What can we learn from some of the finest enterprises about goal-setting and achievements? Understand the demand-supply pattern, leverage the existing ecosystem by crafting future-oriented enablers and create a broader coalition of stakeholders, with particular efforts at roping in the fence-sitters.
Translating all this to Olympic glory for India as part of a Bleed Blue framework means:
B uild a coalition of important groups to renew their buy-ins
L everage existing infrastructure
U nderstand what we are historically good at, and
E nable mechanisms to get the best out of current assets.
Building a broad coalition
One of the drawbacks of the current efforts at sporting success has been the failure to consciously build a coalition of stakeholders with a single goal. IPL is a prime example of co-opting emerging, current and retired players along with erstwhile administrators — both regional and national, media companies, marketing companies and public figures with an emphasis on creating value for a larger spectator audience.
While targeting Olympic glory, the stakeholders would be focussed on the goal of reviving national pride in sporting achievements. This would be of tremendous value for the country.
Leveraging the ecosystem
The traditional akhadas and the star academies in racquet sports are good launch-pads for the push towards Olympic glory.
The awareness and goodwill generated through our recent “shooting stars” could be used to create momentum for drawing out talent and funding for the next stage.
Understanding the Sports Winnability Index
Jamaicans have conquered the track events, Americans have established their strength in swimming, and East Europeans are good at gymnasium sports.
An analysis of our recent performance at the Olympics points towards our advantage in racquet sports and archery, shooting and wrestling (including martial events). We have had a comparatively good record and seem to be historically inclined towards these sports.
Enablers for the next stage
The financial and operational overhaul should include independent, goal-driven financing, operational freedom and rapid scale-and-fail cycles. The right kind of enabling mechanisms could be vastly improved physical infrastructure of current sports institutions and, equally importantly, with frequent, merit-based changes in leadership as well as top and middle management.
This new ‘Bleed BLUE’ framework thus offers us a useful a blueprint on which we can base our quest for Olympic glory!