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#Post#: 37269--------------------------------------------------
There was an old man called Wray
DIR By: Perdita
Date: January 27, 2020, 2:49 pm
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There was an old man called Wray
Who had a problem with pay
He paid far too much
got caught out as such
and Quins had the final say
#Post#: 37273--------------------------------------------------
Re: There was an old man called Wray
DIR By: 22 Dropout
Date: January 27, 2020, 4:01 pm
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Plenty to reflect on in this interview. It's dangerous to
believe your own BS.
HTML https://www.clic.co.uk/business-can-learn-a-great-deal-from-sport-especially-when-saracens-boss-nigel-wray-is-the-teacher-and-his-magic-ingredient-is-love/<br
/>
BUSINESS CAN LEARN A GREAT DEAL FROM SPORT, ESPECIALLY WHEN
SARACENS’ BOSS, NIGEL WRAY IS THE TEACHER…
OCTOBER 30, 2017
Success follows him around like a besotted fan: from pizza to
property to publishing, Nigel Wray has swished his magic wand
over vast swathes of the business world. And he wafts it
modestly and deftly. Unforgettable comments during our highly
civilised conversation at his home in Totteridge, North London,
include “humility is such a strong word, don’t you think?” along
with “once you slip into arrogance, that’s it, there’s no
recovery” and “my talent is for locating other people who are
far better at running things than me”.
In November 1995, Nigel – a sports nut since childhood – backed
Saracens Rugby Club to the tune of around £2 million, and then
put his enchanted wand to more good use by taking Saracens, his
local team, into a golden era as its chairman. In May 2016 his
ambitions were realised when the North London rugby union side
achieved greatness with an historic double, winning both the
Aviva Premiership and the European Champions Cup. Who better,
then, to understand what’s needed to achieve business success,
and to explain what the world of business can learn from the
sporting arena?
Nigel started his career in merchant banking, earning £35 a
week. He then became a media entrepreneur, buying a foreign
affairs newsletter – The Fleet Street Letter – “for not much
money” and reshaping it into a City title. Things looked bad for
a while – “we were down to £98 in the bank in the late 1970s” –
but then the business took off big style. Before long, Nigel had
teamed up with Michael Green, who ran Carlton TV: “We merged the
Fleet Street Letter with Carlton and under Michael’s leadership
the business became one of the great growth stories. We bought
Moving Picture Company, Technicolor, and then obviously became
the largest TV company in the UK. That was all under Michael. It
was then that I first discovered that I don’t have to run
things. If I can find someone who’s far better than I am to run
things, what’s the problem?”
He later succeeded – again big style – in property (after
discovering someone who was fantastic in this sector, Nick
Leslau) and, perhaps less predictably, in pizzas with Domino’s.
Nigel says: “I bumped into someone on the stairs one day in 1997
who asked whether I’d be interested in investing in a pizza
company. I’d never given pizzas a thought. But what he did say,
which struck me as interesting, is that there were around 5,000
Domino’s outlets in the US and only 95 in the UK. So I invested
in Domino’s, which without doubt was one of the most predictably
successful businesses I’ve ever seen or will ever expect to
see.”
And why did Domino’s do so well? Well, it was nothing much to do
with me, says Nigel (hmm, we begin to detect a theme here.) He
explains: “A chap called Stephen Hemsley came in. He was an
accountant and – he knows this – I thought he’d never make it to
CEO. Accountants can’t be CEOs, or so I thought. But Stephen was
absolutely brilliant. And he turned it from a really good
amateur business into a highly professional one. He realised:
don’t screw the franchisees, make sure they do really well and,
surprise surprise, you’ll do really well too. So success was
down to just one person. In business – and sport – it’s always
down to people.”
Nigel describes his time with Saracens as “the longest learning
experience of my life”. So what has this hugely successful,
vastly experienced businessman learned at a rugby club that he
hadn’t picked up already elsewhere?
First and foremost, he learned the importance of living by a set
of values. “You’ve got to know what you stand for,” Nigel says.
“When I arrived at Saracens we started out with good ideas,
finished second in the league and won the cup, but we then spent
the next 10 or so years meandering. Then Brendan Venter, a tough
South African, arrived as director of rugby in 2009. He asked:
‘What does Saracens stand for?’ And no one knew. And I bet you
if you go into virtually any company today and ask various
people what their organisation stands for, they won’t know
either. To be a truly great business you’ve got to know what you
stand for.
