In The Spotlight

Bafana Bafana – A spirit that pervades a nation 

DataQuest Article, 07/2010, Ganesh Natarajan

A momentous exchange of words that occurred in South Africa very soon  after it attained independence from oppression and apartheid in 1994 has been spoken about and immortalized in the movie “Invictus” as one of the inflection points in the making of a great nation. Francois Pienaar, the South African Captain of the 1995 Rugby World Cup winning team was handed the William Webb Ellis trophy by President Nelson Mandela with the words “Francois thank you for what you have done for our country” to which he replied “No Mr. President, thank you for what you have done”. The spirit of President Mandela which lifted a country and a “rainbow” set of communities to its first great sporting success has continued to inspire South Africa as it stands today proud of its successful hosting of international football’s magnum opus, the soccer World Cup.

Having the privilege to spend four days in the country and watching three games, Argentina’s effortless decimation of Korea at a client’s office , England’s labored draw with Algeria in the majestic Cape Town stadium and South Africa’s capitulation to Uruguay after painting my face in a Waterfront pub, what I found most inspiring was the pride of the country in their national team and their commitment to support it through victory and defeat. Bafana Bafana the name given to the team which translates into “The Boys” in Zulu represents for most South Africans the collective pride of a nation which has come out of years of neglect by the world community to a position where it holds its head high – in sport, in business and now in the strength of its political system.

South African business too has risen to the occasion with the Bafana Bafana spirit and colours pervading every office. As I met clients across Johannesburg and Cape Town, the excitement was palpable and the atmosphere in the office reception areas, canteens and even workplaces reflected the mood in the streets and the excellent stadia created for the event. And the lessons from every game were being carried into the workplace too as two workshops I did for our key insurance clients on Knowledge Management and Business Process Reengineering both used football metaphors to discuss team working and knowledge sharing. A classic example – the sluggish Rooney’s inability to connect with Gerard and Lampard and Cole with Algeria’s keeper hardly tested in the game while the hand of God which characterised Maradona the player in his heyday became evident again in his skilful play making for Argentina with Messi’s individual brilliance being utilised in tandem with his team mates as wave after wave of aggression left a normally competent Korean defence shattered four times in the space of sixty minutes.

This culture of process over selfish motives and knowledge sharing over individual artistry is evident in the successful IT deployment in many successful firms in South Africa. Many of our financial institution clients have successfully taken their IT departments and processes beyond Level 3 in the SEI CMMI process quality journey and are now assessing their ability to move to knowledge management maturity through a judicious deployment of tools and cultural interventions and the right push from leadership is ensuring a successful journey on the knowledge action path. The partnering approach to vendors is also much in evidence in the CIO community, with the result that our own company in a span of less than six years has become one of the market leaders with a revenue base touching hundred crores and one of our youngest sales managers Nilofer has developed a multimillion dollar order book within a year of opening a new city office.  The country continues to have significant challenges in skills development, particularly black empowerment as President Zuma articulated during the visit of a major South African delegation to India recently but the willingness to learn from other countries ‘experiences is evident in Government as well as business initiatives today. And a warm and friendly country is emerging from a land where less than a decade ago, we were encouraged not to stop at red lights for fear of being car jacked or assaulted!

Finally, if there was one moment when Indian pride swelled in our hearts, it was when we watched the England – Algeria game in the majestic Cape Town stadium and suddenly saw the rim of the playing circle display Mahindra Satyam all around. The much vilified Ramalinga Raju may have had many faults but one judgment call he took in being the technology sponsor to a major event represents the vision of the man and the capability of one industry to show its truly global aspirations. May the show go on!