A G Krishnamurthy: Wield the baton to build teams

AGKSPEAK/ Take the conductor away and you end up with total cacophony

What I've liked
The ad below says "My Daddy strongest" and yes you're right there is no logo. So I might as well explain "" the line stands for Dhara Health and though I don't approve of the logo being dropped I must say that I really like this ad.

Good idea and well executed despite the reservations I have about the logo. I must say that most advertising agencies must be in possession of ads like these that see the light of day only in single releases here and there.

To the uninitiated, "My Daddy strongest" was and is the plug line for Dhara Health. So when this piece was released on Janmashtami it was the perfect reinforcement of the brand line.

It captures all the childish naivety of the occasion and even conveys a very credible sense of pride to the line. No doubt it is the combination of the occasion, the timing of the ad and the very clever use of the brand line for the purpose which work in its favour.

And yes, despite it being a clever little ad, it has such a pan-Indian flavour that I applaud the creative for that very reason. It is not often that one comes across a pan-Indian ad which uses shared references, where no verbal explanation is required, as a platform for creativity. I hope we see more ads like this in the future.

What I've learned
A hundred thoroughbreds with no charioteer will never get anywhere.

In 1964 in Queens, New York, a young African-American Kitty Genovese was chased, attacked thrice over the course of half an hour as 38 of her neighbours watched from their windows.

Their apathy, as she screamed for help, was dismissed as "big-city" syndrome but the truth lay elsewhere as two New York psychologists Bibb Latane of Columbia University and John Darley of New York University discovered.

They conducted a series of tests to understand what they dubbed the "bystander problem" and observed that when people are in a group, responsibility for action is diffused.

They assume that someone else will make the call, or they assume that because no one else is acting, the problem isn't really a problem.

In all my 22 years of trying to build teams, I have realised that this tendency to shift responsibility will necessarily manifest itself when there is no clear leadership.

And, a team, I have learned, is only as good as its leader. Because the minute you get all democratic, the "bystander problem" crops up. And when the team is questioned for any failure that arises, it is always met with the classic "It's not my fault"!

The trick is to find a good leader and give him full responsibility. He will then pick his team; use his own method of reward and punishment, or resort to his instinctive parental skills, as I would like to put it, to get the best out of his people. It always works. Dhirubhai Ambani was a genius at this simple yet courageous "people management procedure".

Because it requires a combination of character judgement and the nerve to let go of a project, not to mention the flip side when you need to pick up the pieces and find another leader if your judgement fails! But when it works, it works like nothing else I have seen.

Teams don't take macro decisions. A team does. Teamwork lies in the execution, in the detailing of a vision "" which has to be orchestrated by an efficient leader. Much like an orchestra which comes together as a team, under the able baton of the conductor.

Take the conductor away and you end up with total cacophony, even though all the musicians have a common music score before them. Because the conductor is the one with the "big picture".

Taking this analogy further, the conductor is free to interpret the score, select his instruments, pick his musicians (and he knows every individual strength and weakness), opt for a soloist if he chooses, and does whatever it takes to bring the house down.

This is why everyone lauds a Zubin Mehta or a Dhirubhai Ambani today. It is their surprising ability to get the most extraordinary performance from a disparate range of people and skills. It is their leadership which makes the difference. Simply put "" no leader, no team.

Email: agkbrandconsult@yahoo.com