Chris Heck - President of Business Operations

[blandy]

Thread locked while off topic posts are dealt with

[CVByrne]

56 minutes ago, OutByEaster? said:

That's an interesting perspective and I think to some degree points out the biggest weakness that Mr Heck displays.

He's a revenue generator, a very, very effective commercial director who, in my opinion has been promoted beyond that role and not made the adjustment to CEO/President. It's the CEO/President's role to both grow and to protect the business, the CEO manages those who head departments to ensure that the business isn't harmed by decisions that might well benefit one area. I think we lack that as a company.

Heck performing well would have a team around him that focus completely on generating income (and I'm sure he has). What he should be doing is separating himself from that team and managing the strategic position of the business. A good CEO doesn't alienate their customer base, nor does a good CEO paint his company into a corner in the national press. A good Commercial director generates income - the role of CEO/President is more to do with protecting the image and the brand value of the company - I think it's clear we don't have that at the moment. If Heck were doing the job well, we wouldn't be in the press this week and we wouldn't have the unrest among supporters that we do.

As an example you'll like, Ronald Reagan wasn't a great economist, but he understood that the job of President was in representing something, he understood it was about appearance, emotion and connection - he was able to see through a lot of unpopular policy that affected a huge swathe of the population negatively by open easy communication and simple emotive narratives. That's brilliant CEO work, even if I hated him.

I don't see the protection of the clubs reputation and values as a weakness, it was a strength of Mr Purslow's time at the club that he painted the picture of Villa as the club that did everything the 'right' way, regardless of what might have been going on behind the scenes. The key part of his role was representing Aston Villa, creating something that people would want to invest in and would want to partner with - I think the events of the last week have (quite unnecessarily) affected our brand value. Right now, there will be brands who wonder if our values align to the values they want associated with their brands.

Purslow was, if you like, a reliable sensible head with experience that could guide us through a formative stage, he was Dean Smith if you will. He managed to foul himself up when he got lost in his admiration for Gerrard and started to stray into becoming a sporting director and he was duly dismissed. 

We replaced Dean Smith with a man of reputation, a man with a couple of dubious incidents in his past but a reputation as a winner. As it turned out, he was difficult to deal with, obstinate and ultimately lacked the real experience and skill to actually achieve what he'd been brought in to do - a great player who hasn't (thus far) made the transition to being a great manager.

I hope that's not a mistake we're making again at board level, but it's hard not to see the comparison.

Thus far Heck is all Gerrard and no Emery, and if the noise keeps growing, Mr Sawiris will need to step in again.

 

I had a long response which got lost as blandy locked the thread. Firstly I like how you have well written and reasoned responses to to differing opinions. I'll have to be brief in summarising what I had written.

Firstly, yes Heck lacks some of the soft skills a CEO of a typical company might need. However football clubs have Head Coaches who are seen a key leadership figures often more so than a CEO.

Next I want to outline why I think Heck is a good leader. Lets take the Crest change. He had this on the table and the cost of the rebrand was described on the price of football as "the salary of a senior player for a whole season" so that's what 5-10m in cost that would be in the 23/24 accounts. We now know how dire our PSR situation was. Heck can't come out and explain to the fans the truth, this is a big cost to rebrand and change the clubs crest and we can't afford to do it. This would weaken the clubs position in the negotiations in player sales. So Heck has to just make the decision and take the heat on himself for it. This is excellent leadership and fans with the benefit of hindsight can see that. 

The case of the North Stand is similar, go ahead with it and drop matchday income in 24/25 or scrap it, do different work to increase seating and add more premium seating and increase the revenue. So Option 1 is drop income and option 2 was raise it. 

His job is on the commercial aspects, his job is to grow the clubs revenue. I'm certain NS and WE are very happy with his performance so far. 

Edited September 6 by CVByrne

[TRO]

1 hour ago, thabucks said:

Very sad state of affairs that just because you don’t hate the man or are ambiguous it’s pitted fellow Villa fans against each other … I’m guilty of this also. 

It’s shameful really and the curse of modern day football fan and the business and society in general. It’s  also a sad inditement of this place that we fight amongst ourselves over a common goal 

Personally, I respect other opinions to mine….so I’m cool with it

[Tomaszk]

8 minutes ago, CVByrne said:

Lets take the Crest change. He had this on the table and the cost of the rebrand was described on the price of football as "the salary of a senior player for a whole season" so that's what 5-10m in cost that would be in the 23/24 accounts. We now know how dire our PSR situation was. Heck can't come out and explain to the fans the truth, this is a big cost to rebrand and change the clubs crest and we can't afford to do it. 

