“Couldn’t have asked for anything more”: Gujarat Titans COO Arvinder Singh on the team's terrific performance and approach

Debutant Gujarat Titans are currently sitting atop the standings in the ongoing IPL. Not many expected this completely new team to come out all guns blazing – winning eight of their nine games so far. The credit to their accomplishments must go to the entire organization – from the players to the front office management – feels Titans’ COO Arvinder Singh.

A former Colonel, Mr Singh describes the process of setting up a franchise from scratch, building on from his past experience of working in Gujarat and serving in the Indian Army. It was a chance conversation with actor-IPL team co-owner Preity Zinta that introduced Mr Singh to the world of professional leagues via Kings XI Punjab (now Punjab Kings). Now, fifteen years later, Mr Singh is still going strong, albeit with Gujarat.

Read on for our exclusive Q&A with Colonel Arvinder Singh, COO of Gujarat Titans.

Editor's note: The transcript has been lightly edited for better readability.

---

1) Gujarat Titans is unique in the sense that it is one of only two new franchises in this year’s IPL. Broadly, how hectic has the last couple of months been in getting the Gujarat franchise operations up and running?

It has been pretty hectic for the last three months now. But having said that, it’s also been exciting, and it’s always great to be involved with a new [Gujarat] setup which is more than willing to put everything in place. The culture, the ethos, the ethics of the [Gujarat] franchise and how you translate that into whatever you do…yes it has been pretty busy but also very interesting.

2) You’ve served in Gujarat in the past, as CEO of the now-disbanded Gujarat Lions. Has that experience helped you in your latest role as COO of Gujarat Titans?

Absolutely! That was a wonderful experience. In fact that was the first time I got an opportunity to work in Gujarat. So that has definitely helped…two seasons in ‘16 and ’17…to understand the ‘Gujarati Way’ of functioning in terms of what they stand for, in terms of how they look at things, what interests them and what gets them going to actually support a team which belongs to Gujarat.

So yes that experience has been very helpful. And mind you, that was under very similar circumstances when I had a very similar amount of time available to set up a franchise from scratch. So if you combine both these two aspects, then of course it has definitely helped a lot.

---

From Indian Army to IPL

3) Prior to your various senior executive positions with IPL teams Kings XI Punjab, Gujarat Lions, and now Gujarat Titans, you served in the Indian Army for over 21 years, retiring as a Colonel. How did the opportunity to work in IPL initially come about?

It’s actually a pretty different and interesting story. I think it was all about right time, right place, right people. You used the word ‘retired’. I took premature retirement from the Army really speaking (sic).

I come from a purely Army background. My father was in the Army. I am the younger of two brothers, both in the Army. All the close uncles [are] in the Army, both the grandfathers [are] from the Army. So I’ve never even been in college so to say. I went to NDA after 11th.

The whole idea stemmed from ‘okay, fine. I’ve done my bit [in the Army] let’s see if there’s something more life has to offer.’ So it was a call that I took - ‘all right fine. You live once, let me try and experiment if something outside can work for me.’

I had no idea of how things function outside, to be very honest. This was totally new to me. I was actually going to join something which was more closer to what I’d been doing…to set up a land systems project for a JV in Bangalore. But Preity [Zinta, co-owner of Kings XI Punjab, now ‘Punjab Kings’] was the one who pulled me to Kings XI because her brother was under me [in the Army].

Punjab Kings' co-owner Preity Zinta was instrumental in bringing Colonel Arvinder Singh to IPL

I had just met her a couple of times, spoken on the phone when her movies used to come out, we used to wish her as a group because her brother was in my regiment. I don’t know what she’d seen in me, but she said ‘why don’t you come and join us’.

I had no idea what IPL was. I am talking of 2008. I said ‘what do you want me to do?’ She says ‘all right, fine. Let’s sit, discuss’, and that’s exactly how it really happened. Otherwise there was no way I was going to get into the IPL because I had not even heard of it. I was in the Army at that point of time, I was out in the field. It was only when I met her and understood as to what was really happening…it was a brand new thing that kind of excited me and I’d been a sportsperson all my life.

