MAM
Great team qualities elaborated upon at Market Probe seminar
MUMBAI: “A winning team is preferable to a team of winners. Lessons on success are not dissimilar whether one is a housewife, a mountaineer or a cricketer. Great teams combine ability with attitude and passion.” These words of advice were spoken by cricket commentator cum speaker Harsha Bhogle last night. .
The event was a seminar Customers And Winning Ways that was organised by multinational market research and consultancy agency Market Probe India. The aim was to give the corporate gathering insights into lessons of great teams that could be imbibed so that they could improve the state of their business.
Bhogle of course gave the examples of cricket teams like India, Australia and the West Indies to illustrate examples of success and failure. He started off by issuing a warning ” The excuses for failure are many. A great team when it is in a slump does serious introspection. They are harsher on themselves than their worst critics. They also know that success is not forever and at the same time failure is not fatal. They go back to the basics and examine what exactly it is they are trying to accomplish. Egos are discarded. Stringent goals are set which come hell or high water must be reached..
“Winning teams also introduce positive turbulence. In 2002 Australia dropped the Waugh twins after failing to reach the finals of a triangular series that also involved New Zealand and South Africa. They understood that that team was never going to win in South Africa. They also made way for innovation by practicing on baseball pitches and doing relay throws from the boundary ropes. On the other hand the English cricket team that visited India in 1993 was very mediocre.
“They already had an excuse in hand for the three defeats in the test series even before play started. ‘It was not the quality of the players but the quality of the prawns we ate.’ Similarly the Indian team can keep complaining about the quality of the New Zealand tracks and ignore the fact that they simply failed to prepare.”
Bhogle also said that one of the main differences between good and great is that any great team views winning as a path that they walk on not a destination. If it is just a destination then there is a danger that a void will be created. Tiger Woods for instance views his golf swing as a work in progress. The great teams also realise that managing success is a different ball game from achieving it. One way to do this is to set new goals within the success one is getting. .
“For instance a team has won 14 one day matches on the trot. For the 15th match they only have to score 145 runs. The coach could tell the top four batsmen to act as if there were just six players in the side. Of course as Bill Gates once said success is a lousy teacher. It makes you believe that you cannot loose. If the Australian cricket team get arrogant that is the opportunity India could seize” Bhogle added.
A different set of goals needs to be set out. Individual goals must align with team goals. If they are not then the old foe egos come into play. ” The great teams are determined to win every month, every day, every hour. They do their level best not to allow their competition to claw their way back even an inch if they can possibly help it. A winning team also creates an aura that intimidates others. For instance if a great FMCG enters a new territory those already present could start shivering. They might say, ‘Hey! There is no way in hell I can beat this guy. Should I sell out my stake?’ In their mind the battle is lost.”
“That used to happen with the West Indian cricket team in the 1970’s. The mere sight of the four fast bowlers along with Viv Richards, Clive Lloyd, Gordon Greenidge ensured that there was a long line of opposition players hoping to bat at number nine. They gave Australia no hope at all.”
Bhogle however had words of encouragement for those on the other side of the fence. Here motivation techniques become important. One of them could be videotape. When Australia toured India a couple of years ago the millions of Indian fans just knew that the Aussies would win. India did not have a prayer.
Naturally this created a concern for the coach John Wright who knew that this attitude would dampen the players morale. Therefore he approached ESPN Star Sports. The broadcaster created two tapes that the players could view. One of the tapes was the 2000 Champions Trophy match in Nairobi where Sachin hammered the living daylights out of Glenn McGrath. “That served as powerful reminder that Australia could be reduced to the level of Bangladesh” Bhogle said. What happened after that is the stuff legends are made of.
Another area that winning teams excell at is going beyond just systems and techniques. In this manner inspired performances are thrown up which the competition finds hard to match. “One cannot always play the book. If one does that then predictability will creep in.” Bhogle added. As far as individuals are concerned Bhogle said that developing a second skill was crucial to survive in today’s times when there are lots of people waiting to take one’s place.
MAM
VML India lands two finalist spots at Cairns Hatchlings 2026
The Mumbai agency is back in Australia with two teams, a UN brief and 24 hours to impress
MUMBAI: VML India is heading to Australia again. The Mumbai-based creative agency has secured two finalist spots at the Cairns Hatchlings 2026 competition, one in the Audio category and one in Design, making it the only Indian agency to have reached the finals in both editions of the contest since its launch in 2025.
Four people will make the trip. Senior copywriter Shilpi Dey and senior art director Raj Thakkar will compete in Audio. Art directors Shabbir and Shruti Negi will go head-to-head with the world’s best in Design. The finals take place at the Cairns Convention Centre from 13th May, culminating in an awards ceremony on 15th May.
The work that got them there is worth examining. For the Audio category, Dey and Thakkar tackled a brief for LIVE LIKE MMAD with a campaign called Inner Voice, Interrupted. Using spatial audio techniques, the campaign recreates the overwhelming self-doubt that descends after a long workday, physically panning negative thoughts left and right before cutting the noise entirely to reveal a confident inner voice. Strategically targeted at commuters via Spotify during evening rush hours, the campaign reframes the hours after work as an opportunity for personal growth and charitable action.
For the Design category, Shabbir and Negi worked on a brief for Canteen’s Bandanna Day, a campaign highlighting how cancer pushes teenagers out of their own defining moments. Using a pixelated design language to create stark contrast between a blurred world of isolation and a focused world of connection, the campaign, titled The Flipside of Cancer, shows teenagers fading into the background of birthdays, skateparks and school proms. As a Canteen bandanna appears, the blur flips and the teenager snaps back into sharp focus.
Kalpesh Patankar, group chief creative officer of VML India, made no attempt to disguise his satisfaction. “We are immensely proud to see our teams consistently excel on the Cairns Hatchlings platform since its inception,” he said. “They have masterfully tackled challenging briefs across diverse categories, demonstrating both layered storytelling and a unique creative approach. This exceptional teamwork is truly inspiring.”
Dey and Thakkar, returning to the finals after last year’s run, were candid about the demands of the audio medium. “It’s one of the most demanding mediums, where we only have a few seconds to capture a listener’s world with sound alone, so absolute clarity is essential,” they said. “The true measure of creative work is its ability to create positive change, and our audio submission was made to help those who need it most while encouraging people to silence the inner voices that hold them back.”
Shabbir and Negi, competing in Design for the first time, described the experience as “a completely different beast.” “We see it as an opportunity to showcase our expertise, raise the bar, and challenge ourselves in new ways, while also learning from creative minds from across the globe,” they said.
In Australia, the four finalists will face a live 24-hour brief from the United Nations before presenting in a live pitch session. Twenty-four hours, one brief, one shot. VML India has been here before. It knows exactly what is at stake.
