of expertise that they dedicate their life to, he enjoys the challenge of variation. “Johnny Wilkinson never played any other position other than fly-half but I’m different. I enjoyed the diversity of playing in different positions in much the same way as I do when it comes to business or investment. I am always looking for new opportunities and new gaps so I’ve never really been constrained to one sector. I wouldn’t claim to be an expert in any of the sectors I’m into but I do think that I have an ability to spot the gap.”
Combative and chirpy on the field, Healey was a team-man who knew how to get under the skin of the opposition and excel on the big stage. His passion and loyalty towards his team-mates was legendary, “teamwork builds trust. At our best, we could be on the ground getting kicked in the head during a ruck but we knew someone would be there behind us to back us up.”
“Leaders are essential in building teams but also in developing individuals. The leaders in the England team fostered diversity, allowing players to develop and become less introverted. Much of England’s success during my career was down to the big characters like Jason Leonard, Matt Dawson and Lawrence Dallaglio who were all exceptional leaders.”
“Leaders are essential in building teams but also in developing inDividuals.”
“With good leadership, everyone’s got a clear part to play. Once, with Leicester, I went into a ruck to battle for the ball, and our prop Darren Garforth stamped on me! I asked him why he’d done it, and he said: “That’s my job! No-one does my job!” By going into a ruck, I’d assumed a role Garforth knew as his – our team had a clearly defined structure, and I paid the price for breaking it!”
The real value which Healey brings to an investment or boardroom is ‘human capital’ he explains, “I bring a decade of knowing how to work well with people and how to help teams work well and to win. When I am on an advisory board, it’s not so much about how I can help the business as how I help the individuals inside that business maximise their delivery.”
Whilst Austin jokes that his old teammates may question his common-sense, it has served him well when he took what many saw as the unusual and risky step of
14 entrepreneurcountry
A decade and 250 caps for the Leicester Tigers cemented Austins reputation as a rugby legend.
working for a major bank. “The banking experience was vital in terms of developing me into somebody who could work outside of sport. Most critically I began to question the use of the word ‘team’, it is somewhat lose in certain sectors. When you are in a team in sport your success is almost 100% reliant on everyone else doing their job. In the big corporate environment that isn’t necessarily the case, theres a lot of individualism.”
The exceptional success of Healey’s playing career, tinged with the disappointment of being omitted from the national sides finest hour has taught Austin to ride the highs and lows. The most important thing he believes, is to “stick to your guns. Be flexible enough to know when you’re right or when you’re wrong. We’ve just recently started a tour operator business called Super Skills Travel and we went to get advice off of a lot of people in the industry. They kept on saying ‘oh you don’t want to do this or you don’t want to do that’ but we stuck to our guns and it’s really paid dividends and has turned out to be a very successful business from what was really a very simple idea. If you back yourself to go for the gap and go for the line then more often than not you get there. If you make the break but don’t have the conviction and half way through decide you’re not going to go for it you pretty much give up and often you find you don’t get the opportunity to make that break again.”
Healey also believes that the mixed perception and cultural attitudes towards success in the UK needs to
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56