The ICC Cricket World Cup is in full swing. The Semi-Final line up is pretty much set. Earlier this week, we witnessed probably the greatest ever ODI innings as Glen Maxwell single-handedly propelled Australia into the semifinals.
If you are a sports enthusiast, there's been standout individual performances and team's coming together as one. What has really stood out in this edition is the overall dominance of Team India.
Arjun and I have been debating this and hoping that that by writing this, we won't jinx their dream run! Let's not attribute undue power to our words – after all, our support hasn't magically transformed teams or players into champions over the years :). So, here goes:
There are a lot of stories and sidebars around Team India and we could probably write a few blogs on each of these sub-plots. Limiting these tangents let's focus on connecting dots with what we call the "Venturis Mindset".
It is our belief, in sports (and business), that if you are close to the top of your craft, the difference in raw or intrinsic skills is marginal. What really sets good from great teams (or organizations) apart is an ethereal quality that we believe is a Mindset.
In our Mission Statement, we laid out 3 areas:
(Unwavering) Focus
Adaptability and
(Team) Mojo
as fundamentals of this Mindset. If you are anything like us, you watch the post match interviews as intently as critical moments of the game. These interviews, post match press conferences with players/coaches, the dressing room camaraderie offer a glimpse whether a team has these ingredients sorted or not. BCCI has done a great job at making it available (neatly grouped by tournament timeline), in one place:
Let's map Team India vs. our Venturis Mindset:
Focus: In part this is why we chose "Venturis" as our name. Innovation delivers best results with an iterative approach. You may ask how it aligns with Focus?
It is our belief that, in any Innovation Journey, step 1 is to establish a North Star (start with the "Why") and continuously iterate for everything else. During each of these iterations, if you focus solely on the North Star, it will be a difficult ride. We have to break down each step and remain focused on the objectives of that particular iteration in order to maximize the value of this approach.
Back to cricket, this is a theme we find in Team India's journey through this world cup. The North Star is "Win the World Cup", however for each game/situation, it is clear that each individual/the team is intensely focused on "winning that moment".
Rohit Sharma (Team Captain) talks about this in the press conference at the start of the tournament and Rahul Dravid (Head Coach) said the same thing about focusing on winning the next game against SA vs. treating that as a dress rehearsal. From our perspective, while others have said this as well in the past, this team shows it in how they act in each match and situation on the field.
"Keep your eye to the North while paying attention to every step in the journey"
Adaptability: Adaptability in sports (as in business), is about tuning yourselves and constantly adapting to changing conditions. Rahul Dravid said at the beginning of the World Cup "Adaptability is going to be a good challenge in this World Cup and how teams adapt to various pitches, conditions, and bowling they will have to face".
This Indian Team has Adapted to changing conditions while dealing with the unexpected - like key player injury, far better than any team (across major sports leagues) that we have seen in recent times.
Particularly noteworthy is that each player is a student of the "adaptability" mantra. You can listen to Kuldeep Yadav's mid-innings interview from the match against Pakistan, Jasprit Bumrah's interview at the end of that game or Shami's interview from his recent match winning performances. The level of understanding in reading conditions and adaptation to it - is remarkable. It is not a surprise that this bowling attack is likely the best white ball bowling unit that any team has produced in a long time.
The Adaptability Mantra is not limited to the bowlers. In the game against SA, the way Virat Kohli and Shreyas Iyer read the conditions while batting first and changed their approach in the middle overs was the only reason India ended up setting a mammoth total that put SA under pressure from the get go, giving the bowlers an advantage to work their magic.
"Prepare yourself to be fluid with changing conditions (nothing is constant)"
Team Mojo: Let's face it - this, is ethereal! (some call it culture others voodoo) but it makes the difference between winning and losing. Afghanistan may get kudos as the Most Improved Team - coming ahead of defending world cup champs England!
Again, it is our belief that we need this as much in business as in sports.
It's certainly present with this Indian cricket team. Not just across the team but across the fitness staff / trainers and coaches. You only have to look at the dressing room camaraderie and things like the "Fielder of the Match" medal celebrations to see this in action.
On a more telling note, you can tell that this team is genuinely enjoying each other's success(es) while improving the other.
When asked about his success on being awarded his second Man of the Match award in 3 matches, here is what Shami had to say "Our bowling is in good shape and with the kind of rhythm that we are in, everyone is enjoying and everyone is happy for each other's success".
"One for all - all for one" (borrowing from Dumas himself!)
So, there you have it - at the risk of jinx'ing it, based on our analysis - this Indian team has what it takes. As fans and proponents of the "Venturis Mindset", we are rooting for them all the way and we feel pretty darn confident of them lifting the World Cup!!
Would love to hear your views as well - we know all of you cricket fans have opinions :) so don't be shy