The Business End

The Business End The Business End is a private business intelligence network where we use the lens of sport to sharpen the leadership and performance of our members.

It's built for Owners, Founders, C-suite and senior business executives who share a passion for sport. The Business End is a leadership intelligence company. We analyse leadership and performance under pressure by studying elite sport and business environments where decisions are public and consequences are real. Through podcasts, curated events, and applied insight, we identify leadership pattern

s that hold under pressure — and translate them into practical lessons for modern organisations. This page shares:
• Leadership insight
• Podcast episodes
• Event highlights
• Applied performance lessons

We focus on what works when it matters.

Yesterday at The Stand Off in Exeter, Tony Rowe CBE and Gareth Steenson gave us three hours that were worth a good deal ...
12/09/2026

Yesterday at The Stand Off in Exeter, Tony Rowe CBE and Gareth Steenson gave us three hours that were worth a good deal more than that.
Two men who built something. Tony took a second tier club and turned it into Premiership and European champions, and built South West Communications alongside it. Gareth was released by Ulster at 22, went to Rotherham and the Cornish Pirates, and finished his career kicking the points that won a Premiership final. Neither story was handed to them.
Thank you to Tony and Gareth for their honesty, to The Stand Off for looking after us properly, and to everyone who gave up a Friday to be in the room.
Thanks also to our partners, Salcombe Brewery, Exeter Chiefs Foundation, The Stand Off and Cormack Advertising
More to follow. The write-up goes out to the room on Monday.

Yesterday at The Stand Off in Exeter, Tony Rowe CBE and Gareth Steenson gave us three hours that were worth a good deal ...
12/09/2026

Yesterday at The Stand Off in Exeter, Tony Rowe CBE and Gareth Steenson gave us three hours that were worth a good deal more than that.

Two men who built something. Tony took a second tier club and turned it into Premiership and European champions, and built South West Communications alongside it. Gareth was released by Ulster at 22, went to Rotherham and the Cornish Pirates, and finished his career kicking the points that won a Premiership final. Neither story was handed to them.

Thank you to Tony and Gareth for their insights , to The Stand Off for looking after us properly, and to everyone who gave up a Friday to be in the room.

Thanks also to our partners, Salcombe Brewery, Exeter Chiefs Foundation, The Stand Off and Cormack Advertising

Analysis to follow. The write-up goes out to the room on Monday.

Liam Mooney Justin M. Fitzpatrick John Donoghue Jamie Ball

10/09/2026

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Last Friday, 51 senior leaders sat down for lunch in Brighton with Andrew Gomarsall MBE , 2003 World Cup winner and 2007...
09/09/2026

Last Friday, 51 senior leaders sat down for lunch in Brighton with Andrew Gomarsall MBE , 2003 World Cup winner and 2007 finalist. More than 25 sectors around the tables, seven in ten holding decision authority, and a conversation that never stayed rugby for long.

This week, everyone in that room received what The Business End produces after every event. A full diagnostic report that converts Andy's pressure moments into named business risk patterns, each one backed by published research and hard figures, with every date, score and claim checked against the public record, our coded podcasts/conversations and reviewed by Andy himself. The full photo set. And the complete attendee list to make follow ups, because half the value of any room is who else is in it.

Members get more. Their reports are mapped to their own business through our Leadership Stress Test, so the lesson about succession, or founder overload, or the request a system refused, lands against their numbers rather than in the abstract. They also have a smart match feature so they can be matches for business connections in the room or any other lunch we have held. Behind this sits the intelligence platform: every conversation we have ever recorded with elite sporting leaders, coded and searchable, plus quarterly coaching with two-time World Cup winner Ben Franks and a network built for introductions that actually happen.

Everything in sport is played under pressure, and pressure exposes leadership. Our job is turning what winners say about it into intelligence a company can use.

Thank you as well to our sponsors who enable us to put on lunches like this Cathedral Wealth Management LTD WineVistas Cormack Advertising

We have a packed autumn series of events.... Exeter, Dublin, Monaco, Sydney and London. The next room is Exeter. See you this Friday!

The Stand Off Liam Mooney Jamie Ball John Donoghue Justin M. Fitzpatrick Brad Ainsworth WineVistas Cathedral Wealth Management Ltd Ivor Alex

Last call for Exeter this Friday. We have a few seats left for The Business End ⚫Live Leadership Lunch at The Stand Off ...
08/09/2026

Last call for Exeter this Friday.

We have a few seats left for The Business End ⚫Live Leadership Lunch at The Stand Off on Friday 11 September, with Tony Rowe CBE and Gareth Steenson

Tony Rowe invested into Exeter Chiefs before the game turned professional, before they were known as the Chiefs and then took them from the lower leagues to Premiership and European champions. Sitting beside him will be Gareth Steenson, the man who kicked the extra time penalty that won Exeter their first Premiership title in 2017. From the outside it reads like a fairytale. When you dig into it, it is nothing of the sort. Tony had a clear vision, a plan and the patience to keep executing it over decades, and Gareth's kick was the product of a routine built over thousands of hours, rejection and a trip across the Irish Sea at a difficult point in his life.

