You would have to be trying fairly hard to have missed the World Cup 2018 kick-off in Russia. Already, the tournament has given us a flurry of early narratives — the genius of Cristiano Ronaldo; the shock of Messi’s saved penalty; the upset brought on by Spain’s last-minute change of manager.
Perhaps the biggest early story happened on the first Sunday of the tournament, when Mexico shocked everyone — including, possibly, themselves — by beating reigning champions Germany. It is not doing Mexico too much of a disservice to say their victory will likely be remembered as one of this tournament’s great underdog moments the sport sometimes provides.
It’s the classic set-up — a little-fancied challenger takes on the champion, battles it out, and shocks everyone by emerging victorious. It is the kind of tale that kindles hope that keeps many sports fans interested and fixated on their teams.
A not-dissimilar idea of an underdog mentality has, for some time, been an emerging business concept, spoken of in the same breath as that overused term “disruption”. This has emerged from the idea of start-ups, particularly those in the tech space, who have risen from tiny origins to take on (and beat!) gigantic established market players.
Technology and greater connectivity have allowed small, plucky underdogs to seize the initiative, quickly expand their reach, and emerge as gigantic companies themselves because they were prepared to take on the champion. Think of Airbnb, think of Careem. Even Apple, when you think about it, took on the dominance of Windows and PCs with better design and marketing.
This underdog mentality, whether in the corporate world or sports, can often be linked with the idea of being ready to act with more agility, more flexibility, and more willingness to innovate. On the football field, you might see this as players willing to play without fear, and managers setting their team up to attack a top team in a gung-ho fashion.
In business, it can be very similar. A company with a start-up mentality will be able to act quickly to take advantage of market conditions, because it has limited corporate procedures and traditions. It might be able to innovate faster, because it has less stakeholders to impress and less sense of having brand equity and prestige to lose if it fails to deliver.
It can attempt things that are new and different because consumers don’t expect anything of it.
Naturally, the “champions” that these underdogs go up against also have significant advantages too. They have economies of scale. Customers know who they are.
They have the funds to invest heavily in winning ideas. They are also, sometimes, just better. But the underdog mentality is certainly appealing for many businesses.
Fostering such a mentality needn’t be the reserve of tech start-ups either. The idea of staying agile and innovation-focused can be something that many companies can benefit from. It begins with recruitment — hiring candidates who buy-in to the idea of trying new things, value innovation, and are ready to work in an organisation that might move rapidly between different approaches.
You need leaders who aren’t set in their ways, or beholden to one “right way” of getting results. You need managers who are flexible enough to accommodate different approaches and mindsets within their teams.
You need employees who are engaged and enthused about what the company is aiming to do.
The underdog mentality often also means fostering a strong sense of team, and a strong sense of possibilities. They aren’t beholden to rigid team structures, and they don’t work through strict hierarchies that inhibit ideas coming to fruition. Instead, they prioritise action and results.
Then they focus on goals, and build a culture where people believe they can achieve them. They build a work culture where everyone is engaged with the company’s mission, and they build a sense that everyone is s specialist with an important contribution to make to success.
The classic underdog story, of course, can end exactly as you would expect — with the established champion taking the glory. But, as Mexico’s performance against Germany shows, there is also room for successful underdogs when they don’t let fear, old ideas or inaction prevent them from writing their own narrative.
Ahmad Badr is CEO of Knowledge Group.
