Ollie Phillips on why he swapped rugby for the boardroom
Ollie Phillips talks to Guy Kelly about the challenges of swapping the rugby pitch for the boardroom
Given all he’s achieved in life – including rising to the top of professional rugby in two different forms of the game, sailing around the world, cycling the width of the US, summiting some of the planet’s highest peaks, and setting two Guinness World Records – you could be forgiven for assuming Ollie Phillips was brimming with gung-ho confidence when he started his first corporate job.
As it was, Phillips suffered from a workplace anxiety familiar to many of us: he had impostor syndrome.
“I’d be sitting there in meetings thinking: ‘Oh God, I don’t know anything, everyone around me knows miles more, I’ve got to make a decision…’ That kind of thing,” he says of his first weeks as a director at Pricewaterhousecoopers (PWC) in 2015. “It was all totally different.”
At the time, Phillips was fresh from being forced to retire injured after a high-flying career as a rugby player, in which he captained England Sevens as well as playing 15-a-side for Newcastle, Harlequins, Gloucester and Stade Français. Under pressure, he remembered his training.
“We used to have a saying with England: ‘Get comfortable with being uncomfortable.’ Every Wednesday, we’d have to train until we hit what was called the ‘death zone’, and our heart rates had to be over 170 beats per minute. Then we had to keep it at 170bpm for two minutes, at which point you’re knackered, before someone handed us a ball and told us to play,” he says. “The premise was that if you could execute your core skills under that level of fatigue and stress, you’d be absolutely fine in a game.”
Phillips, now 37 and settled at the company, is quick to point out that “the concept of feeling stressed and knowing how to perform just as well” was every bit as applicable to a corporate nine-to-five as it was on the pitch at Twickenham.
“It turned out there were so many of those crossovers. A large part of my job is problem-solving. I listen to people’s problems, ask where they are, where they want to get to, what’s in their way, and how I can help them.”
As well as working at PWC and founding a leadership business, Phillips is a supporter of Wooden Spoon, a charity that harnesses the power of rugby to give purpose to those struggling with disabilities or social challenges. One of three organisations selected for the Telegraph’s Christmas Charity Appeal, it was founded on the maxim that playing rugby instils young people with an understanding of teamwork, a sense of purpose, and a boost to their confidence.
Phillips makes for an exemplary ambassador. Not only does he know rugby inside out, but he’s tested the charity’s maxim relentlessly – applying the sport’s values to the workplace, in extreme sports, and in gruelling physical challenges all over the world.
Born and raised in Hove, East Sussex, Phillips was a boisterous child, so his parents slung him into mini rugby at the age of four. His father had played, though not professionally – as a seven-year-old, Phillips has a memory of watching him having his ear ripped off during a game – and Phillips “never truly believed” he’d go any further.
But mini rugby became big rugby, then Harlequins’ academy came calling, then England Schoolboys, then Durham University 1st XV, before former England fly-half Rob Andrew, at the time Newcastle Falcons head coach, signed him up in 2002. Within six weeks, Phillips was starting for the premiership side, in a talented backline that included Jonny Wilkinson.
“You can imagine, being in your first year at university, then suddenly in Newcastle kit and starting with those guys.”
Phillips went on to captain England Sevens to three World Series cup victories, and was voted World Rugby Sevens Player of the Year in 2009 – the same year he signed for Stade Français in Paris. There, he picked up a knee injury but was a success on his return to 15-a-side. When his contract came to an end, he joined his friend, Mike Tindall, at Gloucester.
“I was up for that, but I didn’t know where I was going to live. So I spoke to Mike and he said he’d put me up. So there I was living with a member of the Royal family [Tindall’s wife, Zara, is the daughter of Princess Anne, who is, incidentally, patron of Wooden Spoon]. They’re the best couple on the planet.”
Despite plans to play for much longer, a return to England Sevens would be Phillips’s last involvement as a professional, before injuries saw him retire early in 2014. It was an unsatisfactory way for his career to end, especially as he “still harboured a
‘I lived with a member of the Royal family – they’re the best couple on the planet’
feeling that I’d somehow recover and come storming back”, but, immediately after retirement, he was asked by Sir Robin Knox-johnston to join a team in the Clipper Round the World yacht race.
Phillips’s team came second, despite him never having sailed before, and through a contact made on that trip, he was offered a job at PWC. First, though, he had to get a Guinness World Record.
“I’d agreed to play the most northerly rugby match of all time, trekking to the North Pole and playing there, to raise money for Wooden Spoon, so I went and did that in May, then came back and had to start at PWC the very next day,” he remembers. “I was joining the tax team and leading digital transformation and, on that first day, I said to my boss: ‘I have a slight issue in that I don’t know anything about tax, don’t know anything about digital, and don’t know anything about PWC.’ They told me I’d be fine. I was terrified.”
Phillips decided to enrol in an executive MBA at Cambridge University – where he was also able to play one last rugby match, the Varsity game at Twickenham in 2017. It was “complete closure”, he says. After that, he was ready to fully commit to a second career, and now loves the boardroom almost as much as the playing field.
It’s been a winding road but Phillips, who lives in west London with his wife, Lucy, and their 18-month-old daughter, Lillie-mae (a second baby is due on New Year’s Day), is happy with how it’s ended up. His life is now a juggle of family, business, rugby and charity work. The latter has even allowed him to get his playing kit back on: earlier this year, he and a few other former professionals set another world record for Wooden Spoon, playing the highest match, at 6,133 metres. They raised £250,000.
“The aim is to set some kind of record for Wooden Spoon in every world cup year,” he says.
A flash of competitive spirit flits across his eyes. “I’m thinking about doing the lowest, in a canyon or something. Now that would be a challenge.”
Wooden Spoon, which works with Britain’s rugby community to raise money for sick, disabled and disadvantaged children, is one of three charities supported by this year’s Telegraph Christmas Charity Appeal. Our two other charities are Leukaemia Care, which provides support to individuals and families affected by blood cancer; and The Silver Line, a 24-hour helpline and support service for lonely elderly people.
To make a donation, visit telegraph.co. uk/charity or call 0151 284 1927