Beats of success

In June 2007, Shanker Annaswamy, Managing Director of IBM India, found himself in an unaccustomed role—beating a large djembe (an African drum) with a band of young men. The place: New Delhi. The occasion: an internal conference of the IT company where djembes were used to fire up the energy levels of employees.

The young men conducting the opening act of drum session were not part of any rock group. Rupert Picardo, Srikanth Murthy, Oscar D’Silva and Sachid Tharayil, all in their mid-30s, are entrepreneurs selling music to corporates. In the last two years, they have successfully marketed the concept of “drum circle” to a wide spectrum of clients. “In August 2006, when we launched d’frenstrokes, we had a mere 27 African djembes.

Today, we have over 2,500 percussion instruments, more than half of which are djembes,” says Picardo. Their Bangalore-based management consulting firm—d’frens Consulting—promotes its drum circle by the name, d’frenstrokes.

The team uses different instruments and gets a large number of people to produce a symphony of orchestrated beats to show how, as a team, they can produce amazing results even if they are not equally skilled at a particular job. As more and more companies struggle not just with their balance sheets but motivating key talent in a slowdown, many are surrendering to music to dismantle the invisible wall between employees that hampers productivity and team work. “An organisation is like an orchestra. If synchronized well, it creates good music. If one person directs and different sets of people play their part well, it creates stunning melody,” says K.A. Narayan, President, HR, Raymond Limited, which hosted one such event in May 2008 for its employees.

So, what exactly is a drum circle? It is basically a concert where participants start playing drums or other instruments to any beat, but gradually pick up the dominant beat to produce a harmonised sound. Doesn’t it produce more cacophony than harmony, though? Murthy admits that there have been instances where those better skilled at an instrument have tried to outdo others, leading to momentary disharmony. But the beats soon return to a pattern. What heightens the fun are the different types of instruments at play—doumbek, duffs, boom-whackers, tambourines and soundshapes, or even articles of daily use such as metal boxes, spoons and forks.

What’s a Drum Circle? It is a group of people—with different skill sets— who play percussion instruments in freestyle but produce a harmonised rhythm in the end. There is no restriction on numbers, and groups of several hundred employees from a company have been known to take part in a session. There is no bar on the kind of instrument used; anything from drums and cymbals to household items like forks can be used. What are the benefits? It helps release stress and build team spirit.

The drum circle, says Murthy, is a powerful tool that helps as a stress buster or a team building Four young musicians from Bangalore are helping companies improve the team spirit of their employees and heighten productivity by organising instrument. “Our programmes are completely interactive and transform one’s thinking from ‘I’ve never tried this before’ to ‘I did’ and finally ‘I believe’. It brings out the best in everyone.”

As a concept, this is relatively new to India. In fact, as Murthy says, till they arrived on the scene, drum circle facilitators were flown in from abroad to conduct events here. “Today, there is a home-grown solution that knows the audience, understands beats from all over the country, incorporates regional nuances and integrates with the participants as one,” he says.

What makes the group even more interesting is the fact that none of the four drummers is a trained musician. They are all engineers who studied together in the early 1990s. Their only window to music was when they came together to form a college band. So strong was their creative streak that all of them gave up their jobs in 2005 to float their own venture. “We invested in 27 large African djembes and practised various beats. We knew we had to get the audience to participate in our programmes, much more than they had ever done at a concert,” says Picardo. Since 2006, the “fab four” have done over 150 events for 80 clients in India as well as abroad, in Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand.

Nokia India’s key accounts manager Vedula Suresh, for one, is full of praise for the group. “It was amazing to see how they got all our employees to participate. As the rhythm got faster, everyone became one team and played to the rhythm. It created a great sense of oneness,” says Suresh. So impressed was Nokia with their experience, that they invited d’fresnstrokes back the following year for another team spirit building session. “We do programmes for teams of various sizes from as small as 12 members to large corporate houses with over 3,000 employees.

The techniques vary and the intimacy with the audience differs with every occasion, but the energy levels, the enthusiasm and the result are always the same,” says Picardo. Like true conscientious entrepreneurs, these young men have made sure they take their corporate social responsibilities seriously as well. During their free time, they conduct events for communities and schools, free of cost.

Normally, however, they charge between Rs 50,000 and Rs 4 lakh for a programme, depending on the number of participants. “Although we do over 75 drum circles a year, it still constitutes a mere 30 per cent of our business,” says Picardo. Their firm offers other services like employee engagement and integrated communication.

The success of their venture can be gauged by the fact that their earnings shot up to Rs 2.3 crore in 2008—a growth of almost 10 times from their modest combined earnings of Rs 25 lakh in 2006. “Drum circles are pretty expensive to conduct. The biggest cost is transporting these instruments from one city to another,’’ says Picardo. The team has warehouses in Bangalore and Pune and is setting up a third in Delhi.

With an increasing number of corporate houses facing the prospect of dealing with stressed and demotivated employees following layoffs and pay cuts—d’frens Consulting is one firm that is surely looking to increase its bank The Corporate Connection: A drum circle event in Bangalore balance in 2009.