This is episode 31 of Great British Bosses from Anything but Footy, the podcast speaking to the men and women who run sport in this country. Listen, download and follow for much more!
This time, we’re joined by Brian Facer, who’s been the Chief Executive of British Cycling for 9 months.
After the best ever Paralympics for the sport, with 24 medals, and ground-breaking gold medals in the Olympics in Tokyo in the disciplines of mountain biking and BMX, it’s time to also look ahead for the next three years to Paris. But not just for the elite sport and athletes but for the club, commuters, family and fun riders. Brian tells us about the organisation’s new strategy and why he’s confident he can deliver.
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Prohibited by law 18 plus terms and conditions app see website for Details record-breaking success at the Tokyo Olympic and Par Olympic Games once again for British cycling despite the challenges off the bike of the past 18 months the British athletes with the support of their coaches and all the behind the-scenes staff delivered some outstanding moments to remember this summer now 3 years until Paris
2024 and 9 months into his new job British cycling’s new chief executive has set out the new strategy for the organization to grow the sport and enable more people in all communities to discover cycling this is Great British bosses from anything but footy the Olympic and Paro Olympic sport podcast
And this is the series where we speak to the men and women in charge of sport in this country I’m Michael I’m John my name is Brian faser I’m the chief executive of British cycling Brian start off with and we could start anywhere to be fair but I’m going to start with the
Paralympics because 24 medals 21 Riders all winning a medal the best ever it was just amazing wasn’t it what what an inspiration to watch it as well look and I know some of these kicked off early in the morning as well but I managed to get
Through every single one of them and I could have could have cried at various points during it as well so some real superhumans and not just in cycling by the way if you look at the whole of par Olympic GB you look at the swimmers uh
You look look at everything that went on in there as well I think it was just an amazing game really probably the best I’ve seen and then the Olympics didn’t do too badly either with mountain biking and BMX really coming to the four yeah and I think the diversity of of of what
We did for this Olympics was was was amazing a lot of hats off to Sparky and his team within within British cycling the Great British cycling team to actually be able to deliver across such a breadth as well and look it would have been easy to to kind of think you’ve won
BMX You’ve Won mountain biking and then track could have been a bit more of a challenge but actually to go and win as as much as we did in track as well was was a real testimony I think in very difficult times during the pandemic and I know everybody’s experienced that but
But we we we’ve come out of it very well you mentioned Sparky Steven Park of course your performance director we were really impressed with him Brian he managed the medor expectations before the game sort of saying we might not be quite as good as we have been in recent
Years but then the way he led his team they then delivered more than maybe we were all expecting look a lot comes down to the coaches that are around Stephen as well around Sparky um but but I think the big significant thing for me is the team actually worked well together as
Well that there was a lot of smiles on people’s faces and look when you’re winning with a smile and and when you’re winning with friends it makes a big difference and you could really see that across the whole breadth of of the Olympics uh you know with with the the
Track cyclist watching the BMXers and the mountain bikers and vice versa I think it was just a very special gam from that point of view just quickly on that do you think there was more of a team spirit because there were no fans in the stadiums no supporters they were
The only supporters that people had no I I don’t look the the team spirit really comes from the top and and down throughout the whole system um and you started to build that and I also think the diversity of bringing you know BMX and those aspects which are which are a
Different a different Bunch really a different demographic I think it it really adds to the to the ingredients and I think that’s a largely largely what makes the difference so let’s move to the other things we could have started with your new British cycling strategy you’ve been in the job 9 months
This is your strategy it is but it’s our strategy as as an organization and the way we’ve built this is from the ground up so every member of Staff has been consulted and we’ve been through a really big process over the last nine months to get here with 10,000
Submissions coming into us uh 115 hours of consultation across inside and outside of the organization so so I’d say it’s a it’s born from our membership it’s born from our people and it’s it’s slightly different so so whilst I may sit at the top of it I think it’s come
From the bottom of the organization all the way through tell us the main headlines of the strategy so look briy cycl we we want to lead our Sport and Inspire our communities to create moments to make the whole nation proud uh which is a slight different septer to
Where we’ve been and look we know if you see the joy in a child space at the end of the first race winning winning the Olympics Paro Olympics and World titles and the levels in between generates a societal change as well so we know that that by Leading the sports working
Strongly to inspire the communities we can make a big impact on society whether that be through economics whether that be through the environment whether it be just raising the spirits of the nation as we’ve seen during the Olympics and the par Olympics that’s just come as
Well so and to do this we really identified some of the priorities so there’s seven priorities that that lead to it three which enable us to lead the sports uh three which then Inspire the community and then one of us which allows us to have the tools to to do the
Job as well all are interdependent on each other as well so if you fail in one you you you can’t succeed in the other ones as well and then under in thein that we went through some principles so we built five principles on which we will operate as an organization uh not
Just for the next three years but also for the the subsequent years that come after that as well and then we’ll build a strategy framework that runs through the organization to make sure we do it and the biggest thing for me in all of this was making sure that we could
Measure what we were doing as well because what you can measure you can manage so if you don’t put your your FL to the Mast and say actually success looks like this then it’s very hard to be held to account and of course we want to be held to account for our successes
One of the things that leapt out at me was at the turn of the Millennium British cycling had 15,000 members now it’s 150,000 but you want a quarter of a million yeah and and look we know there’s 9.1 million people riding in the sport of cycling we know there’s over 20
Million people that are riding bikes generally so it’s so actually a good reflection of success and that you’re getting your message across and then it becomes a want based membership as opposed to just a need because it’s an insurance transaction so actually that’s about the growth in your membership so
If you’ve got your propositions right you’ve got your messaging right and and you’re delivering what you need to for your members you should be able to grow the membership base so look whilst it’s ambitious I think with the systems that we put in place and and the principles
