"Learn and play", says new management book

Vinay Kanchan's new book attempts to bring the adrenaline rush of sports into the boardroom.

Sports has been in Vinay Kanchan's mind for a long, long time. But this time tying it up with management, Kanchan has released his second book named 'Lessons from the Playground'. The 430 page book is split into 20 chapters looking at various sports and explaining management tactics to take away from each.

Kanchan, an independent brand consultant and creative thinking trainer, is also the patron saint of a football movement called Juhu Beach United, which celebrates 'the unfit, out-of-breath working professional of today'. His first book, 'The Madness Starts at 9' was a piece of fiction inspired by events in advertising. It is hardly surprising then, that he would marry sports and management in his book.

"I have always been passionate about sports. But I cannot understand why we stop talking about sports after a while. If you notice, we are energized by any sporting example. This book attempts to bring that energy into naturally thinking forums," explains Kanchan. While it would have been much easier to just write a sequel, Kanchan resisted that temptation and wrote this book to discuss how to get more out of sports.

'Lessons from the Playground' has been divided into four P's which are People (the legends of sports like Sachin Tendulkar, Roger Federer, Muhammad Ali etc), Platforms (stages in world sports, such as Wimbledon, World Cups etc), Processes (inherent procedures, actions, skills, and ideas that changed the world of sports) and Pinnacles (once in a life-time performances like Maradona's performance in the 1986 World Cup). Each of these four P's gives a different aspect to borrow from, together which attempts to infuse the adrenaline rush of sports into boardroom and management thinking.

Incidentally, Kanchan's idea for the book came when a guest article he wrote on afaqs! got him many positive responses from world over. Encouraged, he used the sports metaphor for many of his articles. Finally, when he decided to write the book it took him a year - in two or three stretches - to complete and finally send it to Fortytwo Bookz Galaxy - the publishing house headed by C.P. Thomas.

Although sports have always been an inspiration in his life, he has especially been influenced by the writing styles of Edward de Bono, Malcolm Gladwell, Douglas Adams and PG Wodehouse. He is especially fond of Bono's use of the concept of lateral thinking.

"But if you come to think of it, this topic has not been addressed, at least in India, yet. It is a niche area and the book is a move, to move away from text-books," he adds.

The book stands apart from others also because of the amount of research done on it - both online and through his continued interest in sports over the last twenty-odd years. Kanchan uses examples and anecdotes like how Edson Arantes do Nascimento - or as we know him, Pele - used his nickname to become a bigger name in the world of sports. Again, the length of the modern marathon - that of 26 miles and 365 yards - was set in London Olympics because the royal family wanted the race to finish in front of the palace. All these anecdotes, he then swiftly ties back to management lessons.

The book, therefore, has been targeted at almost anyone who has even a passing interest in sports and management. Kanchan also feels that it is designation agnostic, one that can be enjoyed by CEOs as much as by trainees.

The cover art of 'Lessons from the Playground' has been done by Gajanan Adhav. The book which was released last Saturday on Amazon, will be available in book-stores in the next 2-3 weeks for a price of Rs 495.