So that kind of appealed and I said ‘all right. Let’s see..it’s something new. It’s something absolutely different. Let’s try and see whether it works or not.' By God’s Grace it’s all worked out so far for the last fifteen years.

4) Has your Army stint helped you in your leadership positions in IPL?

Absolutely, without a doubt!

In the army, it’s a way of life…what you call ‘discipline’ is a way of life. What you call ‘routine’ becomes a way of life. So I remember when I joined then Kings XI, way back in 2008, since I had no idea about all this, I went down to the basics.

I knew each and every individual in that stadium because, for the first year, I was only handling the operations and that included venue operations and cricket operations. Cricket primarily because I do have a little history of having played the sport. So I went down to the nitty-gritty of what stadium operations are all about, what it takes, what an experience should be for somebody who’s coming to spend money and coming to watch your team play.

So starting from let’s say an electrician to a sweeper to the guy who would control the air-conditioning to the cookhouse, to the groundsmen…everybody I knew, I met them, trying to understand how things happen. That kind of effort stemmed from how we are taught in the Army - unless you know what you are getting into and get down to the basics, it is very easy to sit at the top and say ‘all right, do things this way.’ But unless you yourself know and are able to handle those kind of things, it’s not going to be possible, it’s not going to be easy.

So from the background that I came from, whether it was from a leadership perspective or whether it was from knowing what is required to be done and then getting people to understand that and getting the best out of them…I think my background from the Army held me in very good stead then, and it continues to do so now.

You started off by asking ‘how is it in such short timeframe one is able to do this’ and fortunately I’ve had the opportunity to do this twice over. It is all because of the background, I must say. It is all because of that and so you can actually prioritize, delegate, create a team, and get the right kind of people on board. You can lay down the path that needs to be followed to be able to achieve what the [Gujarat] franchise's objectives are.

---

Gujarat Titans' Sponsorship Strategy

5) Despite being a completely new franchise, Gujarat Titans has bagged seventeen sponsors. Please elaborate on Gujarat Titans' sponsorship strategy & vision. How different of a challenge is it to find sponsors for a new franchise when compared to an existing franchise?

That’s a great question. My learning over the years has been ‘you can’t go out with a bucket list and say that all right, pick and choose what you want out of this, and why you should pick out that.’

So I look at it from a perspective which is more ‘objective’ from both the parties. Yes, for us, it is important to get good brand(s) on board, but the vice versa also has to be true. The brand has to believe that 'here is a franchise that is ready to do the right things to be able to create a great brand' that they can associate with.’

So it had to be a mutual fit from a brand perspective. A, it was not just about the money. We could have made more money this year but we were very conscious of what the brand fit is going to be. B was the fact that rather than going to them with a list of things we can offer to them in terms of ‘all right, fine we will give you so many TV series or access to players or photoshoots etc.' and all that, it was more important for us to understand what those brands wanted to achieve by aligning with us, if they were keen to do so.

So it was equally important to understand what their objective in this alignment was, and then tailor-making a kind of proposal which was acceptable to them and to us as well. But the bottom line always was - it is not just about the money. It is about alignment, and it is alignment preferably for a longer period of time so that we can both grow together. It was to brands which we felt had a brand fit with what this franchise aspires to stand for, and [we’re] very happy to state that we’ve had some great brands on board and most of them are for longer term perspectives…not just year-on-year but two-year, three-year ‘deals’ that we have aligned into.

And then, to ensure that the objectives of both the parties are met, we align our marketing strategy specifically with what they wanted. Some brands look at it more from an activation perspective, while some look at it more from a visibility perspective. Some brands are more interested in utilizing players’ image as to what they stand for and what they are performing.

It is all different for different brands, but at the end of the day, there has to be alignment from how both of us eventually end up achieving our respective objectives. It cannot be one not dependent on the other. So that was the thought process and we’re very happy with the brands who’ve come on board. You did mention 17 [sponsors], out of which 10 are multi-year deals, and I’m sure that even others would want to remain with us, and we can grow together.

