On the theme of leadership lessons, our Gloucestershire Boardroom in January was held at Gloucester Rugby with new CEO Lance Bradley. Lance has been CEO for 4 months and has a long association with the Club having been on the Board for 18 months and previous to that one of the clubs biggest sponsors while he was Managing Director at Mitsubishi.
Lance provided an overview to his career at Mitsubishi and the challenge of entering a market dominated by Ford and turning round a business making a lose in the UK and making trucks ‘cool’. He also talked about going from gas guzzler to environmental champion and bringing electric trucks into the UK.
His approach has always to bring in brilliant people with ideas. Lance quoted Henry Ford as one of his favourite sayings: ‘Whether you think you can, or you think you can’t – you’re right’ . This emphasises how much attitude determines success or failure.
Lance left Mitsubishi in March 2018 and wanted to test himself in an environment different to the car industry he had spent all his life in. He became CEO at Gloucester in September 2019 and is seeing exciting opportunities and times opening up. Notwithstanding the controversy over the salary cap we are seeing a more competitive competition at the top of the Premiership with Gloucester currently lying 3rd with only 4 points separating the top 3. The salary cap also makes it imperative to have a vibrant and growing Academy. This is crucial to the success of the Club.
Lance was also keen to do more around the sustainability agenda and is looking at all parts of the clubs activities. Fans are the life blood of the club and there is nothing like a home crowd at Kingsholm. The club is currently looking at maintaining and growing the gate numbers and making it a great experience once you are in the Club.
Lots of exciting things happening at Gloucester! Good luck for the rest of the season and we look forward to attending with members one of the the local derby’s in March at Worcester.
Check out the pictures from the event: https://www.circle2success.com/photo-gallery/?album=28273
