Corporates can adopt cricketing strategies - Former Coach

Charumini DE SILVA

The connectivity between sports and business are exactly the same. The beauty of a sport like cricket is that the end result could be seen much faster, former Australian Cricket Coach John Buchanan said.

In an organization to get the results of a certain project the company has to wait for a certain period such as a month, quarter or an year. Therefore, the only difference is that the outcome in sports are short term, while in business its long term, Buchanan told Daily News Business.

John Buchanan

“Since the linkage between sports and business are similar corporates can also adopt strategies of a cricket team to show a better performance.

“The key factors to understand the hard performance are a clear vision, leadership, better learning, talent and success. If those five components could be put together it will create a successful team,” Buchanan said.

He said whether it is cricket or business, it deals with people. The leader of a team should have a mutual understanding with his colleagues to perform well. I, as a coach and a leader was spending much time to understand myself. I think it is very important for a leader as he has to uplift the mentality of his team-mates to have a winning team. If the leaders understand their strengths and weaknesses they will have a better knowledge to judge and understand his team.

“The coach has to stimulate the players’ strengths and bring them back on to the process which they have been trained. The leader has to guide individual to be in that particular moment by being tactful with team spirit.

“Similarly, the head of an organization should focus on uplifting the efficiency of his staff to enjoy a better output”, Buchanan said. “Sportsmen are being trained according to a certain process where the entire team grows. But in a business we hardly have employees trained equally to perform. This is why the leadership qualities and a proper process of training is essential for the business community to compete and highlight with the best team.”

“It is certainly not an easy fix to inculcate the same vision. But through mutual understanding and working according to a pre-arranged procedure will support the team to grasp the importance of the entire picture,” he said.

Buchanan said the success of a winning team always evolves around the people. “Therefore, it is the leaders and the managers that need to address the bottom line factors, while taking correct decisions and working according to a process,” he said.