Learning with "Chak De India"

By

Ratensh Kumar Srivastava MBA (2007-09) Rakshpal Bahadur Management Institute Bareilly

The movie "chak de India" released in the history of bollywood, under the banner of yash raj films and directed by shimmit ammin, Written by Jaideep Sahni, starring Shahrukh Khan and a bunch of endearing young women, made an entry in the books of management and attracted the world of management professionals .

As it is not often that movies offer more than entertainment, ever so often there comes a film which can make a deep impact and teach us a few things. If we imagine like a manager of an organization we find the practical example of team building approach, motivation, leadership and winning attitude

The king of the Indian film industries SHAHRUKH KHAN is playing Kabir khan the lead role as coach of Indian women's hockey team. The movie is around that How the Impossible is made Possible, means winning women's hockey world cup for India.

The story commences with India losing a final to Pakistan in the men's world cup due to the captain Kabir Khan missing a penalty and then facing the ire of the media and the public. With allegations of being a Pakistan supporter Kabir Khan leaves his locality and goes into obscurity,

for 7 years. A bunch of bureaucratic never-been-on-the-field administrators of the hockey association are sitting over the coach's job for the Indian Women's Hockey team and Kabir Khan takes up the job.

LESSONS FROM MOVIE

1- MAKING IMPOSSIBLE THE POSSIBLE

Take a look on one statement "Jo ho nahi sakta wohi to krna hai" in the movie. As winning world cup for Indian women's hockey is like ipposible. But kabir khan takes it as a challenge and conveys his vision to the team members though he is opposed by many but he is sure what he is doing.

2- TEAMING THE SUCCESS STORY

it could be observed that neither player nor the administrator were sure of playing and winning the game but kabir khan stimulated this zeal and developed enthusiasm to win not as individual but as a team.

Great amount of attention has been paid to the players, the diversity in culture, their language and team dynamics. As it is very compulsory because first the diversity should be converted in the single identity. That kabir khan tried by saying "say India" "we the Indian" rather than telling the name of state.

- Espirit - de - corps.

- Developing we feeling.

- Priority to common goal.

3- LEADERSHIP STYLE

In the begigining he used the policy of negative motivation by firing and suspending the players who were not giving the desired behaviour, than he tries to come close to them to provide positive motivation and tries to develop acceptance for him. It is true that a leader could be successful if he/she is accepted by the followers.

4- TAKING THE CHALLENGE AS AN OPPORTUNITY

In the movie kabir khan was selected as a coach of Indian women's hockey team which has to play in word cup. Because it was already declared as impossible. This he takes an opportunity to answer Indian viewers against the blames which were made on him and with that he tried to prove that under his guidance things could be possible.

5- DREAM BIG AND DEFINE THE GOAL

When kabir khan take the challenge for word cup his total concern was on word cup. It may have seemed unrealistic or even improbable, but then that's what dreams are. Dreaming is about imagining a different future. In the case of kabir,he not only dreamt big but also put in place a strategy to make that a reality. Another name for Dream is Vision. To make things happen the way we want, we have to envision the future, and paint a picture in front of the others of what we want to achieve.

6- BE DETERMINED IN FACE OF OPPOSITION.

This comes many times but when the team was playing against Russia kabir know that Russians was playing roughly against every team and injured players but still he was determined and made a strategy against team n rejult of this is Indian team won the match. It is true that problem makes us strong and determined.

Sometime winning is everything.

7. IDENTIFY COMPETENCIES AND UTILIZING

in the movie Bindiya Nayer is only a player who know how to play against Russian team that's why Kabir meet him personally and motivate her to come and play and she does the same.

8. LEADERSHIP IS ALL ABOUT SPELLING CLARITY IN CHOICES: choies that clarify vision, values, expectation and optimize strength, resources opportunities and challegene. In the movie we can observe that mr. kabir khan is having the idea of all the mentioned issues.

9. COMMITMENT: it is the committed endeavour of committed team that brings fruition to the powerful seeds of individual creativity. The essenceof leadership with his followers lies in the purpose that holds them together.

