Ollie Phillips: former England Rugby Sevens Captain and motivational speaker

In the latest instalment of Business Leader Insight, we spoke to
Ollie Phillips; former England Rugby Sevens Captain and World
Player of the Year-turned world-record-holding adventurer,
business leader and motivational speaker.


Across a distinguished 14-year professional career, Ollie reached
a European Final, captained England at Twickenham and defeated
the All Blacks in New Zealand, amongst many other honours. He has
also worked as a pundit for Eurosport and Sky Sports, providing
commentary and analysis of Rugby World Cups, European Cups and
the HSBC World Sevens Series. He is now the Head Coach for the
WRU Women’s Seven’s programme.


Not one to rest on his laurels, since retiring from professional
rugby Ollie has made a name for himself as an intrepid
adventurer. His most recent endeavours include world
record-breaking feats that have raised money for rugby charity
Wooden Spoon; playing in the most northern game of rugby (at the
Magnetic North Pole) and the highest ever game of rugby (at
Advanced Base Camp on Mount Everest). Ollie has raised over £2.5
million for numerous charities and remains a dedicated ambassador
for Wooden Spoon and the Alzheimer’s Society as well as being a
strong supporter of Cancer Research UK.


Ollie brings this same energy and work ethic to the business
world. He completed an MBA at Cambridge University (where he won
a Blue for playing in the Varsity Match) and is a Director at
PwC. Here he leads part of the company’s real estate group across
UK & EMEA and is the lead partner for PwC’s relationship with
the Department of Culture, Media and Sport. Responsible for
driving and facilitating change for his clients, he helps them
take a fresh approach to any challenges they face.


Here's what we discussed during the interview:





Ollie Phillips background (1:02)

What have your difficult challenges, such as climbing Mt.
Everest, teach you about yourself? (3:04)

What insight would you give for leaders who are managing
diverse characters in their team? (5:14)

What is your advice for leading times in a period of crisis?
(7:11)

Do you think leaders need to be more open about their mental
health? (9:00)

What is your advice for dealing with negative team members?
(10:47)

Who are the leaders that you’ve come across in life that you
admire? (12:43)

What are the main challenges you are seeing at the moment in
leadership? (15:53)

Do you still see a physical office space being a part of
business in the future? (18:06)






Questions from the public





How do you keep yourself motivated in business? And did your
experience in sport help with this today? (20:30)

Do you think there’s enough of a focus on getting young
sports stars to think about their post-sport careers? (22:45)

How do you stay resilient and what advice would give to
someone who is making the step into the business and
entrepreneurial world? (24:17)

What is the best advice you’ve ever received? (26:15)

What is one fact about you that people can’t find online?
(28:04)






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