Competitive Advantage

Can playing organised sport give you an edge in the workplace and prove the ultimate career boost? These women think so.

- Georgina Safe

It’s 5.30am, and in the inky blackness just before dawn, Kathy Ward saddles up her towering 16.2-hand grey showjumper, Johnny, and walks him from his stable pavilion in Sydney’s Centennial Parklands Equestrian Centre into the grounds’ massive floodlit covered arena. They start their warm-up, the only sound the gentle thud of Johnny’s hooves and the odd thunderclap, followed by a deafening torrential downpour hitting the arena’s metal roof. Rain, shine or storm, this is where you’ll find Ward every morning before she starts her job as director and partner at Chic Management.

“Bad weather would never stop me, because Johnny needs to be exercised every day,” says Ward, who rides him in about 30 showjumping competitions each year (her horse competes under the name Nimcerto B). “If I just rode for pleasure it would get a little boring, but competing gives me a really acute focus. When you have a goal to work towards you have to plan and strategise, solve problems as they arise and be very diligent and rigorous in your approach.” If the skills required for competitive showjumping sound similar to those required for Ward’s role running one of Australia’s leading modelling agencies, it’s because they are. “I perform better at work now because jumping has taught me the value of goal setting, maintaining a clear focus and having the courage to push myself to take risks,” she says.