10. CREDIBILITY: a leader to effective has to demonstrate high levels of technical expertise. The power drawn from expertise sources makes a leader much more acceptable to his folks. Chak De - Jo nahin ho sakta hai, wahi to karna hai... - A Case Study

Chak De India is the story of a coach's fight of making his team, Team India by overcoming their diverse backgrounds, by learning to use everything that life hurls on them as a secret weapon. It's a story about honesty, sincerity and integrity. A story to remind the nation of its National Sport.

"...The recipe for such a success was most wonderfully conveyed by Shah Rukh Khan and those wonderful women hockey players in the movie. Let me recount them here. We have to identify as Indians first and rise above our affiliations with our states, religions and castes. We must accept meritocracy and enthusiastically play the role we are best suited to."

"We must embrace discipline to strictly follow every step required for success. We have to put the interest of our nation ahead of our personal interests, subordinating our egos and biases. Finally, we have to put in tremendous hard work and make shortterm sacrifices for long-term glory."

"I have immense faith and optimism in the youth of this country. But, will we get our leaders to set examples for hundreds of millions of Indian youth? I wish more and more of our leaders see Chak De and learn these precious lessons."

(This was an extract from an article written by chairman and chief mentor of Infosys Technologies in ET.)

Besides his observations, I would also like to add some more take away points from the movie.

DIVERSITY - The movie is a reminder to all of us about the diversity of our country. Many States, Many Languages, Many Cultures, One Nation

PARENTS CARE - Komal and Balbir come to Delhi with their parent(s). More so, Komal even has laddoos in a tiffin!

TEAM BUILDING - Team building process in the film is very significant. Sixteen players from different parts of the country with different backgrounds and diversity meet for the first time for a common cause and the process.

GUESTS AT ONES OWN HOME - A comment from the players from North-East India signals that we, who have the privilege of being situated in the central part of the country, treat them as 'guests' in their own country.

 PUNCTUALITY - Preeti Sabharwal, who comes late for the training, is not allowed to be a part of the team despite her stressing the fact that she was the captain of Chandigarh team. SRK admits her only after she completes her round in the field in seven minutes.

DISCIPLINE - Players who do not stick to the rules of the game are made to sit on the bench. SRK does not allow them to play the game till they apologize.

WOMAN EMPOWERMENT - Preeti does not yield to her fiancs (Indian Cricket Teams Vice Captain, Abhimanyu Singh) wish of leaving hockey. He repeatedly keeps mocking hockey as a game.

UNITED WE STAND - When some romeos tease two of the girls at McDonalds, the whole team comes together to fight them. SRK deliberately does not interfere in the fight as he wants the team to be cohesive.

TEAM VALUE - One of the points that appealed to me the most was when SRK says that the TEAM is FIRST, Team MEMBERS NEXT and if after that something remains, that is for an INDIVIDUAL very important for getting the maximum out of the team (or members of the team).

TEMPERAMENT - The girl from (Balbir Kaur) Punjab often lost her temper. She was ousted from a match because of bickering with the referee. Towards the end of the movie, she learns to keep calm.

TIT FOR TAT - The team from Argentina was famous for injuring other teams players. When SRK observes that the referee is not penalising them, he asks the Indian team to retaliate so that Argentina may not block their way again. This tit-for-tat thing is nicely carried out by Indian girls.

INDIAN CULTURE - When Indian players reach the finals, team India is dressed in saris despite some of them being uncomfortable in that. We still take pride in our culture.

 CRICKETOMANIA - SRK says that people would do anything for cricket but not for hockey. Its true considering the real situation.

SPONSORSHIP - Politics influences sponsorships. This was clear when the committee refuses to give sponsorship for the women team for going to Australia for world cup.

LET GO YOUR EGO - When you need the best, by pass all your rules, compromise your ego. This is evident when SRK goes and requests Bindia Naik to play when India has to confront Korea. She was the need of the time.

These are some of the lessons which I could recall (watched it quite sometime back). And here are some facts-

Fact 1: Chak De has gone to the Oscar Library (Academy of Motion Pictures Arts & Sciences) and has been taken up as a case study in a few business schools.

Fact 2: India retained the Asia Cup, thrashing Korea 7-2 in the final of the seventh edition of the tournament at the packed Mayor Radhakrishnan stadium in Chennai. It won all the matches in Asia Cup this year!!!