Management lessons from ‘Russia with love’

Samuel Sejjaaka

What you need to know:

  • Lessons. France and Belgium prove that you can actually organise Africans to do something. Figure out the beauty of Kylian Mbappe and the power of Romelu Lukaku.

The World Cup’s embers are still burning, but the moment of truth is almost upon us. Who will have the last laugh? A whole month of footie festivities and have we been enthralled? You bet. Nobody could have foretold the pass we have arrived at. Without being in Russia, I have learnt more than I could possibly learn about the country. It just happened that as they played all this football, I was also reading a book called Factfulness by Hans Rosling (RIP). The two events have been eye opening.

First let’s get Hans Rosling out of the way. He was a Swedish physician, academic, statistician, and public speaker. He was a professor of International Health at Karolinska Institute and was the co-founder and chairman of the Gapminder Foundation, which developed the Trendalyzer software system.

He promoted the use of data to explore development issues. His last work, Factfulness, which he co-authored with his son and daughter-in-law makes the general point that the world is getting better and better. That this is the best time to be alive. So you can imagine reading his message and at the same time seeing all the ‘big’ teams being thrown out of the World Cup, proves that the world is becoming a more equal place.

But not so fast, unless you know how to help you kith and kindred, which is what we ought to be learning as Africans. From my armchair view of both events, here is the Russian ‘love’ that I can share with you in the hope that you will wake up to a better tomorrow - five beautiful management lessons that you can only forget at your peril.
Lesson number one is about Croatia’s president and the idea of ‘power distance’. The lesson is that the more important the leader of your country is than the people who pay taxes in that country, the more backward you are likely to be. I can’t add anything to this lesson. We all know that the Croatian president is leading from the ‘front’. You can’t beat that with your convoy and guards. Show some love for your people as a leader.

Lesson number two is that France and Belgium prove that you can actually organise Africans to do something. Figure out the beauty of Kylian Mbappe and the power of Romelu Lukaku, and you will realise that brains beats brawn anytime. That augurs well for Africa. If we could develop a system to choose intelligence and organisation over brute force, we too could change our destiny. The French and Belgians have taken our kin, organised them and made a meal of the World Cup. Pity they didn’t meet in the finals. Those ‘French’ Africans play the beautiful game, courtesy of the organisation that their colonial masters bring to them.

Lesson number three is about the English. Even with the sun setting on your empire, keep on blowing your trumpet. For a moment we all hoped that the English would be in the finals, until their hot air balloon run out of gas. They were ‘denied’ by the Croatians! But they never stopped believing. We too should not stop believing and that’s the only way to be successful.
Lesson number four is that the Africans think that turning up is the end of the story. No matter how individually skilled your players are, planning, teamwork and a good work culture will beat talent any day. All the mismanaged African teams were thrown out in the first round.

Lesson number five is that you should not believe the media any more. It is mostly a set of misinformed opinions. The facts speak for themselves. The Russians have just “Putin” a wonderful show that exposes Western media agendas for what they are. Which brings me back to Factfulness – the world is actually a much better place than the newspapers want us to believe. Viva la Revolucion! May the French win it for Africa.

Prof Sejjaaka is country team leader at Abacus Business School.
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@samuelsejjaaka