Mark Alleyne has been getting the best out of professional cricketers for years. Now embarked on an MBA and enjoying a stint at Clydesdale Bank, the former captain of Gloucestershire is convinced the business world can learn a great deal from the world of sport. Christian Annesley met him.
How best do you motivate the individual members of a team to ensure group success? Whether the question relates to sport or business, it’s not an easy conundrum to answer.
But for Mark Alleyne, Gloucestershire cricket’s most successful captain, settling on the right formula is something he’s still thinking about four years after retiring as a player and more than a year after stepping down as head coach.
What’s changed for Alleyne is the context. After making his debut in 1986 at the age of 18, he played top-flight cricket at Gloucestershire for nearly two decades. And he was captain of the club during their reign as the best one-day side in the country, winning eight trophies between 1999 and 2004.
But since leaving his coaching post in February 2008 he has started an MBA and, since January, has been involved with Clydesdale Bank in Bristol to gain an insight into business practice from the inside.
“As a cricket captain I often applied business principles to managing the team, but what’s struck me during my time with Clydesdale is that business can learn from sport as well as providing some answers,” he says.
Alleyne’s time there has coincided with the global financial crisis, prompting banks to reassess how they operate, and it’s got him thinking.
“Incentivising individuals with personal targets but expecting the best collective outcome needs to be handled delicately,” he says. “It’s something the banking industry is scrutinising, and Clydesdale has been looking at itself, too. What this bank has done well is to take a long-term view and build something sustainable – something all banks will be trying to pull off in future years.”
But what is the cricket connection? “I’ve always had a holistic approach to my leadership and coaching, emphasising long-term objectives instead of short-term fixes. Plenty of businesses can learn from that,” says Alleyne.
How does that work in practice? “Cricket is a day-in, day-out game for county players, and getting the most out of your best players is crucial,” he says. “I’ve learnt to focus on keeping the best players fit by not overworking them. It’s so much better to have them on the park all summer, keeping up everyone’s optimism, than injured for half the season through overwork.
“Recognising individuals and rewarding them in the right way is also fundamental. And I’m not talking about money. The successes of young children are celebrated all the time by their parents, but too often we grow up and enter a world of work where hard work doesn’t get recognised.
“What’s wonderful about professional sport is that you experience, and share with team-mates, the highs and lows. Businesses must come up with the right approach to ensure excellence gets celebrated there and then, rather than once a year at an annual back-slapping ceremony.”
It’s a question of having the right reward culture in place, says Alleyne. Not massive individual bonuses for short-term gains, as has sometimes been the case in banking.
“I addressed this at Gloucestershire. At one time it was standard practice to reward bowlers with bonuses based on wickets taken,” he says. “But that blunt instrument encouraged selfishness because it’s easier to knock over the lower-order batsmen. That means some bowlers focused on mopping up the tail to boost their wickets tally.
“But cricket is about getting the whole side out, so I brought in a different reward structure that put more emphasis on knocking over the top order, encouraging everyone to pull in the same direction.”
Alleyne says recognising that every group will draw strength from individuals’ differences is also important.
“For any team to function you need common ground. But beyond that you need to let people be themselves; one size fits all never works,” he says.
“We won all those trophies without any big stars in the team. We had no particular strength other than our confidence in each other. The players trusted each other and knew I trusted them to think on their feet.”
Alleyne is also struck how, in business just as sport, you need to foster the next generation of talent to remain successful. “Bringing on the next generation always matters,” he says. “I retired at 36.
I could have played for longer, but called it a day because it felt appropriate that others take over.
You must not delay giving opportunities to those on the way up.”
Alleyne really is serious about nurturing the next generation. He’s just been appointed head coach at the Marylebone Cricket Club, guardian of Lord’s cricket ground, where he will oversee the MCC Young Cricketers and develop coaching structures.
“The MCC is at the heart of world cricket,” he says. “I aim to ensure coaching programmes are in place, links to MCC Universities are built on and the MCC Young Cricketers attracts the top aspiring cricketers.”
In between times, his MBA – and a few business opportunities, no doubt – will be waiting for him.
Also in: May 2009
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