Sports failures teach corporate lessons, dealing with them helps develop skills

Few athletes made as immediate an acquaintance with success and failure as Nilesh Kulkarni. The left-arm spinner bowled 70 overs in his debut Test against Sri Lanka in 1997. He took a wicket off his very first ball. The remaining 419 deliveries bore no fruit.
The 46-year-old Kulkarni currently heads IISM, the Indian Institute of Sports Management (IISM), and recognises how much failure can teach not just athletes but any professional, even though he had a solid, Ranji Trophy winning career. On Tuesday in Mumbai, IISM announced ‘The Edge’, a course for working professionals which will teach them the ‘Art of Losing’, dealing with failure and will also help them develop skills to excel in their fields. The program, scheduled to start in 2020, is targeted towards mid and senior-level management and will feature lectures and seminars by experts in sports and business.

Viren Rasquinha, the ex-India hockey captain and CEO, Olympic Gold Quest, and Khel Ratna winning Para-athlete Deepa Malik are the sports luminaries on the visiting faculty. On the corporate side, Tarun Chauhan, founder, TC Consultancy, and Dr Sujaya Banerjee, CEO, Capstone People Consulting, will be a part of the module.

Speaking on the idea behind the course, Kulkarni said, “If you know your strength, that’s your asset, but if you know your weakness that’s your strength."

The duration of the course is nine months and the classes will be conducted in seven-hour sessions on weekends.

Malik said, “I have hit many roadblocks in my life from dealing with my new body, or learning a new business or sport, but I have always bounced back and that has helped me grow in life.”

Rasquinha said, “Sports has been a great teacher and I was happy to be associated towards the development of the sport with OGQ. I have applied the skills I learned during my playing days to my professional career. Learning from failure is a very important skill.”