In Rio, Dipa Karmakar despite a death defying vault missed out on a medal by a hair’s breadth. 

Awestruck by Karmakar’s performance achieved without much external support, Delhi based Leadership Consulting firm OD Alternatives has stepped forward to announce a token amount of Rs 5 lakh for the young gymnast as well as leadership coaching, training support and counselling.

Santhosh Babu, MD, OD Alternatives feels that while government support for sports people is necessary, corporates also need to recognise and reward sportspersons who have potential.


“We would like to identify sports persons who need support and help them through financial support, coaching and training,” he says.

“There are other athletes like PV Sindhu and Sakshi Malik who we would like to support with coaching”, he adds.

Babu’s organization has done extensive work on nurturing female talent in the corporate sector. He feels the same training if extended to sports can make a significant difference.

For instance, OD Alternatives has contributed immensely in Royal Bank of Scotland’s India programme 'Determined - Female Leaders Talent Programme' aimed at transforming high-potential candidates into business leaders oftomorrow.

“The intent to support and build women leaders creating greater gender equality is increasingly visible these days,” says Babu.

OD Alternatives uses a combination of approaches and specially created development tools to deliver customizes leadership training programmes. Some of the tools and techniques used for the corporate sector could work in the sporting arena as well, while other tools would need to be formulated.

While a sports coach helps sportspersons to enhance physical performance through a variety of ways, a life coach helps them by working on the inner aspects to align the mind to the ultimate goal of winning.

A common criticism as India stares at a dismally empty medals tally at Rio Olympics is that the nation is too focused on one sport – cricket – to the exclusion of support to others. Cricket has benefitted from sponsorship, a cash rich federation and high viewership. Of late, however, things are changing with monetary support starting to trickle in for non cricket supports.

Santhosh Babu feels that OD Alternatives contribution – while it may be a token amount – sends a strong signal that when even small boutique organizations can contribute it will give an impetus to sports development.

 
Santhosh Babu, CEO Coach and Founding MD of Organisation Development Alternatives leads the near two decade old consultancy focused on culture change, leadership development and coaching.

The firm has conducted leadership development programs for companies like IDFC Bank, Airtel, Abbott, Mercedes, etc. The demand for leadership is spurred as much by the need to have a leadership pipeline in place, especially for Indian family-owned businesses, as by the need to build agility, specifically in people, as an area of competency.