The Business End

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The Business End

The Business End

Where sport, business, leadership, and elite performance collide. Podcast & business network hosted by Justin M.

Fitzpatrick, former Irish international rugby player turned business leader, and Liam Mooney, ex-professional athlete and m 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 identi

fy leadership patterns 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.

29/05/2026

"Relentless is your default. But what else have you got?"

For years, Simon Harling did what ambitious people are taught to do.

Work harder.
Push longer.
Outlast everyone else.

It worked.
A six-figure first year.
Elite sport clients.
National media coverage.
A 10,000 sq ft performance facility.

From the outside, it looked like success.
Until it didn't.

What makes Simon's story fascinating is not that the business failed.

It's that he realised the thing that got him there was also the thing preventing him from seeing what needed to change.

Relentless had become his answer to every problem.

More pressure?
Work harder.

More uncertainty?
Work harder.

More complexity?
Work harder.

But eventually every leader reaches a point where effort stops being the constraint.

The challenge becomes perspective.

Different thinking.
Better systems.
The right people.

A willingness to change the model instead of increasing the sacrifice.

As Simon put it:
"Relentless is your default... but what else have you got?"

Perhaps the most expensive mistake leaders make is assuming the answer to every challenge is more of the thing that made them successful in the first place.

Sometimes the breakthrough isn't more effort.
It's a different game entirely.

🎙 Simon Harling on The Competitive Advantage

What is the leadership trait you rely on most?
And what happens when it stops working?

21/05/2026

🎙️ The Competitive Advantage | Episode 04 | Simon Harling | LIVE 🎧

Most businesses do not collapse in a single moment.
They unravel quietly while the outside world is still applauding.

In Episode 04 of The Competitive Advantage, we sit down with coach, researcher, and founder Simon Harling for one of the most honest conversations we have had about leadership, ambition, identity, and the dangerous stories high performers tell themselves under pressure.

Simon built a 10,000 square foot elite performance facility in Cardiff.
Professional sport contracts. National governing bodies. Media coverage. Six figures in year one. On paper, everything looked successful.

Behind the scenes, the cracks had already started.

This conversation is not about failure in the dramatic sense. It is about the slower, quieter version most leaders recognise privately:

• Scaling before understanding the game you are actually playing
• Confusing status with meaningful work
• Using relentlessness to hide weak systems
• Ignoring warning signs because external validation keeps arriving
• Becoming trapped inside your own narrative of competence

At one point Simon says:
“I could do relentless. Relentless wasn’t the issue. The question was: what else had I got?”

That line sits at the heart of this episode.

We explore:

• Why some founders mistake motion for control
• The hidden danger of “I’ll figure it out”
• The emotional cost of public failure
• Why most leaders never define their quit point
• How outside perspective changes decision-making under pressure
• The difference between coach development and practice development
• Why understanding the game you are truly playing changes everything

There is also a remarkable section on the psychology of status, systems breaking under pressure, and the moment Simon arrived at his gym to find bailiffs waiting behind barricaded doors.

Not many people speak this openly after losing something they built over 15 years. Fewer still turn it into insight other leaders can actually use.

This is not a startup success story.
It is more valuable than that.

🎧 Episode 04 with Simon Harling is live now.

20/05/2026

We're delighted to announce our next Live Leadership Lunch will be in Monaco.

Thursday 18 June 2026 | Malizia Mar, Monaco | 12:00–15:00

Featuring Antoine ZEGHDAR — France Rugby Sevens, gold medallist at Paris 2024, Ambassador of The Princess Charlene Foundation and a local Monégasque.

The theme: How to make the right decision when the clock will not wait for you.

An Olympic gold in sevens is decided in fourteen minutes. The decisions that produce it — who carries, when to pass, when to hold — are made in seconds, under fatigue, with the scoreline against you. The patterns are not unique to sport. They are the same patterns the people in this room are working through in their businesses this quarter.

Sixty seats . Three hours. One case study, mapped onto the decisions you are making now.

€150 non-members / €105 members. Includes welcome drink and three-course lunch at a superb waterfront venue. Over 60% of our guests are always C-Suite, Founders/Owners and senior Business Executives.

Details will be in the comments section below.

18/05/2026

THE BUSINESS END LIVE | MARTIN JOHNSON CBE Sartoria, Savile Row — Friday 15th May 2026

One room. Two hours with one of the most decorated leaders in the history of English sport.

Martin Johnson walked us through four pressure moments in his rugby career with remarkable clarity, humility and honesty — moments where the decisions he made, or didn't make, defined what came next. Not theory. Lived experience, told plainly, with two hours of leadership and performance under pressure laid out for a room of operators to take back to their own businesses. People got to see another side of Martin Johnson.The audience was fixated. You can feel it in a room when people stop checking their phones. When he spoke at times you could hear a pin drop.

