Samba- 2014: To a Management Student

JINU. P. ISSAC                                                  jinumbapims@gmail.com

ASST. PROFESSOR                                                                9447550696

PEOPLE INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT STUDIES

MUNNAD KASARGOD

16/07/2014

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------Samba- 2014: To a Management Student.

Dreams have been built up….waited for few more moments…but collapsed when unachievable margins were set and incremented continuously. They were capable of accomplishing the task….but result was a huge tragedy and still unbelievable….what happened to team Brazil?

Who was wrong? Naymar?The Coach?The Players?The team?Or what else? All were wrong in a sense. In the sense of Management Principles and Thoughts many things went wrong…many people went wrong…many concepts and assumptions went wrong.

Let’s start from Naymar.  Icon of the team, brilliant player, on top of performance records, inspiring, result oriented, trusted and a good finisher. Any soccer fan will accept him as a hero of the time. I too.

Did this dream status placed him in a Dream World? I think No. He was still hardworking, busy in finding and adding more meaning, records and better history to the game…..but forgot to stop (at least restrict or warn) the world from concentrating only on him.

The unprecedented expectations and iconization  may turn a person to be self-assuming. Naymar, enjoyed it and never expected a fall, that too all of a sudden. Quiet natural but it’s true, incidents won’t take your permission to occur.   Unfortunately the incident   was too hard. Then what? A man collapsed…his team collapsed…a big dream collapsed…and continued the same!!

Naymar got large number of sympathizers… but even his presence in the gallery didn’t save Brazil in the next match (I mean the losers’ final). The  story warns you and me to be away from self-placement in the height and to be conscious when others do it. Because the result of our team, dream and project will be a deep fall, once we become unable to play the role, for which chances are many. One threat in the form of competitor, team mate or the environment that could raise a huge hurdle will stop our journey…and that of the team. If you really keep a passion to the game (or any task), humbly share the grace, that will certainly reduce your risk and burden.

Its very nice to read that the Brazilian coach was highly proud of Naymar. Any Guru or Trainer should be like that but the same must not make the rest irrelevant. Since the Coach is unable to predict the dynamic game there should be alternative players with same energy, confidence, authority and respect. I find Scolari the responsible one for the last two matches the team met with. It was a natural result of conferring responsibility and authority without delegation of them. It re-announces that ‘machines won’t work like masters’.

The players(except Naymar) were finding comfort Zones under the shade of one among them. The tree disappeared and the shade became a false story. The chaos made them perplexed. Big roles were given…but in the last moment….what to do? How to do? No answer at all. Crown sought. But thorns awarded! Quiet natural result. It advices all budding Managers not to shift their role and responsibilities to shining stars. It will make them permanently unable to shoulder assignments and will be thrown out from the picture in close future.

Then the fans and media that influences the emotions of even foot-ball intellectuals have played a wrong role with immature gestures. They were confining the whole strength of team Brazil into one man. It was irresponsible and finally laid a trap net for the celebrated hero and his team.

There is a strong advice to a potential manager to assess the external environment without bias and prejudices. It also suggests the business analysts to be practical rather than following emotions and passion too, both having short life unlike business entities. It is notable from such learning from Samba- 2014 that both the internal and external forces have equal responsibilities to keep B- ventures united and effective to accomplish the dreams and expectations of its stake holders and well- wishers.

The tournament teaches n number of lessons. It is interesting to examine how Germany and Argentina became finalists, and former the winners without a celebrity star in the squad. Game and sport from the side of different teams were different but they have well communicated the spirit in a range of magnitude. It is highly interesting for an observer to analyze  the manner in which the teams took part in the event.

Some teams spoiled all expectations and passion of their fans. Some others did no justice to the spirit of the game. Few players emerged up sensing the need of the time. Few teams emerged up beating threats and using opportunities. Few weak squads have beaten much talked about super teams. All such comments have been viewed read many times in one month.

Now I request all Management students to substitute the world-cup tournament with an organization. Substitute every match with a specific task and do the same in the case of each player, team and the game, that is do the responsibility of analyzing the event in a management perspective and then find out your favorite player, team, match and game. Do remember that profession and emotion do not go together. Good Luck!