Leading in a Crisis

Guest Bio Clint CooperCEO, GrowthOps

A Chartered Accountant by training, Clint specialised in Corporate Insolvency with KPMG before diversifying into a progression of challenging executive roles in industry. After leading the performance turnaround of Freemans Insurance Services and setting them back on a path of sustainable growth, he joined Cricket Victoria. Over a 5-year tenure as CFO&COO, Clint oversaw the organisation's contemporary rebrand, reinvigorated its commercial platform and strengthened financial and governance processes, ensuring the ongoing success of one of Australia's oldest and most respected sporting institutions.

In 2011 Clint established Cricket Victoria's pioneering Twenty20 Big Bash League club, the Melbourne Stars. In October last year he was appointed to his current position as CEO and MD of GrowthOps - a holding company combining the complementary capabilities of its creative and digital agencies with the coaching and leader development services provided through IECL. 

SHOW NOTES 

In this rare interview Clint Cooper shares his leadership journey over the last decade from building a Club and supporter base as the first CEO of the Melbourne Stars Cricket Club, to his current role leading the turnaround of recently delisted company GrowthOps Limited.

At the Stars he created an organisation from start-up to become one of the largest Clubs in the league. Over ten years he led an organisation in the very high-pressured, high-profile world of competitive sport through a deep commitment to the principles of fairness, honesty, camaraderie and the building of an environment where players and administrators alike loved to come work. 

In October 2020, after a short break he took on his role at GrowthOps and the challenge of turning around a company already under stress through a period of restructure and the impact of the Pandemic. In the space of a year he successfully steered the company of 400 people across six countries through an environment of considerable uncertainty to safer ground, largely from the confines of a small bedroom in suburban Melbourne. While extraordinarily challenging both physically and mentally, these circumstances allowed Clint to open his mind to what the actual opportunity of leadership could be when stripped to its core. Clint talks openly about the challenges and opportunities presented to him, what he has learned about himself and about leadership in this time, and the newfound levels of optimism and potential this has instilled in him for this next era of growth.

Transcript

Gabrielle Schroder:
Clint, welcome to CoachCast by IECL. I must say it's a great pleasure to have you here, face-to-face after many months of lockdown in Victoria. I hope you're enjoying your time in Sydney.

Clint Cooper:
I certainly am. And thanks very much for inviting me into this wonderful podcast.

Gabrielle Schroder:
Wonderful. Let's start with defining what leadership means to you. On your LinkedIn profile, you highlight that as an executive leader, you're not just building a business, you're leading a philosophy. Tell us more about that. What is your leadership philosophy?

Clint Cooper:
Very good question. I think it's something that has evolved over time and I feel like it needs to be adaptable to the organisation, the situation you're facing. I think the last 12 months, if we focus in on that, that's been one of the most challenging leadership roles that I've had. And adapting to not only different challenging leadership roles that I've had. And adapting to not only different c...