Entrepreneurship lessons from the Indian Cricket team

The India -Australia cricket series was the best I have seen all my life. 

Lots of emotions expressed by folks from around the world who follow cricket as a sport. Personally for me the emotion was that of "True Happiness"

There was a permanent smile on my face the whole day and a sense of achievement that I felt.

I was just a mere spectator and a die hard fan of the game but why did I feel the way I felt was the question? That was followed by -How can every employee feel the same in an organization ?

Then on introspection, I had the following observation about the tour which has been widely written about across all media vehicles

• It was a long arduous tour in the middle of the pandemic
• The start was not great with India losing the 1st and 2nd ODI.
• The "star players" as we know them were leaving the team and all the experts and amateurs had their opinion expressed about how the journey would end. Most of them predicted a white wash in at least the test matches. I am sure many of us also believed the Rhetoric. 
• As we progressed from One Day to T-20 to test matches , the number of players Injured just kept going up
• The India team was bowled out for 36 runs in the 2nd innings of the 1st test match and many of us started believing the rhetoric even more.

From then on, we saw the emergence of new Heroes in the Indian team that most of us never would have predicted if we were to take part in a fantasy league game.

A new captain who led by example, debutants who were given a chance and were termed as part of "India B" playing like they were the best in the world, Bowlers /tail enders who batted almost a day to save a test, a wicket keeper who did not have a great time behind the stumps and one who is constantly compared to the great Dhoni became the highest run getter in the series and played a pivotal part in India winning the series. Lots has been written about the Humble background that many of the players come from.

What stood out for me the most was the joy on every player's face when someone else succeeded and helped the team's cause and the true joy of the team succeeding over everything else. This just felt natural across the board. On top of that the gesture of the India team handing over a signed Indian Jersey to Nathon Lyon just summed it up for me.

Few lessons on entrepreneurship from Team India

• Culture and Values are the foundation to building a winning organization. Start defining it early in the Journey. The Indian team winning the series was just one of the results. There will be hopefully many more wins and few losses going forward. The foundation was laid many years ago.
• Character- Look for Grit, intent, independent thinking & a team player when recruiting folks into your startup. Don't get swayed by just institutes or organizations they come from. The entire India team that toured Australia is an example of true Character. when the chips were down, every one punched above their weight.
• Diversity- Cognitive diversity is super important in a team. Look for people with different experiences, background, and thinking. It's easier to solve problems with a cognitively different team. I am not calling out Gender specifically here as its hygiene in my opinion. The batting abilities displayed by Jadeja, Shradul Thakur, Washington Sundar & Ashwin and the bowling efforts of Natarajan, Thakur & Siraj is a testament to this. They showed up big time.
• Fun & Respect- Most important make sure everyone is having fun during the journey and there is mutual respect for one another. Create a space where the team's success big or small is celebrated and is in memory. 

Now when building an organization, every founder is searching for a Kohli which is not a bad thing but who is your Rahane, Pant, Gill, Thakur, Pujara, Siraj or Sundar? Do you have them in your team or are you planning to hire?

How are you creating memorable moments for yourself and your customers?

Every time I think of the final boundary scored by Pant, I smile :)