The quality of the room:

→ ~28% CEOs, Founders, Chairs and Owners

→ ~40% MDs, Partners, Directors and Heads of

→ ~32% Senior Commercial and Functional Leaders

Across professional services, tech, finance, real estate, media, sport, government and the military. People at the point of decision in their own businesses.

One detail worth sharing. Across two hours, we counted the words Martin used most. The word that came up most often — by a clear margin — was "team." 76 times. Not "captain." Not "I." Team.

In a conversation about decision-making at the very top of elite sport, the man often framed as one of rugby's great individual leaders kept coming back to the collective. The people around him. What they wanted. The moment they were in together.

That's the lesson most leaders forget when the pressure rises. It's the one Martin made impossible to forget on Friday and one most business leaders should think about when the they get to work this morning.

The next room in London is being planned later this year. If you want to be in it — DM us.

Next up we are back to Monaco on the 18 June with Antoine Zeghdar.

Thank you to everyone who attended and made for a great afternoon.

17/05/2026

A great afternoon on Friday in London with Martin Johnson — captain of the England team that won the 2003 Rugby World Cup, and the first and only Northern Hemisphere side ever to do so.

For long periods you could literally hear a pin drop when he spoke, in a packed room full of senior business people, VIPs from sport/military and dignatories, discussing leadership under pressure. Martin Johnson spoke with remarkable humility, honesty and clarity.

Huge thanks to everyone who attended, including a number VIPs, dignitaries, well-known business leaders, all of whom made it a very special afternoon. Sport is a global business language.

More to follow on Monday but special thanks to all of the below and Andy Keast, John Donoghue, Duncan Cormack.

London Irish Foundation Liam Mooney Justin M. Fitzpatrick London Irish Amateur RFC London Irish Rugby Club Jamie Ball

08/05/2026

Thank you, Ottawa.

Yesterday we ran the first Business End Live in Canada and the first in North America — 40 seats, one room, three hours, and a conversation with the great Al Charron and Tim Powers that earned every minute of it.

It was great to see old friends and meet new ones. We never take a room like that for granted. We are very lucky at TBE to get to speak with business leaders and elite athletes in different parts of the world about the positive lessons of sport and why they belong in the business world. Ultimately, business is what funds sport. Rooms like Thursday's are how that exchange happens. Both sides win.

Thank you to Al Charron for the honesty and the generosity. To Tim Powers and Justin M. Fitzpatrick for steering the conversation with the weight it deserved. To Josh McJannett and Dominion City Brewing for backing the room. To Rob Orange and Twin Elm Rugby Park — proceeds where they belong, in the next generation of the game in Ottawa. To Cantina Gia and Adam Vettorel for the venue and the lunch. Fantastic to see our old friend, former Irish rugby international Gabriel Fulcher at the lunch too.

And to the 40 leaders who showed up: you made the room what it was. Full analysis will be out next week.

Ottawa is proven, and we will be back. Many more lunches to follow in North America. The Business End is just getting started. Next up: Martin Johnson in London, next Friday.

Tim Powers Annette-Al Charron Justin M. Fitzpatrick Liam Mooney Jamie Ball London Irish Rugby Club London Irish Amateur RFC London Irish Foundation

06/05/2026

En route to Ottawa for tomorrow's leadership lunch with Al Charron and Tim Powers, via Houston. See you there!

Annette-Al Charron Tim Powers Justin M. Fitzpatrick Liam Mooney

30/04/2026

🎙 The Business End | Episode 38 | Tim Powers | LIVE 🎧

There are leaders who perform under pressure.
And there are leaders who live inside it for decades.

This week’s conversation is with one of the few who has done both.

From federal political war rooms to the boardroom of Rugby Canada, from media scrutiny on CBC to high-stakes governance decisions, Tim Powers has spent 30 years where every decision is public, contested, and consequential.

This episode isn’t about theory. It’s about what actually holds when pressure is real.

Inside the conversation:
Why Canada fell behind in rugby
Not talent. Not effort.
System failure. Investment gaps. Lack of consistency.
→ “We didn’t build the infrastructure while others leapt ahead.”
The leadership trap most organizations fall into
→ Delay, deflect, or stay silent under pressure
→ And how that creates a vacuum filled by noise, politics, and false narratives
A blunt principle every CEO should internalize
→ “Don’t allow decision paralysis.”
→ If no one owns the decision, the system is already broken
What real decision-making looks like when stakeholders disagree
→ Input widely
→ Decide anyway
→ Accept fallout as the cost of leadership

The deeper thread running through this episode:
👉 Consistency compounds. Drift destroys.
Whether it’s a national rugby system or a business:
Short-term fixes (“band-aids”) don’t hold
Reputation can mask decline
Without sustained investment and alignment, performance erosion is inevitable

Three standout leadership frameworks from Tim:
Situational Awareness
Know where you are before deciding what to do
Instinct = Trained Judgment
Not guesswork — built through repetition and exposure
Decision Ownership
The moment you hesitate to decide, the system starts deciding for you

And one line that will stay with you:
“You’re never going to please everyone. So make the decision you believe is right — and deal with the fallout.”

