The Indian captain stays ice-calm, as always, waiting for the Sri Lankan bowler to deliver. He does and, in the mere blink of an eye, the ball disappears into Wankhede’s stands. The entire nation erupts in joy as people clap and embrace each other. A 28-year-old itch has been scratched and cured. India is declared the World Champion in one-day cricket once again.

Ever since its inception, one-day cricket has pushed the game forward. By enabling decisiveness in the result, it shook cricket out of its lethargy. It shaped cricket into a more marketable form. It reached out and built bridges, with an impatient new generation. It was precisely the tonic that cricket was badly in need of.

Therefore, taking a closer look at the one-day format can certainly help organiational think-tanks add a few power plays to their branding repertoire.

Environmental implications Many consider India’s triumph in the 1983 World Cup to be one of the greatest coups staged in sporting history. And maybe it was. While India was up against a formidable West Indian, there was something about that English summer that often gets overlooked. India’s much maligned bowling attack, perceived as being mild mannered elsewhere, this time assumed lethal proportions in the overcast conditions of England.

Kapil Dev was always considered to be a world-class bowler. But the swing and seaming conditions in England ensured that Madan Lal, Roger Binny, Balwinder Singh Sandhu and Mohinder Amarnath turned into forces to reckon with. The recent huge popularity of Iron Man, one of Marvel’s superheroes, aside from the charisma of Robert Downey Jr who has played that role in recent movies, can attribute its success to the emergence of the ‘i-generation,’ a moniker one can use to label today’s self-confident young lot, who are utterly at ease with technology.

Iron Man’s comfort with technology, his possession of a wonder gadget (the Ironman suit), and his penchant for appropriating the limelight all ring true for a tribe which is vastly different in all these aspects from its predecessors. Hence a character, which previously was in the shadow of his contemporaries in the comic book world, has now powered through and assumed centre-stage owing to changing mindsets.

This is precisely why organisations need to closely monitor various extraneous factors before pitching their wares in the market.

Changing attitudes, shift in governmental regulations, the introduction of a newer technology, differing conditions in newer markets: they all have the potential to have a significant influence. The environment has the potential of transforming possible heroes into villains and vice versa.

Companies today need to acknowledge what a great casting director it can be.

Unleashing the unexpected Martin Crowe turned paradigms completely on their head when he tossed a new ball to off-spinner Dipak Patel in the 1992 World Cup. That was a tactic that worked wonders because opening batsmen, conditioned to associate the new ball with pace, were caught completely on the wrong foot.

In that same World Cup, Crowe’s transforming Mark Greatbatch into an attacking opener was also a new move of sorts. That initiative, though, was really cemented four years later with the Sri Lankan opening pair of Sanath Jayasuriya and Romesh Kaluwitharana. They tore into the opposition right from the onset, with a ferocity and abandon that was previously reserved only for the slog overs in a game. This created enough initial momentum in almost every match, to carry Sri Lanka through to the title in 1996. Competitive strategy does put a lot of emphasis on catching an opponent off guard. Acquiring a momentary advantage or a temporary monopoly can often make the difference in garnering market share and customer preference.

Companies that have reinvented the paradigm of the marketplace have gained substantially because the competition has been knocked off their stride. In the time it takes for the others to actually assimilate the situation the innovating company would have already gained a significant market position. When Polaroid first came into the market it completely redefined the expectations of the photographic experience. In an era where it took a while to develop photographs, Polaroid offered the benefit of ‘instant shared replay’ of a memorable moment, and the ability to relive the emotion felt at that time through the picture all over again a mere few seconds later. It forced all the other participants, in the visual imaging business, to speed up their entire post picture process. In a nutshell, while others were striving for incremental changes along factors like picture quality Polaroid, by innovating on an aspect no one else had probably paid much attention to, emphatically changed the very nature of the game.

Refining with time and tests India began rather scratchily in the 2011 World Cup. There was the tie against England, followed by less than convincing performances, against Ireland and Holland. India then even lost to South Africa.

But every successive match seemed to hone the player’s skills and understanding of the conditions. There was time given to try out different players and strategies. The captain and team management (led by Gary Kirsten) were gradually shaping the side into the best possible combination, powered by the most effectively tested strategic approach. Come the knockout stages, the team was largely settled, as was its game plan. And that helped enormously in the march towards victory. In the case of advanced pioneering ventures, it is sometimes not possible to begin with the fully completed version of a new product, service or initiative. And yet there is an opportunity to launch it, if only to get a sense of things and enable one to get a ‘first mover’ advantage. At such times the need to test market a nearly finished prototype allows for great improvement and improvisation. It enables a window of opportunity to further hone and perfect the product.

The case of Facebook which initially began as a campus phenomenon, but – given the responsiveness and viral nature of the virtual world – was able to tweak and tinker its way to a worldwide platform, is a vivid illustration. What helped Facebook succeed was that it was willing to adapt to feedback and opportunity. It was also ready to quickly add new, and better customise its existing features.

Work in progress In fact, these days it is debatable if there is any such thing as the best version of an offering. Given changing mindsets, swift technological advances and evolving consumer needs, this can only ever be a perennial ‘work in process’ initiative. The old maxim of putting ones best foot forward perhaps needs to be modified in this age of innovation. It might need to be restated as ‘first put a foot forward, and then work responsively, towards making it the best one’.

Maybe it is time for those in white collars to borrow ideas from the men in blue. Cricket is such an integral part of the Indian bloodstream that the health of the Indian cricket team during a match often determines one’s own mental wellbeing at office. But learning from the ideas, which emerged from the World Cups, has the scope of ensuring cricket ceases to be a distraction, and soon becomes an inspiration to the brand management process. There is something to learn from every match that you watch. One just has to learn how to see it.

(Vinay Kanchan is an independent brand ideation consultant and a trainer in the art of creative thinking. He is the author of ‘Lessons from the Playground’ and ‘The Madness Starts at 9’) .

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