6) Recently the Aava De (‘Bring it On’) anthem was released as an ode to the spirit and energy of Gujarat…

I’m going to talk of two things here - one is the thought process behind Aave De and second is what we want to actually stand for.

[Regarding] Aava De, you know we used to have these internal discussions and all the talk was about a new franchise, new team, expectations, how they are going to establish themselves, how they are going to play, what they are going to achieve.

After the auction, we faced a little bit of flak in terms of what players we’d picked up, whether we had a strategy in place or not etc. etc. But I was very clear from the beginning - we are not looking at ourselves as a new [Gujarat] franchise at all.

See, every team among all the ten teams, every team is ‘new’. Right? They had an option to retain four players, we had an option to pick up three players. That was the only difference. Some of them did not even pick up their four players. So from a team perspective, cricketing team perspective, I think everybody was on an even keel, and we did have our core in place to start with…of Hardik, Shubhman, Rashid and then we built around that. So it was all about ‘listen, don’t look at us as a new franchise because on the cricket field everybody is on an even keel.’ Right?

For everybody it’s a new team. You may have some existing players from the past in your own team, but from a cricketing perspective, everybody is new. Then, off the field, if you are going to have people like me and others who are now running the [Gujarat] franchise, who come with a little bit of experience, it was just about putting things in place.

Yes, you had to build up a brand, create a culture, create the character of the whole franchise including the cricketing side of it. But we were not ready to accept - I was not ready to accept that ‘look at us as a new team so we could be excused a few things.’ And I am sure you will agree that over the past couple of months we’ve been in existence, we’ve never behaved in a manner to state that ‘fine we are a new team so please bear with us or whatever’.

There is enough experience behind-the-scenes to ensure that things are in place. And IPL by itself is into its fifteenth season now. So you have people who have been involved with it right from the very beginning. How can you say that it is a new team? So that is where this concept of Aava De came from…that ‘all right, fine.’

I was looking for a word which kind of depicted the Gujarati attitude towards things. Gujaratis are people [who] don’t run away from anything. They are always looking to better themselves. They are always looking to get into bigger things - that is also where the name came from - ‘Titans’. And this Aava De has caught on very well and it depicts the [Gujarat] team culture as such.

The word that translated into Aava De was ‘okay fine, we are here. Bring it on. We are here, we are ready to face whatever you’re going to throw at us.’ That is where Aava De came from.

The second and more equally important part is the fact that ‘what is the kind of ethos that we want to depict.’ What are the ethos and ethics that we want to imbibe in the [Gujarat] franchise right from the beginning because in the IPL you get stamped very quickly. So there are franchises which are considered ‘good’ irrespective of what they do on the field. And then there are franchises which may do well on the field but still not considered that they know exactly what they are doing.

So we were very clear. We were coming with open hearts, all right? So our philosophy was very simple and this is kind of our guiding principle that we’re with ‘welcoming hearts and courageous minds.’ So we’ve not closed our minds to anything. We’ve not closed our hearts to anything. We want people to like us, like any other team. But we want them to like us not because we are going to be winning games but because of what we are and what we depict.

The way we conduct ourselves as a [Gujarat] franchise is the kind of culture that you are trying to set in so that as we move forward from year to year. This is what kind of defines this franchise. In whatever we do, however we do - whether on the field or off the field - this is what defines us. This is what we aspire to be, and that’s how it’s going to be in the future as well.

7) Already, Gujarat Titans boasts of over a million followers on Instagram, besides well over 100k followers each on Facebook, Youtube and Twitter. Especially considering that Gujarat Titans’ first ever IPL Season is being played away from Gujarat, in bubble venues in Maharashtra, please elaborate on how you localized your fan engagement strategies. How do you build that connect if you are not even playing in front of your Gujarat fans?

You spoke of numbers and I can share with you that currently we sit at around 1.85 million followers across all these platforms. Instagram of course has more than 1.1 million as of now.

Like I said earlier, while we may not be playing in Gujarat to start with, we did our launch in Gujarat. We did our practice camp at Ahmedabad. We were very clear [as to] who are we representing.

