CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY'S “blue boat”, which faces its Oxford rival in the 153rd boat race on April 7th, glides past the browns and greys of the East Anglian fenland. The oars cup and spill the water, leaving eight evenly spaced dimples in the river behind them. Two catamarans track the boat's progress. In the first, Duncan Holland, the coach, looks for flaws in the rowers' technique. In the second sits a less congruous figure: Mark de Rond, a management theorist from Cambridge's Judge Business School. He thinks this time-honoured contest holds lessons for business today.
As in any company, the members of the boat club are torn between competition and co-operation. Colleagues vie with each other for preferment, yet must collaborate closely to fend off competition from without. To win a seat in the blue boat a rower must outshine his clubmates; but to go fast, rowers must synchronise their efforts with the same people they are trying to outdo.
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