Would you put in a chief exec who had no previous experience in a similar role? Or would you look for someone with a proven track record in taking similar businesses forward?

Would you appoint and operations manager (coach in this case) into his first such position? Or would you appoint someone with a proven track record, possibly at a slightly smaller organisation?

Or would you just go for the cheapest option in the belief your income streams won't reduce anyway?

I'd flog it and sit back on my lazy a*se

Another Rule/Board out thread, woo hoo.

Often CEO's in big business dont need to know huge amounts about the industry they are working in just making a business run well. That means organising, decision making, interfacing between organization and community, advocating & promoting change related to the organisations mission etc etc.
Just because it happens to be a rugby league based business doesn't preclude him from running one successfully.(I'm not saying he has or hasn't however)

Also a turnover of £5M/annum is peanuts to be quite frank, I worked for a commercial catering company where we turned over £2M a year on 1 site of approx 1000 employees just in food/drink(non alcoholic) sales alone.
The amount of money a business turns over shouldn't really change the organisational aspect it just involves bigger physical amounts of money, giving 'best value' & reaching performance targets is more relevant.

As for employing Rich Agar as head coach, it was a risk at best & unless the club had no better options it seems to be the cheapest/easiest option & somewhat a sign of desperation/folly considering his lack of experience and/or success.

Given how high profile the role is & the importance of the club to a large community it would seem that this was a mistake on more than one front.

A successful CEO needs to understand all aspects of business and I'd question whether rule has/had that experience. His background is marketing which is a field unlikely to have equipped him for the role. I'm not criticising him as I believe he does the best job he can, however it was clearly a decision based on cost, the fact he will do as he is told and the convenience factor rather than his ability to do the job.



I'd hazard a guess that 90%+ of businesses in the UK turn over less than £5m. I suspect that you maybe turned over more than £2m with 1000 employees or you may well not have lasted long. Turnover in a product based sales environment is less relevant than one which derives it's main income from service based sales. Turnover is generally an indicator of size of the business (employee numbers is perhaps a better one), and the bigger a business then the more complex it is likely to be.



Agreed, we'd have been better served sticking his salary on an outsider in the national and hoping for teh best

I'd re-read what knockersbumpMKII said.
I read it to mean tat they supplied catering services for a 3rd party workplace that had 1000 people working there. They were not employees of the company KBMKII worked for.

thats how I read it aswell.

Why let it run then?

I see now. Still selling product at low margin

A bit like Hull FC then. Unlike the vast majority RL clubs, our margin has a + in front of it. If we're going to use a private business analogy, that is any CEO's number one KPI.

Idiot, as you would say.

I would pick the man with the best face for the media.

? you need to start making sense mate or they'll be giving you that nice coat that straps your arms around teh back again

Yes, relatively low profit food sales where we are the food provision contractor. I used it as an example to show that Rule need not have been a big cheese in RL previously to have the ability to smooth out/improve the operation. The club has a £5M turnover, it's not a massive amount to him I would imagine coming from a business/finance background.
As I said it's not the amount of money but about improving communication (internally & externally), organising, making changes for the good & so on.

However if that cannot be translated into a more successful business in the most important aspect (for us fans success on the field) then a lot of the positive changes & stability financially are overlooked.