A tale of two Teams; HR Lessons from MI & CSK

With 1.4 billion people cheering for the Indian team to succeed in the upcoming T20 world cup, let us look at what revolutionized T20 culture in India. Indian Premier League, riding on the success of the inaugural 2007 T20 world cup, a tournament that changed the cricket landscape in India.?With a limited budget available to each team to buy players in the auction, no unfair advantage is with any team. However, the teams of Mumbai Indians and Chennai Super Kings stood out and won 9 titles in 14 years. Let us draw talent management insights from the success of Mumbai Indians and Chennai Super Kings.

Mumbai Indians (MI) has been the most successful franchise in the Indian premier league (IPL) over the last decade. MI had failures in the early years of this tournament. In the first two years, the team did not advance to the tournament's later stages. So, what changed the fortunes of the lower-ranked team to win five trophies in 8 years. The team's success can be attributed to a change in belief of team building starting from 2011. Mumbai invested in young players Rohit Sharma, Ambati Rayudu, which later became one of the reasons for success. After the end 2010 IPL season, MI started a scouting program and recruited a few domestic cricket stalwarts to find hidden talent in every corner of India. John Wright, who coached the team in the 2010 season, was chosen as Head of the scouting program. This program unearthed talents Jasprit Bumrah, Hardik Pandya, Rahul Chahar, Yuzvendra Chahal, Axar Patel, Krunal Pandya. The scouting helped the team pick quality players at lower base prices, which gave a significant advantage to pick a team in an auction-based team building and spent higher amounts on key targeted players.?

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What stood out from the team:

1. People management of MI stands out since MI never parted ways with its outgoing coaches. They were given one or other roles and retained their services as mentor/icon/ scouting coach.
2. Even though the tournament spanned only two months, management looked after their players throughout the year.?

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Chennai Super Kings, current champion in IPL, won 4 titles and played in 9 finals in 12 seasons. They missed out on reaching the playoffs in one only one season. MS Dhoni, Suresh Raina and coach Stephen Fleming are Key pillars in the success of this franchise. Starting from the inaugural season team relied on Indian core talent to perform. The success of this franchise can be attributed exceptional leadership skills of MSD and his optimum usage of resources at his disposal. The team always looked for skillsets offered by the player and not his superstar image, only players who fit the specific role were picked in auctions.?

Key lessons:

1.?????Starting from 2010, both teams invested in the core group and believed in the mantra of teamwork. Two teams changed playing 11s very occasionally in a season which tells us how performance is measured. A player is never dropped as a knee jerk reaction to losses, and young talents are given enough opportunities before dropping players.?This is a lesson to companies to not lay off employees based on one or two-quarters of performance alone. Given enough opportunities, talent comes through and improves overall teams' performance.

2.?????The success of scouting programs- Investing in scouting worked wonders for both teams. Top-performing players were not from traditional cricket powerhouse cities like Mumbai and Delhi. – Having diverse teams helps the organization. Companies should not hesitate to hire employees from colleges other than a few premier universities/colleges.

3.?????Teams never tried to fit superstar players into the team. – Person-Job fit is crucial for the HR manager when hiring for a specific role in the mind.

4.?????Build the team around a core set of players. – Start-ups should build the team around a few key players and frequent changes in top management are not suitable for any organization.

5.?????Treating employees like a family- The 2 teams reached out to the players and their families during the gruelling time of Covid. This shows the inclusive and caring culture. It makes the players feel more attached to the team and motivate them to give their best to the team.