The $33m cash grab: How New Zealand Rugby will sell leadership to the world

Ian Foster Coach of the All Blacks and Joe Schmidt Assistant Coach of the All Blacks during the All Blacks Training and Media session at Linfield Park, Christchurch. Photo / Photosport.co.nz

The All Blacks' world ranking sits uncomfortably low, half their coaching team was fired earlier this year and an independent review will shortly begin to determine whether New Zealand Rugby's governance structure is fit for purpose, and yet the national body is forecasting it could make $33.5m in the next five years selling its leadership expertise to global corporations.

The forecasts, which were made last year to provide indicative numbers as to the potential value of new business initiatives NZR could pursue with new equity partner, Silver Lake, suggest $33.5m of revenue could be generated in the next five years providing executive coaching, with a further $14.1m selling All Blacks coaching clinics.

With inflation running high globally, many countries predicting they will be in recession early next year and the All Blacks in a state of disarray – something which is increasingly being blamed on the role of NZR's executive decision-making – the forecast seems ambitious.

But it has to be balanced against the power and reach of the All Blacks brand and the length of the legacy of excellence built into it.

The financial target may be high, but it could also be realistic given the global standing of the All Blacks, and this is the sort of debate that will become commonplace in the next 12 months as NZR tries to build strategic plans for new business initiatives in partnership with Silver Lake.

When pitching the Silver Lake proposal to provincial unions last year, NZR detailed seven potential new revenue streams it could develop.

It estimated it could net $115m of revenue over the next five years, the most lucrative of which would be selling leadership programmes.

Chief commercial officer at NZR, Richard Thomas, says: "They were illustrative ideas around how we could expand our commercial footprint beyond the traditional revenue sources, primarily using the power of our brands. The numbers behind them had some modelling but they are not hard and fast forecasts."

The first foray into selling leadership programmes was made at the World Cup in 2019, when some of the All Blacks coaching and management team were asked to present to executives of Mitsubishi.

Strong, positive feedback from the Japanese led to Thomas believing there was something worth developing and since then, NZR has adapted and piloted its programme, partnered with the New Zealand-based consultancy, Propel Performance Group, and is hopeful that later this year it will launch what is likely to be called All Blacks Performance Lab.

Ardie Savea of the All Blacks thanks the crowd after winning The Rugby Championship match between the New Zealand All Blacks and Argentina. Photo / Photosport.co.nz

"This idea has been a few years in the brewing and what we have found in the current climate is that businesses have been looking at new ways about how to build cultures around high performance," says Thomas.

"With Propel Performance Group we have built our methodology – a mix of lessons from all our teams in black and that is important to note, obviously it includes the All Blacks but it is not exclusively the All Blacks.

"What we are trying to do is blend all those learnings from the team environments into the day-to-day realities of these business that we talk to.

"What do these ideas mean as they try to achieve things in their executive teams or their board rooms and translating all that high-performance thinking back into the world of business executives otherwise it would be a whole lot of sport stuff which is not useful and there are a lot of people doing that."

Propel Performance Group has access to former SAS officers, board directors who have served in the US and lists former New Zealand police commissioner Mike Bush as one of its people, while Thomas says NZR have accessed former All Black Dan Carter, mental skills coach Gilbert Enoka and Black Ferns Sevens captain Sarah Hirini to help deliver pilot initiatives in the last 12 months.

Thomas says with the expertise now in place and a methodology established, the next challenge is determining how to build the programme to scale and from that, deduce a more accurate figure of how much money executive coaching could be worth to NZR.

But established companies in the field of executive leadership and corporate training, say that the harder issue for NZR will be convincing corporations that it can deliver the in-depth, long-term programmes and build and maintain the longevity of relationships that the market is looking for.

Loretta Brown, who is a director and lead coach at NZ Coaching and Mentoring Centre, says: "We are finding that corporate buyers are becoming more discerning in their selection of partners.

Ardie Savea of the All Blacks scores. Photo / Photosport.co.nz

"There is less quick-fix, dive in and out. Corporates are partnering over the long-term, doing multiple level programmes, less around the flavour of the month.

"HR directors are on the executive table, and they are thinking strategically, working for the long-term development of culture so they want to make sure that whoever they are working with is going to get under the bonnet of the organisation.

"It is moving away from what we call entertainment leadership development, or personality based, to longer-term partnerships."

Brown can see that the power of the All Blacks brand, which she describes as "sexy" will appeal to many corporations, but she says that the name alone won't be enough on which to build a sustainable business.

"The model that the world is moving towards is more around long-form development of self-awareness, reflection, how to be truly collaborative over the long-term, how do we know ourselves and then how does that weave into how we are showing up at work.

"There is a shift away from individual development of leaders to working longer-term with the wider group.

"I think the caution here is how long are you partnering, how are you making sure it is not a once over lightly?"

And there is the current, can't-be-ignored problem that the All Blacks are in the midst of a turbulent season which has seen them lose six of their last nine tests and dent their reputation as world leaders in high-performance.

But Thomas counters that with his belief that the programmes they are selling draw lessons from the wider family of NZR representative teams, particularly the gold medal-winning Black Ferns Sevens and that the All Blacks have a long and proven track record over 120 years.

The All Blacks huddle during the New Zealand All Blacks Captain's Run at Orangetheory Stadium on August 26, 2022 in Christchurch, New Zealand. Photo / Photosport.co.nz

"This is built on a legacy of high-performance not a year of performance," says Thomas.

"Some of that stuff that the management, coaching and playing group are doing today in the All Blacks in terms of working out how to overcome adversity, is relevant and true for the people we coach.

"We are living a real time, real example of what we preach."

Given the changing market trends and the uncertainty about whether NZR can deliver its All Blacks Performance Lab programme to scale, where does that leave the likelihood of making $33m from this in the next five years?

Brown says despite the economic challenges that have emerged in the wake of Covid, there are still relatively healthy corporate budgets set aside to invest in this area.

"Larger businesses are investing but I think that they are discerning, so it is a tricky sell," she says.

"If you are putting together a long-term leadership development programme, there is investment of hundreds of thousands of dollars into each one, but it is incredibly well thought through and designed in partnership over a year, or a number of years.

"We have an off the shelf delivery, where will deliver it to you and walk away. You can't do $33m on that."