Do you have an Oscar, Messi and Neymar in your team?

It’s the biggest game of all and the fever’s catching everyone; albeit a bit slowly. I am referring to the World Cup Football. While some bet on the wily Brazilians, the Spaniards and Germans are no less favourites either. Any conversation on the world cup would revolve around the individual brilliance of some of the players amongst the qualified teams. There’s the crafty Neymar, the swift Dutch Arjjen Robin, man with golden legs – Messi, playmaker Ronaldo to name a few.  I feel there is more to a team than individual brilliance. To cement Brazil’s legacy and gun for yet another title as the best ever, Brazil would have a built a strategy especially around its key players. It goes without saying that these role players would know what’s expected of them and recognize the vital part they play in the team’s success. Each member of the team also understands that while the key players may ultimately make the difference, it’s really the way the entire system works together that propels the team to victory time and time again.

It’s no different when it comes to a corporate team. Undoubtedly, the superstars would go the extra mile to rev up the work engine. What’s important is to check whether the business has the right role players to help system work well as a unit? Do they know what’s expected of them? 

·        New roles are emerging; new skills and support are required. Business is changing by the day. Strategy faster, with more flexibility and adaptability being the order of the day. I was speaking to a colleague who mentioned businesses transitioning to embrace the trends in the market driven by increasingly empowered customers. There are new roles emerging within businesses. Digital evangelists, Content head, Customer segment owners, marketing technologists to name a few.

·  Better the customer experience. Progressive businesses are recruiting customer-focused professionals who can match customers’ needs with businesses’ products and services. They can also prioritize contextually relevant customer experiences.

·        Adopt new technologies. CMOs hitherto averse to technology are slowly and steadily picking up new age technologies to keep pace with their customers. And, progressive businesses are increasingly demanding laggards to adopt technology as a native capability in to fuel business requirements.

There is an innate understanding between Neymar and Oscar in the Brazilian squad. Neymar knows when and where Oscar would feed him with a through-pass. That understanding is the foundation for the team’s success. Similarly a business should build and align teams, structured to best serve the customer in the post-digital age. It is important to ensure a fluid design with more collaboration across silos to execute strategy faster, with more flexibility and adaptability.