🎧 Episode 38 is now LIVE
A conversation on:
Decision-making under pressure
Building systems that actually perform
And what happens when leaders go quiet when it matters most
If you lead a business, a team, or a system…
This one will stay with you.

29/04/2026

Have you a received a better offer elsewhere? Are you an employer considering making a counter offer?

The Stay/Leave Decision Isn't About Loyalty. It's About Compounding.

Former England international Topsy Ojo spent 16 years at one club. 300 appearances for London Irish. Asked why, he didn't talk about loyalty or identity. He gave a checklist: am I enjoying it, is it the right environment, am I still developing? If yes, you stay.

That isn't sentiment. It's a retention system. Something all leaders should take note of when it comes to talent retention.

The pattern is intrinsic versus extrinsic motivation. High performers don't leave for money. They leave when the environment stops compounding them. Development plateaus. Standards soften. The people around them stop pulling them upward. The moment they can no longer answer yes to those three questions, the exit calculation begins — regardless of salary, title or tenure.

Harvard research shows salary increases above 20% return to baseline satisfaction within 6–18 months. Culture mismatches compound stress exponentially. Money fixes nothing structural.

The mistake employers make is treating retention as a compensation problem. It isn't. It's an environment problem. Compensation prevents immediate defection. Environment prevents the eventual one. A counter-offer buys six months. A compounding environment buys a decade

Business tips:

Replace engagement surveys with a quarterly three-question audit on enjoyment, fit and development

Treat development plateau as a leading indicator of attrition, not a performance issue

Hold managers accountable for the compounding rate of their direct reports, not just output

Stop using counter-offers — they confirm the diagnosis is wrong

People don't leave jobs. They leave environments that have stopped making them better.

This came from our podcast with Topsy Ojo. Members get the full diagnostic — the early warning signs across their own organisation, mapped to where things break down under pressure, before they break.

27/04/2026

Every senior leader has had this Monday morning. The resignation email from the strongest person on the team. Three lines. Effective immediately. You sit with the coffee and try to work out when it actually started. You can't find the moment. You think there isn't one.

There is. It started six months ago. There was a flag every week. Each one is painted up as a false narrative at the time. You missed the warning signs on every single occasion.

23/04/2026

🎙 The Business End ⚫ | Episode 37 | Topsy Ojo | LIVE 🎧

Speed is obvious.
What sits behind it… isn’t.

Topsy Ojo built a career on one of the most visible traits in sport. Pace. Finishing. Moments that look instinctive, almost effortless.

But this conversation is not about speed.
It’s about what holds underneath it.

Because the truth, in both sport and business, is this:

What looks natural on the outside is almost always engineered on the inside.

Topsy takes us inside the unseen layers of elite performance:

- The discipline required to make high-speed decisions under pressure
- The work that goes into staying ready when you are not the headline name
- The psychology of consistency in environments that reward moments, not process
- And the quiet reality that careers are shaped just as much by what you don’t do as what you do

There is a line in this conversation that lands hard:

“You don’t rise to the moment. You fall back on what you’ve built.”

In rugby, that shows up in split-second decisions at full pace.

In business, it shows up in boardrooms, hiring calls, crisis moments, and leadership under scrutiny.

Different environments. Same truth.
For leaders, there are clear takeaways:

1. Speed without clarity is chaos
High performers move fast because their thinking is simple. The best teams remove noise before pressure arrives.
2. Consistency is a competitive advantage
Not the highlight moments. The repeatable standards behind them.
3. Your preparation is your ceiling under pressure
You cannot improvise your way through high-stakes environments. You execute what you have trained.
4. Ego kills learning speed
The willingness to adjust, refine, and stay coachable is what extends careers and compounds performance.

This is what we study at The Business End.

Not theory.
Not highlight reels.

But what actually happens when the game speeds up and the margin disappears.

If you lead people, build teams, or operate where outcomes matter, this one will resonate.

🎧 Listen to Episode 37 with Topsy Ojo on the platform of your choice https://linktr.ee/the_business_end And ask yourself:

When the pace picks up in your world… what are you really relying on?

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