May 7, 2009

The art of war and junior girls basketball

By: David Adesnik

Malcolm Gladwell has unearthed another gem. It is the story of Vivek Ranadive, an immigrant from Mumbai who founded a software company in Silicon Valley. Mr. Ranadive volunteered to coach his 12-year-old daughter’s basketball team. The girls on her team were not tall, were not good shooters and were not good at handling the ball. Mr. Ranadive had never played basketball before. He took his team all the way to the national championship tournament.

How did he do it? The same way that Lawrence of Arabia defeated the Turks with a handful of bedouins. Just read the story.