“What Brendan said – which has had such an impact – is that
Saracens is going to stand for building great memories together,
for working hard on the field of play, and for enjoying our time
with each other on and off the field. In a nutshell, being part
of Saracens means building something that one day we’ll look
back on with a smile… and with pride.”
Nigel continues: “With that ethos as our foundation, we evolved
a no-blame culture – if someone drops the ball, that’s OK. You
are blamed if you’re lazy, but not for making a mistake. We also
focused on involving the whole family: wives, kids, parents and
grandparents. It sounds trite: but everyone loves everyone.
There’s a great deal of love out there. When you think of rugby
you think– it’s tough and physically hard – so how can we start
discussing love? But it’s there all right.
“If you’d asked me to discuss this ten years ago, I’d have said:
yeah, sure. But now I believe it. People will go to far greater
lengths for mates they love than they will ever go for people
whom they happen to just vaguely know. If you could transfer
that energy into industry, so the bloke down the end of the room
really knows the bloke down the other end – knows his kids and
his family; if they shared things together… that would be
massive.”
Nigel believes that this approach can be replicated in business
– maybe not to the same extent, but to some degree: “I’m not
saying you can go as far with this in business as you can in
sport, but you can go some of the way. A successful company has
to be a team that works hard for each other.”
So what other gems from the sporting world can also be applied
to business? Well, in both arenas, profit follows but never
leads, believes Nigel. He explains: “I read recently that profit
is merely something that tells you you’re doing it well. I
totally agree. And with sport you can substitute the word
‘profit’ with ‘winning’. In both sport and business, ‘doing it
well’ is the hard work, the training, the being together, the
teamwork, the caring and the sacrifice. If you just want to make
money, you won’t. If you want to create a good business, a good
product, you must look after your customers and your people, and
have fun together, then you might make money. But you must focus
on it that way round, not the other.”
Another thing that is crucial to success in both sport and
business is “the person at the top” and their attitude, says
Nigel: “You have to get the leader right because nothing self
corrects down there – don’t blame the guys on the shop floor,
blame the guy at the top. Everything flows from there. A great
quote from a famous netball coach in the States who sadly died
recently, Pat Summitt, is: ‘People don’t care how much you know
until they know how much you care’. That’s so true. We’ll all
work with someone who cares for us. No one wants to work for a
sh*t, do they? It just doesn’t work.
“It’s down to one person. That person must have the drive and
the energy. And they must have good people on hand who are not
afraid to question them. Because if it’s just you, then sooner
or later you’ll believe your own publicity and go off the
cliff.”
To wrap up our chat with Nigel, we ask him our final question.
What’s his advice for achieving success in business? He replies:
“Believe in yourself, otherwise why should anyone else believe
in you? Find something you really believe in – that you have
real passion for. Then do it as best you can, and not just for
the short term. And then you may – may – make money. Money may
follow but it won’t lead.”
Nigel Wray is a man who has enjoyed success across the board. He
has learned many lessons on his journey from business into
sport. The big three things that we will always remember from
our conversation are…
Firstly, it’s about the people. Or rather, the person. The
individual at the top of the organisation is even more critical
than you would have ever imagined: they need to drive the whole
show and therefore must have the passion, skill and attitude to
build something extraordinary. Get the wrong person at the top
and everything will fail.
Secondly, profit (or winning) may follow but it never leads.
Money (or sporting victory) is a byproduct of a successful,
thriving, happy organisation where people work hard and care
about each other and their customers.
Finally, and most importantly, it’s about standing for something
and it’s about love. Yes, love. As sport demonstrates so
powerfully, we’re not automatons – we’re emotional human beings
who need to feel as if we have a purpose beyond basic profit. We
want to feel like we’re part of something special. When we’re
retired, we want to look back at the time we spent at work with
our colleagues and smile. If there’s no chance of that, if
there’s no team bond or joy, then the business is ultimately
doomed.
It seems that the business world really does have a great deal
to learn from sport. But it has even more to learn from Nigel
Wray.
Nigel Wray spoke to BDLN founder John Maffioli
#Post#: 37278--------------------------------------------------
Re: There was an old man called Wray
DIR By: Le Tiss
Date: January 28, 2020, 2:18 am
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Thanks for that, was a surprisingly good read.
