By VINODH V BHAT
CEO, Saavn
In this brave new world of start-ups and digital multinationals, we like to talk about the skillsets that companies have had to develop to make the cut. We nonchalantly bandy about jargon like “synergies” and “incentivizing” and “lowhanging fruit” as we try to navigate these shifting sands. As the CEO of a company that provides a globally-available, free product, and as leader of a team that spans three continents and five time zones, I have come to realize that what really keeps a company like this together is a sporting principle developed a couple of millenia ago.
In college, one of my friends ‘rowed crew’ (“rowing” to most of the world). Observing his experiences firmed up a few things in my mind about running any global organization.
My friend rose each morning at 5 am for a run of several miles, followed by rowing practice, then a full day of school and a full night of homework. As I watched his team compete and rise to national prominence in their sport, the principles of rowing took root in my mind. These guys took the idea that “there is no ‘I’ in a team” to a new level. They would race against other athletes, using oars to propel their boats down the river in perfect sync, leaning backwards, never looking at each other.
One day, I asked him, “How do you do it?” His answer nearly 20 years ago reflects the same ideas that hold Saavn together today. Yes, his team had incredible physical strength – but they were also dedicated to practice and improvement. They had incredible mental strength – which they put to the test every morning, and incredible emotional endurance which allowed them to do this every day. Each of these attributes reinforced and reaffirmed the other. But more than anything, my friend told me, they had a tremendous amount of faith and trust in each other. They physically couldn’t see each other during the race, and they couldn’t see each other working on their individual training and diets, but they had to trust that each member of the team was doing his part.
In rowing, it takes people of all sizes and talents to balance the boat. Some provide the power, some set the stroke rate, some are technical experts, and one member coordinates all this strength, rhythm, and technique. All the team members need to keep their form perfect for each oar stroke, and they need to achieve this individual perfection in perfect sync with one another – without being able to see each other. This is called sync. Without it, the boat tilts to one side, is slowed down, and eventually becomes impossible to steer.
Without this sync, colleagues in disparate offices trip each other up - they make errors; they waste time; they potentially devalue each other’s work. Every day, we strive to work in perfect sync as a team, each one starting the day where the last one’s night left off, with no delay. Each day, I am acutely aware of the incredible amount of faith each of our team members puts into this company, and of my ultimate responsibility to keep us all in time with one another.
The life of a business is a regatta. It takes an incredible amount of training just to get out of port in one piece. It takes trust and faith to stay afloat, and prowess and diligence to win the race.
Feedback: vin@saavn.com
