Brian uzzi He was heard for the first time for the groups Satyam Mukherjeewho worked in the Uzzi Lab as a postdoctoral researcher and is now located at Shiv Nadar University, India. “Satyam was hired to play cricket at college, but ended up doing a Physics in Physics after knee injury,” says Uzzi, Professor of Kellogg’s Management and Organizations and Codirector at Northwestern Institute on Complex Systms (Nico) and Northwestern Institute. “We did research on teams in science and wanted to consider how the standards of collaboration played in sports teams.”
Their original line of dispute resulted in a study showing that it was not only the collection of individual talents that led to the team’s victories, but also the history of teammates to win together.
This project led Uzzi and Mukherjeje to consider a question: What happens when players who leave their team for a new – either through transactions, free dealerships or “auctions” in cricket – play against their former teammates?
“If you play against someone you know,” says Uzzi, “you know their strong and weaknesses and you can better strategize those around them.
In short, players who go up to the former teams or their teammates may be able to predict how the basics of the competition will go and find tactics to win.
Then there is the psychology factor: “The original team may want to show that they made the right decision to negotiate you with someone else,” says Uzzi, “but you want to perform at a high level to show that they did not do so and protect your self -esteem.”
However, there may also be disadvantages for players who go up against former teammates, as Uzzi notes: “You may forget who your teammates were or have new players in your old team or get in better shape or have a new team mentality.”
Understand what happens when players compete with old teams or their former teammates, Uzzi, Mukherjee and Northwestern colleagues Jun Huang and Contractor noshir (Also, Professor of Kellogg Management and Organizations) Study the IPL cricket players, teams and results fit. They found that when a team was familiar with more players in the opposing team, they were much more likely to win a match against this team.
When “hiring a player, franchise owners should not be based solely on the player’s ability, but also take advantage of the rivalry between a former teammate,” the researchers write. The same could be said about academic, business and other types of organizations looking for a competitive advantage.
Ecosystem Group matters
The researchers have analyzed data from more than eight seasons of the Indian Premier League from 2012-2019. The championship is relatively new in India, dedicated to short -term matches, not to traditional matches.
During the examination of the nearly 500 matches during this time, the researchers identified the number of players who had played for an opposing team in a particular match and the differences between these numbers for each of the competitive teams. Not only did they look at who won a particular race, but also the difference in the routes the teams that win and lose.
The researchers were also checked for factors such as the level of talent of individual cricket players – based on statistics such as batting, bowling (equivalent to pitching in baseball) and field rates – along with team dynamics, such as the number of players in a given team.
Overall, familiarizing a team with the players in an opposing team has proved to be much more critical for its success than the team’s overall skill or the previous joint success of its players.
To be specific, the chances of a cricket team that hit an opposing team were 1.6 times higher if he had fewer players who had previously played for the opposing team from the reverse. In short, the teams that had a picture of more members of the opposing team were much more likely to win a match against this team.
“It shows that victory is not only driven by individual talent or team spirit,” says Uzzi. “He also has to do with how experienced players with the competing teams. This knowledge can come from a ‘broker’ who was in the other team.”
The results could help explain the famous miracle on the ice when the mass hockey underdog team defeated top Russia for the gold medal at the 1980 Olympic Games. Many of the US team players had previously been trained in Russia. “In this way, the Americans may have learned a lot about the Russian team,” says Uzzi, “and this may have helped them get to the top.”
Hired for previous experience
The findings have a clear impact on how sports organizations make their teams.
“If you hire two prospects with similar talents for the same position, you would probably like the one in most other groups,” says Uzzi, suggesting that this could offer a team with more image for more than its opponents.
But organizations beyond the world of sports can also apply the findings to their teams. Academic institutions are an example. “At a university, you are struggling to get the best students and funding,” says Uzzi. “This could come from taking top talents from another school and find out how these schools competed for these things and then may adopt some new practices based on what you learn.”
Courses are important for a wide range of businesses. “Apple hired many employees from Tesla’s electric car team a few years ago because they wanted to start in the business and were trying to get these kinds of secrets,” says Uzzi. This practice has prompted many organisms to put protective messages against the talent cavity through non -completion clauses or non -propagation agreements.
Businesses have also tried to protect from this practice by building their internal talent team through development opportunities. “Sometimes a really strong organization is the one that grows from within,” says Uzzi. “They increase their talent, so they are less likely to leak into other organizations.”
And of course, he adds: “It is also important to evolve, so even if people leave your team, your game will have changed.”
