About the Blog

This is my diary....what I make sense of, around me. You'll find short prose on contemporary topics that interest me. What can you expect - Best adjectives? …. hmm occasionally, tossed around flowery verbs ?…. Nope, haiku-like super-brevity? … I try to. Thanks for dropping by & hope to see you again

July 23, 2012

The Winning Way: A Cricket-Centric Guide to Business Management (and Beyond?)


The Winning Way by Harsha and Anita Bhogle is an enjoyable read, filled with easygoing prose, anecdotes, and - of course - a treasure trove of cricket trivia. Ever wondered why legends like Kapil Dev and Jayasurya stuck around past their glory days, or about that infamous incident where Imran Khan stormed onto the field to cut short a teammate’s selfish innings? These nuggets make the book as entertaining as it is informative.

This book dances between cricket and management principles, pulling out similarities in areas like planning, team building, target setting, and work ethics. Harsha and Anita manage to keep it light, stripping away the usual jargon that comes with management theory. The book is approachable even for readers whose primary exposure to management involves convincing friends to order pizza instead of salad.

True to the Bhogles’ shared passion, the book leans heavily on cricket, but it does add a pinch of other sports, like a chef garnishing a favorite dish. Indian hockey fans, for instance, will find the authors’ take on the fall of their beloved sport intriguing, as they dissect the decline of what was once the pride of India. It’s an insightful attempt to explain how lack of vision and structural issues took Indian hockey from global dominance in the 1950s to also-ran status by the turn of the millennium.

But here’s the catch. If you’re hoping for a deep dive into broader Indian sports, you might feel a bit bowled out. While the book offers a unique view of cricket and business, it shies away from addressing similar challenges in Indian football, or from analyzing why Indian Olympians haven’t found the same success as some international peers. And just think of the potential for a book like this to dive into China’s meteoric rise in global sports! A comparison of Indian sports management with that of other nations could have added a whole new layer to this book, exploring what really makes a winning culture.

So, while Harsha and Anita Bhogle skillfully connect cricket and business, they’ve ultimately stayed in their comfort zone, catering to a cricket-loving crowd. As a fun and breezy read for sports fans and business enthusiasts alike, The Winning Way scores plenty of runs. Just don’t expect it to change the game on sports management insights beyond cricket.

July 15, 2012

a Harley beckons

I had my ‘Boson’ moment sometime late last month. After a nerve jangling journey (on the last row of a multi-axle Volvo Bus) to Hyderabad and after spending considerable time, effort & money, I realized that we were in the middle of a B2B exhibition looking for intending customers who never really showed up. The ‘Bozo’n realization was that it was never intended to be. Like a game of hide-n-seek that sent physicists on the hunt for the elusive (or goddamned as someone called it) particle, we painstakingly discovered  that just about everybody connected with the Business turned up except the one we intended to meet and interact.

A curtailed Business trip but we still had plenty of time on hand the next day for checking out the Harleys at Banjara Hills. The previous evening we went to Himayatnagar which lies in the other end of the town for some shopping & slurping. Going from cybercity where we stayed to the old city is like crossing from Bandra-kurla complex right  into Dharavi. The contrast is quite striking. A Rajasthani dinner at Jharokha with some 50 odd varieties on your plate was  like facing a Uber gun (remember Mask-Stanley Ipkiss played by Jim Carrey showing the thugs what he's packing, which happens to be guns and more guns combined into one gun). The barrage of culinary bits was quite a bit of an assault on my tongue which frankly by the end of the meal was quite as flat as a  bangalore traffic road kill. Dadu’s the next door sweet mart stacks up some really unique sweets and the emotion bites and Badamees variety is a must try.

The Harleys are quite a piece of engineering feat; stocky, neat, and oozing out machismo from whichever angle you look at. For a big bulky machine (at least 30%  bulkier & heavier than Indian motorcycles ) the finishing is great . Hard metal & steel gel beautifully with an engine that appears like a mini grizzly bear crouching under the seat. While I was trying out one of the bikes, neatly stacked in a single row of 4-5 bikes I heard one of the engines coming to life.  Initially I mistook it to a power Generator that might have been switched on in the store backyard (Hyderabad has its share of power woes)  but when the store manager took one of the beasts out of the showroom the misrealization was apparent. 

The price tag has put any ambitions to rest probably pushing to the Bucket-list (a long joy ride if I could manage on a rented out HD some twilight day). Putting out the backdrop studio like pose on FB did though give me the high, the responses made me gush almost in embarrassment.

The road awaits……. sometime in the future and a Harley beckons - to break free. 
Four wheels move the body; two wheels move the soul — Old biker saying

Read more at:
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/25903626.cms?utm_source=contentofinterest&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=cppst

Four wheels move the body, two wheels move the Soul - old biker saying

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