Rohan Chandran is the Chief Product and Technology officer at Guild, an education benefits company that works with large employers like Target, Chipotle, Hilton, and PepsiCo to train their workforces and create career mobility for employees. Two constants in Rohan’s adult life have been playing cricket and tapping into the power of momentum to lead successful companies.
How important is cricket to Rohan? He chose to attend Stanford University based on the quality of its cricket club. The club’s quality did not live up to his expectations, but it gave him a platform for success. He became a founding member of the cricket media site Cricinfo, later acquired by ESPN, and a member of the Stanford Supernovas Cricket Team, an alumni team that recently hoisted a league trophy.
And cricket taught him something else that matters in business and sports: momentum.
People tend to talk of momentum as a wave you ride. Rohan sees momentum as a “trigger moment” when a spark is created. “But to create that momentum, there has to be some intentionality around it,” he said. “If you’re playing cricket and the opposition makes an error, what creates the possibility for momentum isn’t the error but the leader’s readiness to react quickly and say, “Ah, a spark! How do I latch on to it and take advantage of that situation?”
In the podcast, Rohan argues that momentum in business is subject to mass times velocity. “You can’t easily adjust the mass or heft of your business in an instant, but the speed is under your control,” he said.
This means that momentum works differently depending on the size of an organization. “With CricInfo, we were the first live sports on the internet,” he said. “It was just us saying we’re going to go hard at this and everything may not work, but we created momentum.”
Later, at Yahoo, Rohan and his team proceeded with greater caution. “We had a team we called ‘the paranoids’ whose job was to predict all the things that might go wrong.” The paranoids dulled momentum at a $6 billion revenue company where mistakes could be costly.
Whether you’re riding a wave, seeing which way the wind blows or catching a spark, leaders will enjoy Rohan’s deep thinking about seizing the day, with lessons that include:
"Don is one of the best storytellers I’ve ever met. I’ve known him for a long time and every time we talk I walk away wiser and more inspired. He is the best in the business at teaching you a skill – storytelling – that will last you a lifetime.”
“The ability for athletes to get hired is carried on through you because you are putting out the message that lessons learned from sports are important in life. It is embedded in this podcast, what you’re doing is significant.”
We speak the same language. I am inspired by the stories you tell, the people you have met, and the things you’ve done. Those of us that are competitors like to follow others that have been down that journey, so it is always fun talking to you!”
“Many of the leaders I have worked with were excellent athletes, and I think there is a direct correlation. You’re one of the few people that really has pursued this study, Don. Keep up the great work. What you are doing really makes a difference.”
“Don, you have mastered the skill of interviewing and asking great questions. That is a great skill all leaders need in order to understand their team members’ thought processes.”
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