IPL 2018: CSK’s five lessons for the corporate world

Happy environment

The best places to work are those that provide a harmonious environment to all its stakeholders. Almost everyone that’s been a part of Chennai Super Kings vouches for this quality.

Much of the harmony is also down to the stability of the core group. Even as other teams fiddled with their squads in the early years of the IPL, CSK invested in a core group of players and sought to nurture it over the years.

The support staff, too, comprises people that have played for the franchise in the past - like Fleming, bowling coach L Balaji and assistant coach Mike Hussey - and even the physiotherapist (Tommy Simsek) and analyst (Lakshminarayanan) are old-timers.

Fleming has often said that a big part of his job is to keep the squad of 20-25 players in a good frame of mind. It’s evident that he has achieved that end by ensuring that the players feel secure about their roles in the side.

It is then no surprise that someone like a Lungi Ngidi, who lost his father midway during the IPL, found in the CSK changeroom a caring bunch of people that helped him come to grips with the tragedy.