 2000 when the first non-Indian coach John Wright was recruited as the coach, during one of the team's lowest points. He helped transform the team, rebuild, and grow stronger. During his tenure, the team saw the hiring of dedicated coaches for every facet of the game, as well as professionals who would help develop the players in an all-round manner, e.g., physiologists and psychologists.
"Most people did not reckon John Wright would last six months. Yet he built slowly. He did not try to shake things up dramatically. Instead, he put elements together with the tenacity and precision of a bricklayer. He brought pride and passion out of his captain, he coaxed runs from batsmen with imperfect techniques. He confronted the players with a new fitness regime, and changed the attitudes of an entire generation."~ ESPNCricinfo, 2005*
2. Let WHYs be your Guide
Whether you are bootstrapped or funded, building a brand is a journey of unknowns. These unknowns and varied decision-making scenarios every day lead to self-doubt and drastic highs and lows, sometimes within a few hours. You can do endless research and loads of data crunching yet the unknowns are never reduced. What we can rely on is periodically asking why and actioning the responses as experiments to prove our hypothesis.
One of the men who played a pivotal role in hiring John Wright as coach and insisted on a foreign coach specifically was Sourav Ganguly.
Understand the criteria of selecting a mentor from Sourav’s own words. “It takes a mentor to create stars. Those who go beyond the check-the-box engagement metrics to dig in and do deeper work of developing talent.”
Sourav Ganguly had a definite “WHY” for insisting on a non-Indian coach. He knew a culture of fitness and a winner’s attitude was crucial for the team to succeed. Both of these were missing in the Indian coaches at that time.
“We were a different side at home and a different side when we travelled. I realised that when I played my first Test at Lord's. I was fortunate enough to get back-to-back hundreds, but I realised that when you enter the dressing room, you have so much talent, yet you just did not know how to win abroad. For me, it was a change of culture, a change of fitness.” ~ Sourav Ganguly.
3. Pro-active Culture Building
Whether you invest in perception building or not, your customer always creates a perception of your business. Similarly, every stakeholder of your business feels and works in the business culture you build consciously or unconsciously. Pro-active culture building creates an internal motivation for team members which gives a definite direction to leadership, HR and team members.
Virat Kohli is a fitness freak and has often expressed how moving to a stricter, healthier diet, workout regimen, and in general a healthier lifestyle has helped him grow personally and professionally.
Over the years Saurav’s vision of a fitness culture saw its peak with Virat as the leader whose own motivation aligned with what the team needed. It served as an inspiration for him and the next generation of cricketers and youth of India.
As Rahul Dravid said, “...He has driven a culture of fitness and energy levels among the team…” His comments were made back in 2018 as India was gearing up for a series against South Africa.
4. Bold moves for Long term Benefits
Limited resources in terms of fund and talent will always be a given when building a brand for the first 5 to even 10 years. But brands are about challenging the status quo and making the impossible seem possible by thinking about long term benefits and how the tide might change. That's what separates brands from run of the mill businesses.
In 2008, Dhoni committed the unthinkable bold move of dropping Ganguly and Dravid from the Indian squad for tri-series in Australia involving Sri Lanka. When asked, then BCCI secretary Niranjan Shah had said ‘the emphasis was on fielding abilities and chief selectors and team management wanted a young fielding side for the tour’.
In hindsight, this is the exact moment in Indian cricket when fielding became an equal ability as batting and bowling.
That one bold move proved how India can become a winning team. As a result we now see a strong team at all ends, batting, bowling and fielding. What was ridiculous in 2008 turned out to be a wise strategic move in hindsight.
5. Clarity of Roles
Whether be the Indian Cricket team or our own businesses we know the starting years of business are about getting into nitty-gritty but as your business starts to grow, long-term planning for growth and sustenance becomes even more important. Founders and the core team of businesses need to spend more time on strategic moves, allowing team members to play roles in the business. Essentially this requires clarity of thought and action right from - what the brand wants to be to breaking it down the line to what each member of the team needs to do to get there.
That’s exactly what the Indian cricket team has been upto in the words of the current captain Rohit Sharma.
“I don’t have a mantra. As a captain, if you have decided this is how you want to play then you must have clarity. You have to back the players to the hilt. We have backed certain players whom we have given certain roles. We’ll back players and stand with them. We have to give credit to Rahul Dravid for buying into that thought and not shuffle much when it doesn’t come off,” ~ Rohit Sharma
Summing Up
Many will continue to argue about the amount of investments that have gone into making the Indian Cricket team what it is today. But the current financial situation in markets across geographies especially with several invested startups has proven that just investments don’t make sustainable businesses or brands. There’s much more to it than just unlimited financial resources.
The Indian Cricket Team’s journey is a journey of discovering the why >> how >> what. And there’s much to absorb and learn from.
With that, we hope you are ready to watch the match tomorrow where India and Australia get their best act together on the final battlefield. If you found this article insightful and want to stay updated about Brand Strategies, Brand Systems and the latest in Marketing Strategies do subscribe to our newsletter.
We wish Team India the very best!
References:
Kohli's culture push of physical fitness - flagbearer (https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/sports/cricket/india-in-south-africa/virat-kohli-has-driven-culture-of-fitness-and-energy-levels-in-team-india-rahul-dravid/articleshow/88488003.cms)
I agree with all the points written. They make sense to a degree ... But the amount of money pumped into Cricket should not be missed. (although you mention in the "Summing Up" section. no it cannot be minimised) Then there is the "Eye-Balls" or in simple words the Indian population. These have to be taken into consideration when translating these learnings to our business.