#Post#: 37279--------------------------------------------------
Re: There was an old man called Wray
DIR By: DOK
Date: January 28, 2020, 2:47 am
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Actually, having read that, I have a lot more respect for the
man.
#Post#: 37282--------------------------------------------------
Re: There was an old man called Wray
DIR By: TeddingtonQuin
Date: January 28, 2020, 3:59 am
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"Secondly, profit (or winning) may follow but it never leads.
Money (or sporting victory) is a byproduct of a successful,
thriving, happy organisation where people work hard and care
about each other and their customers."
Yeah. Right.
#Post#: 37286--------------------------------------------------
Re: There was an old man called Wray
DIR By: never sleep
Date: January 28, 2020, 4:15 am
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The odd thing is this -
If he is such a good businessman, then why does Saracens lose
money every year?
#Post#: 37302--------------------------------------------------
Re: There was an old man called Wray
DIR By: harlequins
Date: January 28, 2020, 5:22 am
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"a byproduct of a successful, thriving, happy organisation where
people work hard and care about each other and their customers."
...a by-product of breaking the salary cap year after year,
saying he never did it, never apologising, not giving the
trophies back and bringing the game into potential disrepute.
#Post#: 37303--------------------------------------------------
Re: There was an old man called Wray
DIR By: T-Bone
Date: January 28, 2020, 5:30 am
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I don't think there's any doubt that he's a great businessman,
and little doubt that he created a very enjoyable culture at
Saracens, looking after families, bonding trips, creches, etc.
But there's also little doubt that to an extent he bought
success and cheated, at the very lease recklessly.
I know that money doesn't guarantee success and have no problem
acknowledging their culture, work rate and all that. It is
undeniable though that a significant part of their success is
due to the money he has pumped in, systematic cheating of the
cap while incurring huge losses
#Post#: 37314--------------------------------------------------
Re: There was an old man called Wray
DIR By: Le Tiss
Date: January 28, 2020, 6:15 am
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The rugby weekly podcast this week with Danny and Chris Ashton
was really interesting as well this week, with Chris speaking
openly about his arrangement with Wray regarding the house loan.
He apparently actually approached Wray to ask if he would
consider helping him buy the house and then paid him back later.
It never occurred to Chris at the time it was anything untoward
as it was an arrangement Wray had entered into with various
other players previously. Knowing what he does now that it was
effectively an incentive/benefit and against the rules of the
salary cap I suspect he wouldnt have even asked. I also suspect
that Wray knew exactly what he was up to, as I don't fully buy
the whole "just trying to help people out" line. It has though
changed my view of the Sarries players themselves, as I get the
impression that they were largely led astray/confused by the
whole process. When I have heard any players asked about how
much exactly they know about salary cap rules and the
intricacies of the system, none of them seem to have much of a
clue, even the ones who are quite vocal in their criticism of
sarries as a club.
#Post#: 37316--------------------------------------------------
Re: There was an old man called Wray
DIR By: T-Bone
Date: January 28, 2020, 6:51 am
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--- Quote from: Le Tiss link ---
>
> The rugby weekly podcast this week with Danny and Chris Ashton
was really interesting as well this week, with Chris speaking
openly about his arrangement with Wray regarding the house loan.
He apparently actually approached Wray to ask if he would
consider helping him buy the house and then paid him back later.
It never occurred to Chris at the time it was anything untoward
as it was an arrangement Wray had entered into with various
other players previously. Knowing what he does now that it was
effectively an incentive/benefit and against the rules of the
salary cap I suspect he wouldnt have even asked. I also suspect
that Wray knew exactly what he was up to, as I don't fully buy
the whole "just trying to help people out" line. It has though
changed my view of the Sarries players themselves, as I get the
impression that they were largely led astray/confused by the
whole process. When I have heard any players asked about how
much exactly they know about salary cap rules and the
intricacies of the system, none of them seem to have much of a
clue, even the ones who are quite vocal in their criticism of
sarries as a club.
>
--- End Quote ---
Ashton said a few times in that podcast that as far as he was
concerned it was no different from approaching a normal mortgage
lender for a loan. It was my understanding though that these
loans were interest free. I'm also not sure if Wray was giving a
straight loan to be repaid, or if he owned a percentage in these
properties so would have expected to profit from any price
increase. With the co-investments it sounded like all the risk
was with him, not shared between him and the players. That might
be wrong though
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