One of the things we are most looking forward to on Friday is the room itself. We will have former Exeter players spanning the County Ground era all the way through to the side you see today at Sandy Park. We will examine the pressure decisions made along the way and what business can take from them, and I hope some of those players will say a few words about what was actually happening at the time.

Two legendary figures in the game, one club's rise examined properly, and a room full of people who were part of it. We are also looking forward to catching up with old friends and meeting some new ones. There is so much business can learn from sport and you can hear from two of the best on Friday.

A few tickets remain. Details in the comments.

Liam Mooney Justin M. Fitzpatrick John Donoghue Altan Ozdemir OZ Jamie Ball The Stand Off Phil Greenaway Neil Clark

What a Friday in Brighton.Over 70% of the room were decision makerts at companies, one World Cup winner, and three hours...
07/09/2026

What a Friday in Brighton.

Over 70% of the room were decision makerts at companies, one World Cup winner, and three hours that went a long way past rugby. Andy Gomarsall MBE was superb: honest about the selection calls that went against him, the club that released him with two years left on his contract, and the thirteen months that took him from a pub side to a World Cup final. Then the room took over, and the questions coming back were as good as anything we have had.

That is what The Business End is for. Everything in sport is played under pressure, and pressure exposes leadership. Put the people who have lived that in a room with the people running businesses now, and let the conversation do the work.

Thank you to everyone who gave up a Friday afternoon to be there. Thank you to Andy. Thank you to Brad Ainsworth and Cathedral Wealth Management Ltd, our headline partner, and to Brad for holding his own on the panel beside a World Cup winner. To Kevin Boyle and WineVistas for the reception and the UK launch of Caroline Dufour Champagne, which several people were still talking about on the way out. To Cormack Advertsing for backing the day, and to the Harbour Hotel Brighton for a room that looked exactly as it should.

Everyone who was there gets the full analysis of the conversation this week. If you were not, and you would like to be in the next one, Exeter is this Friday with Gareth Steenson and Tony Rowe CBE, and membership details are at business-end.com/membership.

Photos from the day below. If you were in the room and want the full set, message us.

John Donoghue Justin M. Fitzpatrick Liam Mooney Jamie Ball

Brighton - who was in the room …
06/09/2026

Brighton - who was in the room …

Brighton .. who was in the room …
06/09/2026

Brighton .. who was in the room …

Thank you to everyone who joined us at Harbour Hotel Brighton yesterday for The Business End leadership lunch with Andre...
05/09/2026

Thank you to everyone who joined us at Harbour Hotel Brighton yesterday for The Business End leadership lunch with Andrew Gomarsall MBE. Andy was excellent and there are so many takeaways for business. We will be analysing what was said and will provide a full breakdown for all atendees and members over the next 7 days. Our business intelligence and reports are our ultimate product along with the connections.

A special word of thanks to our audience who made for our fantastic afternoon - everyone commented there was a fantastic atmosphere in the room. Our headline partner Cathedral Wealth Management LTD and Brad Ainsworth BCAv for joining the panel as well! To WineVistas and Kevin Boyle for showcasing their excellent wine and champagne to everyone. Our global sponsor Duncan Cormack and Cormack Advertising. Special thanks to my co-partners Justin M. Fitzpatrick and John Donoghue for all the work they put in.

We are just starting the autumn series of events. Next stop is Exeter on 11 September with Gareth Steenson and Tony Rowe CBE. Quickly followed by Dublin (private event), Monaco and Sydney (details to be announced soon). Plenty going and if you are interested in joining the Business End and attending our events, details can be found in the comments section.

See you next Friday in Exeter!

The Business End, powered by Van Lanschot Kempen, brings its next leadership lunch to Monaco on October 7th. We are taki...
01/09/2026

The Business End, powered by Van Lanschot Kempen, brings its next leadership lunch to Monaco on October 7th.

We are taking over Castelroc on the Rocher, directly facing the Prince's Palace, for lunch and one serious conversation with around fifty owners, founders, C-suite and senior executives.

Sport is our lens because everything is played out under pressure, and pressure reveals true leadership and the systems behind it.

Our headline speaker is Jamie Cudmore Jamie is the former captain of Canada, a four-time Rugby World Cup player and eleven seasons a forward at ASM Clermont Auvergne, where he won the Top 14. He now coaches professionally in France with Nissa Rugby in Nice. Jamie will talk about what actually happens inside high performance environments when results deteriorate, standards are challenged and people have to perform for one another under pressure, and what that means for anyone running a business.

He is joined in conversation by Alain van der Heijden, Head of Wholesale and Investment Strategies at Van Lanschot Kempen Investment Management.

Liam Mooney, Founder of The Business End, and Ivor ALEX, Founder and Chief Executive of Norman Alex, will chair.

Wednesday 7 October 2026
Castelroc, 1 Place du Palais, 98000 Monaco
12.30 to 15.00, including lunch
Seats are limited and booking details will be in the comments section.

125 euros for non-members. 85 euros for TBE members. Places are limited to around fifty and are allocated on booking.

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