That we’ve got I think we can deliver it British cycling’s done a great job at hitting its Target of getting more than a million women cycling could you have set yourself a Target say to get a certain number of ethnic minorities cycling yeah and of course we we’ve done
That uh and within the strategy that we’re putting there it’s about kind of cycling for everybody so we want everybody to to feel welcome to cycling ethnic minorities different genders different religions everything really and at that stage we’ve set those Targets in there the challenge for
Everybody I think now is is where does The Benchmark lay because I don’t think anybody’s really been brave enough to to put some metrics on it so so we’re putting those metrics down and it’s a really big part of of what we want to be which is inclusive to everybody um to
Make sure everybody feels comfortable riding in a bike in a group with people and taking part in our Sport and I think that the big benefit for us there is is obviously working with the BMX working with with mountain biking you’ve got a more diverse audience than we’ve ever
Had and you know you’ve got to live that that life as well and we saw that of course in the Olympics and Paro Olympics in the BMX Kai white Bethany Shri kadina Cox those pictures are lasting memories of those games absolutely and again it’s it’s inspiration to participation so when
People see that that you can and we embrace it then ultimately I think you can deliver on the results so look again we we’ve set ambitious targets for doing that and also Children and Youth and I think Children and Youth really feeds into the into the diversity as well
Because again if we can Target at a younger age then it actually makes it easier to to to kind of to move forward with with different socioeconomic bands as well um and that’s certainly big Target for us as well last one on this then Brian in lockdown people got on
Their bikes you couldn’t get bike for love nor money is there a fear that we could go backwards as we return to some kind of normality I don’t think there is I mean there’s always the danger as the roads get busier and people feel less safe and less secure riding on them and
That’s where where government have got to help us really to make sure that the roads and the infrastructure is in place for for people to be able to go and ride but it’s also incumbent on us to make sure there’s safe places to to go and ride your bike which is where
Competition helps a little bit so for a good example that the launch yesterday was at silverston and there was thousands of people children to older people all riding their ride bikes around the circuit in a really happy and safe environment in fact I did the
Family ride as well and and it was just amazing to see so many smile smiling faces going around the track so it’s incumbent on us to provide these facilities for people to are riding but it’s also incumbent on government itself to actually make sure that the road
Structures are really safe for people to go on there and look there’s some big strides with that with the highway code and look we we certainly know that that there’s a real appetite to keep people cycling and keep people walking because it’s better for our environment it’s
Better for our health and all the different things that come as well so so from our point of view it’s about putting those people in the spotlight that can inspire people to continue riding their bikes we mentioned it earlier nine months in the job still
Enjoying it oh love it uh it’s it’s it’s it’s the best job in the world isn’t it I think it was advertised as one of the best jobs in sport and and it’s certainly been that it’s challenging the same as every other every other job is
But you know I wake up with a smile on my face every day and I go to bed with a smile on my face and I think that’s a good measure of whether you’re enjoying the job or not and I love it you’re a member of a Cycling Club do they treat
You slightly differently now I’ve actually moved to be closer to Manchester so I’ve just started to cycle up in the in the Peak District so I’ve been down to to damry a couple of times but I’ve not had a chance to to go cycling with them since we were out I
Did go out with bambur star uh a few months ago for their 130th anniversary as well which was amazing and there were some people from damre there as well so it’s been really strange start to an organization when you start virtually uh and then you work your way through and
Of course we’re moving house virtually as well and and we’re it’s it’s a very very strange world to do that but I’ve loved it and and I love being in the Peak District at the moment as well it’s what an amazing place to to go and ride
Your bike up some big Hills one of your huge successes at London Irish was the commercial side of the business and that’s an important part for British cycling now because there your contract with HSBC Your sponsorship with HSBC has come to a close now Tokyo is finished
Yeah it does and it gives us a chance to actually reset and reassess where we are as an organization and and one of the things we want to look at is is a different sort of relationship that actually brings not just always finances but quite often services or ability for
Us to get more people riding their bikes so if we can have more thematic relationships uh across the piece with with sponsors and actually have a real resonance so some people can help us with Children and Youth some people can help us with diversity and inclusion and people that actually really have some
Skin in the game on on both sides of of what we’re doing as well so so we’re looking at really reassessing and part of the strategy that we’re putting forward now enables us to do that and to take some very different propositions to the market for anybody that wants to
Come and support cycling and see that the world become a better place for it so rounding up Brian we’ve got some exciting sport to come in this country the Commonwealth Games next summer back at the vdrome in London of course and then Paris the Olympics and Par Olympics
Not that far away the pressure doesn’t really stop for your athletes br oh look and in between that we’ve also got the 2023 World Championships in Glasgow as well which is the first time that every element of cycling has been brought to One Nation at a time as well
So it’s fairly Relentless and some of the the road Riders now will also be going out to Flanders uh in a few weeks time for the for the world champs as well so it’s been it’s Relentless cycle coming out of the the pandemic but look it’s it’s still riding your bike and and
People still enjoy it so uh you know we just have to make sure we look after the welfare of people that are doing this make sure they do get the right downtime specifically the staff that are behind the scenes as well otherwise we we run the risk of burnout and of course we’re
Always mindful of of making sure it’s it’s a good place to be and people get the time and the infrastructure and the the doors they need to do their job as well and again that’s part of the strategy when you look at it it’s one of
Those columns that are at the bottom to make sure that we enable and give our Workforce and our facilitators our volunteers uh you know enough tools and enough and the bits they need to do their job effectively well we wish you and British cycling all the best for
Your strategy thank you for making us smile throughout the summer and thank you for talking to anything but footy thank you very much John enjoyed it thank you Sports social podcast Network lucky land Casino asking people what’s the weirdest place you’ve gotten lucky lucky in line at the deli I guess
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