The appointment of 37-year-old Steven Vaughan as chief executive of Gloucester Rugby raised plenty of eyebrows in 2012. Two years on, with the club on target to post its largest ever profits, the youngest CEO in professional rugby is beginning to make a name for himself
By Tom Walker | Published in Sports Management 2014 issue 2
As a club, Gloucester Rugby is often regarded as the archetypal "sleeping giant". It has a large, passionate fanbase and a first class pedigree – it's one of only four clubs to have played each season of the Aviva Premiership since its foundation in 1988. Yet, it has for years been the perennial underachiever. A top four club when it comes to attendances, Gloucester has at times in the past decade struggled to finish in the top half of the Premiership.
All that is about to change though, if its youthful and ambitious CEO, Steve Vaughan gets his way. "My mission statement is clear – to ensure Gloucester becomes a top four club in both domestic and European rugby," he says. "And we've got a full strategic plan in place which outlines how we're going to improve our performances on the field.
"Our recruitment budget, for example, is bigger than ever before and we're bringing in some big hitters next year – including five internationals, such as former New Zealand prop John Afoa and Wales hooker Richard Hibbard."
It is, however, the club's performance off the pitch that Vaughan will ultimately be judged on. And it is there that he is already making a difference. Using a mixture of radical moves, subtle changes and the introduction of innovative revenue-generating methods he has managed to bolster finances. As a result, the club is expected to announce record breaking profits for the year to 30 June 2014. In less than two years, the youngest CEO in professional rugby has gone from a relative unknown to a leader with a reputation for delivering.
Starting out So who is Steve Vaughan? When a fledgling career as a footballer – he was on the books at Wallsall FC – was threatened by serious injury, he took the medical team's advice to "get some sun" on his injured ankle. The resulting holiday turned into a job as he decided to give up on his footballing dreams and joined Club 18-30 as a holiday rep. Two years later he had progressed up the ranks at Club 18-30 and was in charge of a number of resorts. He describes being a rep as the hardest job he's ever done.
"It was unbelievable," he recounts. "You’re up at 8am and then up until until two or three in the morning. You're expected to be an entertainer but also a marriage counsellor. You've got to deal with fall outs, fights, angry locals and in some cases the police – it was incredible. But it was also a great grounding for leadership and life in general."
In 1998, Club 18-30 was taken over by holiday operator Thomas Cook and Vaughan was handpicked to lead the development of the brand. Within seven years of taking a holiday that was meant to heal his ankle, he had become managing director of the Club 18-30 operations and a valuable asset to the Thomas Cook group.
Olympic experience After leading the Club 18-30 brand for two years, Vaughan found himself back working within sport. Thomas Cook won the bid to become the official short break provider for the London 2012 Olympic Games, and turned to Vaughan to lead the project. He was named managing director of Thomas Cook's London 2012 Partnership and was responsible for making sure 300,000 tickets procured from LOCOG were distributed via the company's network of high street travel shops and websites.
His role also involved being in active dialog with LOCOG, the British Olympic Association, the main Games sponsors and other members of the 'Olympic family'. It was this contact with major figures within the global sporting family that helped him on to the next stage of his career. By the time the Olympic project came to an end, he had come to the attention of a number of sports companies and clubs.
"As my Olympic responsibilities were winding down, I got approached by various businesses – some in rugby, some in football – to come and lead their businesses," he says, and adds that one of those clubs was Gloucester.
"From the outset it was Gloucester that really appealed to me. It's a fantastic club – great supporters, great ground and great training facilities. But there was a challenge too as the club has – to be absolutely honest with you – been very bereft of success on the pitch.
"Furthermore, in rugby there are very, very few clubs that actually make a profit – but Gloucester was one of those making a tiny profit. So for me there were two real challenges – to be a top club on the field and to make the club a truly profitable, sustainable business going forward."
Young guns Vaughan took over the helm in November 2012 and ever since has gone about delivering his promise of taking Gloucester to the next level. Being younger than any of his peers ("by a country mile", Vaughan emphasises with a smile) has resulted, however, in some funny moments.
"We’ve had a giggle about it a few times," he says. "There have been many times when we've arranged meetings and when we get there, the other person has walked straight past me not realising who I am. I’m also forever getting stopped at the gates of away stadiums and asked to prove that I am indeed the CEO. I'm not convinced that would happen if I had white hair and wore a blazer."
Vaughan isn't the only relative youngster within the Gloucester top team either. The club chair and Vaughan's close colleague Ryan Walkinshaw, son of the previous owner, the late Tom Walkinshaw, is just 26 years old. While some might struggle to recognise them – at least for now – the pair's fresh approach and innovative, bold operating style hasn't gone unnoticed among other clubs. "I'm sure our results speak for themselves and we’re actually the envy of a lot of clubs in the way our business model works," Vaughan says. "We've changed a lot of things in the time that I’ve been here and we’re getting clubs coming to us and asking us what it is that we’re doing and what’s our secret."
He has already demonstrated that he isn't afraid of making the tough decisions either. Following a disappointing season on the field, In May 2014, Vaughan axed popular director of rugby Nigel Davis.
Business decisions One of the things other clubs have been keen to study is Vaughan's success in growing profits in a sustainable, organic way. His approach is simple and effective – making sure cost management is robust in all areas while efforts are made to increase and identify new revenue streams. These include securing a new main sponsor – heating solutions company Adey – while renewing agreements with a number of key companies and bringing in 11 further companies as sponsors and commercial partners. New revenue-creating products have also been launched - such as "Gloucester Rugby Lotto" and an inhouse betting service. Elsewhere, a consultancy was brought in to look at catering while a comprehensive social media audit was also conducted.
Perhaps the biggest change has been in the way ticketing is handled at Kingsholm stadium. "We’ve introduced a mobile app and cashless entry into the stadium," Vaughan says. "This has allowed us not only to increase secondary spend around the stadium but also learn about who our fans are and what their preferences are." He adds that the current season is a perfect example of how the plan has been put into practice. "This year we've done particularly well financially despite having a disappointing season on the pitch. Not being competitive and finishing low down in the table dampened our core revenues (match day and season tickets) but we still managed to produce record profits. We did this by actively bringing in new partners to the business – including the new main sponsor – and by making great inroads into engaging more with supporters.
The next step, says Vaughan, is the introduction of a loyalty card, a rebranding of season tickets as "memberships" and an increased effort on improving the club's social media presence. There are also plans to improve the 16,500-capacity Kingsholm stadium, although Vaughan is reluctant to reveal exact plans. There will, however, be minor upgrading of facilities ahead of the Rugby World Cup in 2015 – as Kingsholm is one of only two club grounds to have been selected to host games.
"We sell out two or three games a year so it'd be a bit of an ego trip for us to suddenly say we’re expanding from 16,000 to 25,000 – we simply haven’t been getting the results on the pitch that would justify it. Once we start having dozen sell outs a year, we can start considering it. Rather, we're going to add a bit of capacity around the stadium – a few hundred here and a few hundred there. We'll be doing some of that ahead of the World Cup but in a way that isn’t going to kill us financially."
With Vaughan's determination to make Gloucester a success, those dozen sellouts might happen sooner rather than later.
Gloucester's financial success hasn't been mirrored by performances on the pitch – an aspect of the club Vaughan wants to change
The club recently introduced a cashless ticketing and access system at its Kingsholm Stadium
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