In this edition of ‘Principal Business Champions – Winning Ideas’, we asked distributors to share two learnings from India’s most popular sport, cricket.
This poll is a joint initiative between Principal Mutual Fund and Cafemutual that offers a platform to the mutual fund distributor (MFD) community to share their valuable experiences.
We have received some interesting responses in the contest from distributors. Here are the entries that received the highest votes.
Website winner: Naman Dhamija, Mumbai
‘Cricket teaches me to avoid noise and stay focused’
In cricket, a batsman cannot take a run without his partner and a bowler needs support from fielders to pick wickets. Like cricket, our job is also a team game. With a well-rounded team, you have more time to invest in strengthening client relations, offering more products and services to your clients, refining your skills; in other words, growing your business is a cakewalk with a well-knit team.
Another learning from cricket is to avoid noise and stay focused. Great players are not distracted by the crowd’s cheering or criticism. Similarly, one should not be swayed by challenges such as regulation or volatility in the market.
Facebook winner: Vaibhav Rane, Mumbai
‘Cricket highlights importance of a diversified portfolio’
An ideal cricket team should consist of players with complementary skills and talent such as bowlers, batsmen, all-rounders, wicket keeper. Similarly, our clients need to have an optimum mix of equity funds, hybrid funds and debt funds to achieve financial goals. Further, to get a balanced team you need different types of players in each facet of the game. For instance, you need quality top-order batsmen and finishers who can accelerate at will. Similarly, an ideal portfolio must have various categories of equity and debt funds.
Another lesson that has stayed with me is how players channelize their energy. An excellent example is Virat Kohli who has channelised his aggression and energy in the right direction. Likewise, during a downward trend in the market, it is wise to increase investments in a staggered manner.
Twitter winner: Harshavardhan Bhusari, Pune
‘Having a clear idea of your target is extremely critical’
In cricket, while chasing it is necessary to have a clear idea of the target and the required run rate. For instance, your approach to chase 200 runs in 50 overs will be completely different from chasing 300 runs in an ODI. Similarly while investing client’s money, it is important to understand their life goals and allocate the assets accordingly.
Moreover, cricket has taught me to stay calm and do what you believe in. Every great player gets questioned after a couple of failures. But they keep their calm and stick to the basics to prove their worth. Similarly, during volatile markets, clients get anxious and tend to question funds recommended by us. In such a scenario, we should stay calm and help them grasp the bigger picture.