IPL has been in existence for the last fifteen years and Gujarat only having had a temporary team for two years, which everybody knew is only for two years. It was very important to kind of get a belief into the Gujarati mindset that we are representing them though we may not be playing a season this year at Ahmedabad. We were the only team that did the practice camp at our home base, and then move to Mumbai only two days before our first game here in Mumbai.

From a strategical perspective, it was important to have the Gujaratis now support their own team. Obviously they are all cricket lovers all over the country and the world. So they had been supporting one team or the other for obvious reasons. The first task was to get them back to support Gujarat.

That is why were very conscious of the fact that whatever we do, we keep the Gujarati mindset in mind. For example, just the fact that couple of days back we had the ‘Gujarat Day’. We ensured that the whole team gets together [and] celebrates the Gujarat Day. It is important for us. So that is only one of the aspects that has helped us, and of course the performance on the ground always helps.

It’s not easy to get somebody who’s been supporting the other teams the last so many years to now start supporting a new team just because they are representative of their region. But that has happened to a great extent as the numbers prove, and I am sure this will only improve as the Season goes and the team keeps performing in the manner that it is. That is the cricketing part.

8) I believe Gujarat Titans is pioneering the use of Metaverse & also Whatsapp group for Gujarat Titans' fans?

This again takes me back to that same question of ‘this is a new [Gujarat] franchise’, and we are not ready to accept that.

We were the first team to get on the Metaverse. You are aware of that. We did our logo launch in the Metaverse...all right? We have no experience of having done that.

As we go ahead, to whatever extent possible, we want to be innovative, we want to be creative. You are competing against eight brands who’ve been in existence for 14 years. This is their 15th year. So with all due respects to them, they’ve created their own brands, everybody knows about them. Here it was an opportunity for us to do something more than what has already been done by the others, or different than what the others have done. Metaverse was one such thing.

If you remember when we did the launch, the jersey was launched in Augmented Reality. Again, something which nobody else had done. So the whole thought process is ‘okay, fine. We may have joined in now, but let’s do something which nobody else has done.’

You will see a couple more things as we go along where nobody else has done that. Again, it’s not something to prove that we’re very different from what the others are doing, but we are conscious of the fact that with the changing environment, with technology coming in, [we are] now looking for much more than just the usual stuff as to how we can engage. That is how we go about things.

---

9) Gujarat Titans is currently sitting at the top of the IPL Standings, while established franchises like Mumbai and CSK are rock bottom. Are you pleasantly surprised at how team Gujarat has seamlessly clicked – both on the field, and also in the front office?

Firstly, we couldn’t have asked for anything more. I think everybody involved in this whole process of setting up the [Gujarat] franchise and then the cricketing side of it…nobody expects this kind of results. It’s never happened in the past. It’s never happened in 14 years of existence of the IPL that any team, especially one that is getting together for the first time, would have won eight out of their first nine games. It’s a record in itself, and we’re very happy with the fact that it’s happened with us.

But having said that, everybody [on our team] understands how things are being conducted here. It’s those small things that make so much of a difference. It’s those same players and most of them have played in the IPL earlier.

From a leadership perspective of the cricketing side, Hardik has played an immense role in how the culture of the [Gujarat] team is being set up. For him, it was a great opportunity where for the first time he is taking on a leadership role, moving out of his comfort zone of a setup like Mumbai Indians and then leading a brand new team on the field, having never ever done that earlier. The result is for all to see. Kudos to him, hats off to him as to what he’s done.

Equally also has been the role of the cricketing side whether it is Vikram who is the Director of Cricket, [Head Coach] Ashish Nehra, the kind of culture that he’s trying to set in the team, in conjunction with each other. Gary Kirsten brings that calmness to that whole atmosphere there. Hardik with his skillset and leadership skills, which has been an eye-opener for everybody.

By God’s Grace everything has actually come together for us, and behind the scenes guys like me and my team have been trying to ensure that they don’t have to look over their shoulder and they are made most comfortable. It’s not easy being in the bubble, you know, creating the environment etc etc.

I’ve always believed that in life, if your intentions are right, more often than not the results will follow. In our case, I think that is exactly what has happened and that’s exactly how we want to continue.