The ability to be able to have open and honest conversations, if you haven't got that, I don't see how you'll be successful. We want to be the best we can be.
I am Andrea Pinchen and I am the CEO of Leicester Tigers.
What motivates you the most as a CEO?
It's twofold. If you're a CEO, what you take great pride in is your people and delivering your product to the best of your ability and seeing your people grow and evolve and be the best that they can be.
And I think when you're a CEO of a sports club, it's obviously about your supporters and your fans and seeing them engage with you.
How does thinking differently help you achieve better business outcomes?
If you've got ten people around a table and they've all got the same background, the same upbringing, been to the same type of school, you'll get one answer potentially to solve that problem.
If you have ten people from different backgrounds, different education, different cultures, whatever it may be, then you'll get ten possible solutions to that problem. And that's massively valuable in any business because you're not just going down one track, the same track, you know you're thinking about something different, you're challenging yourself and being challenged and you're taking those risks and doing things that aren't just ordinary.
What is your key objective for building the Leicester Tigers brand?
Certainly for us our key objective is to work towards sustainability. That is number one, what we're focusing on doing. We've got some, extremely supportive shareholders that we want to be a sustainable business so that the club is here for many years to come and you know, is self reliant.
How do you balance business profitability with nurturing a strong Leicester Tigers culture?
Twofold, really.
One if you have your youth players coming through your academy and then breaking into your first team, it helps you manage that salary cap from buying in some superstars to developing your own superstars. But as well as that and probably arguably more important is that culture that you have created with your young players as they're coming through.
And for us, they know Leicester Tigers, they know what it means to play in a Leicester Tigers shirt and play at Mattioli Woods Welford Road and in front of all the fans. So you know, I think from that perspective getting that real Leicester culture from a very early age and bringing them through just embeds what you want your first team to stand for and then for them to go on hopefully into international rugby and take some of that with them.
How did you secure and enhance the club’s financial future?
A lot of businesses had to do and we were no different. We found different income streams you know, just because you've always done something in one way.
Let's not just think about it that way, you know, let's look at how we can just keep pushing forward and pushing forward and getting better and improving and it was coming up with those new ideas and new suggestions. And I think you know, one of the learnings that we can all take from that is again, not to sit still, be the best version you can be and always challenge.
Now we've got the hotel next door and we've got the plaza in between and we can host events that we were previously unable to host. But it's really key that we use the asset that we've got to the best of our ability.
How do you navigate being part of the wider rugby ecosystem?
It's interesting, it's a really good opportunity for us because you work within the Premiership. We're very close, we know each other and you know, CEOs have WhatsApp groups as the FDs do, and we can all rely on each other. Or if you just want to "I'm not sure about this, what do you do with that?". You know, that we can reach out and ask each other and then, you know, when the European competition kicks in, then that just broadens your knowledge and new horizons and it's just really good to be able to get together and meet them and talk to them, see how they do things, see how they provide what they do on a match day, see how they attract supporters and fans and learn from that.
How do you build your brand in the local community?
Not everybody can come to games or all games or any games and it's to how can we reach people that wouldn't know about rugby or wouldn't know about Tigers who may then be interested in the future.
So we do a whole host of community initiatives. So we do like a concrete rugby piece. So we go into inner city schools where there aren't greenfield sites where we've just got a bit of concrete as a playground and how can we help their build their knowledge and their interest in rugby and also helping out on numeracy and literacy by using rugby as a tool.
What helps you improve your performance as a CEO?
The ability to be able to have open and honest conversations, if you haven't got that, I don't see how you'll be successful because I think everyone just then stays in their own silos individually, heads down and does their work.
But when I first started to go, when I was going through a promotion in the ranks and first started to go to the training ground, and I was just about to be promoted into chief operating officer. And my whole work through Tigers had been on the commercial side. So when I went into the training ground, I used a hot desk next to whatever departments and I just plonked anybody sitting here, no great, plonk myself there and initially there was this like, what is she doing sat next to me and is she looking over my shoulder at what I'm doing? I'm like, I'm not checking up on you. I need to learn from you what your role is, so that then we can talk about, okay, is there efficiencies in how you do it, or have you got the help and support you need or what is it bringing to the business? What else do you think that we need? And I think until you learn that, I don't think you can make those necessary decisions or not make them, you know, with all the information to hand.
What advice would you give your younger self?
Why shouldn't you be able to do it?
You know, sometimes the only thing stopping us is ourselves and our own self-doubt and that voice inside your head that we perhaps listen to too much.
So just go for it.