From Sydney to Sales: A Conversation with Rowley Douglas MBE

When I invited Rowley Douglas MBE onto Next Time Around, I knew the conversation would be worth having. He’s lived two very different careers — Olympic rowing and software sales leadership — and I wanted to explore what connects them. What followed wasn’t a neat retelling of his journey, but a set of reflections that apply as much to building businesses as they do to winning medals.

Belief, setbacks, and persistence

I talked to Rowley about how he first found his way into rowing. He explained that he was too small for rugby, but discovered that as a coxswain he could still play a decisive role in the boat. Even then, the road into the GB men’s eight wasn’t smooth. There were setbacks, times he was overlooked, and moments where belief was all he had left.

It was a privilege to hear first hand from Rowley about his crew’s extraordinary win in Sydney. What came through was that during the years building to the event, persistence mattered more than a straight line of progress. Failure wasn’t the end of the story; it was part of how he and the team got to where they did. The Olympic win in Sydney wasn’t achieved in spite of those moments, but through them. It made me reflect on how, in our own work, belief only really counts when it’s tested.

Building for what comes next

When the conversation turned to London 2012 where he worked, Rowley spoke in detail about the sustainability agenda that guided those Games. Every venue had to be designed not just for a few weeks of competition, but for decades of community use afterwards.

That marked a change in how the Olympics were thought about. Earlier Games often left behind empty stadiums or redundant infrastructure. London was different — built with legacy in mind.

It reminded me how easy it is to build for the moment and how much harder it is to design for what follows. But if the things we build don’t endure once the spotlight moves on, they don’t deliver real value.

Marginal gains and attention to detail

Later, the conversation turned to one of his passions. We spoke about Formula One. Rowley follows the sport closely and admires the way teams focus on marginal gains — fractions of a second saved, processes refined, details repeated until they become advantages.

What I took from that was the reminder that big goals aren’t achieved in single leaps. They’re reached through many small improvements, repeated over and over, until they add up to something visible. It is this alignment between his own values and those of Formula one that make the sport fascinating to him.

Trust and adoption in business

When I asked Rowley about his successful career, since sport in software sales, he didn’t start with saying sales is about features or technical specifications, though he knows they matter. He said it all came back to trust. Customers adopt technology because they believe in the people behind it. They want confidence that you’ll still be there when things get difficult.

That is as true in energy as it is in any other field. Adoption is about people first. Without trust, even the best-designed product struggles to find its place.

Will it make the boat go faster?

Rowley shared a phrase that guided the Sydney crew: will it make the boat go faster? That was their filter for every decision. If it didn’t help the boat move, it wasn’t worth attention.

It’s a useful lens in business too. Data and dashboards are only as good as the focus they create. The question is whether a measure helps the team concentrate on what matters, or whether it’s just noise.

Crossing the line together

Towards the end, I asked Rowley what it felt like to win Olympic gold. He didn’t talk about the medal. What he remembers most is crossing the line together as a team.

That perspective is one to carry forward. Success isn’t about prizes or recognition. It’s about completing something difficult, collectively. The long-term goals we set are only ever achieved together.