What is this nonsense?

He did change the badge.

We'd just played an incredibly successful season with a new badge the fans voted on. No action was required.

Where has £5-10m come from?

[MarkLillis]

I don’t think any of this is a good “look” for our great club.We finally arrive back at the top level of football and…..we are not talking about the football.

So again we allow the media to ignore our achievements on the pitch and concentrate on the negatives.

I can’t say I’m surprised at any of this …..football is being taken away from it’s traditional fanbase and re-packaged for a new audience.We are the generation that will suffer the most as we can remember paying £1.50 to get in as kids and (most of us anyway I think) can probably afford the sky high ticket prices of today.

Other generations will grow up with a different perspective of clubs like Villa.

The perception will be that you go to watch Villa once a year and it’s a big day out….the rest of the time they will watch us on TV.

 

[Captain_Townsend]

11 minutes ago, Tomaszk said:

What is this nonsense?

He did change the badge.

We'd just played an incredibly successful season with a new badge the fans voted on. No action was required.

Where has £5-10m come from?

I can see CV Byrne's argument here  if, and it's a big if, the old badge was then retained everywhere. But Heck has now put his badge on the stands too. So there was no monetary saving. He could have saved himself a lot of bother by sticking with the badge voted in by fans if he was going to then change it according to his taste and have it on the stands.

Edited September 6 by Captain_Townsend

[CarryOnVilla]

TBH, it probably doesn’t matter who’s in this role, they probably always be seen somewhat negatively by fans. Because there’s always a portion of this job that will be focused of maximising the money they can get from each fan. these people are also not in it for the love of football, or in most cases the love of Aston Villa what adds to the hostility. Their interests are not our interests. As important as their interests are, it will always be jarring to fans 

Yet, if we want Villa to competing at the top, in the biggest competitions, without losing our best players we need the best in this position. Is Chris Heck this?

Chris heck has been busy and done a lot of things, good things. Like increasing awareness in other countries like America. yet it doesn’t appear he’s done anything exceptional. The deals he’s made (Adidas, Betano) seemed inevitable regardless if it was him or someone else making them. The new badge, hasn’t moved the needle, and largely feels pointless. The overall branding is getting there but still a bit off from being correct. More so when the best bit of branding came from the kit launch, what was all made by an Adidas employed agency. The stadium stuff has good elements, like the shop and improved hospitality areas that adds value to the experience and more money for club. More seating in the stadium, but it’s dislodged and upset some STHs who are yet to be compensated. In his pursuit to gain the club a promised extra £50m a year, he’s trying to get it from the fans directly by increasing ticket prices  and charging too much for CL games. All without offering anything extra for the cost. What all seems like low hanging fruit to increasing revenue. 
Any long term solutions seem to be on hold, not happening or a pipe dream. So getting to that so called “£400m a year in 4 years” seems more and more unlikely. Because the existing fans are not able to foot that bill, no matter what’s on offer. 

what Chris needs to do, is get more fans, that are willing to pay, better partnerships and sponsorship deals, Increasing capacity, be it new stands or a new stadium. Talk to us about it. Good or bad. Fans want good news, but we understand bad news if it’s communicated well 

Edited September 6 by CarryOnVilla

[JAMAICAN-VILLAN]

3 hours ago, TRO said:

I agree.

People can do good things and not so good things.

I think the biggest issue is poor communication. we don’t know the challenges Chris Heck has to work with, and unless he communicates that, it’s inevitable some folk will interpret that as arrogance.

 

Agreed. I really think the communication aspect is where they are causing the most damage to themselves.

What's frustrating to me is I don't even think that angle is something difficult to fix.

And yes it's frustrating having to see fans turn on each other over these issues when we should be enjoying one of our most successful periods of recent memory.

[avfc1982am]

57 minutes ago, JAMAICAN-VILLAN said:

I agree with you about transparency but do you realise the irony here?

Do you think they want to sell our best players?

Do you see why they are trying to increase income every way they can?

We couldn't afford the CB and Right Back everyone wanted for these same reasons.

As I remember these statements happened previous to our proposal about increasing the loss threshold.

The proposal failed and I distinctly remember him saying " we realise this is something we realise we are going to have to do ourselves " in relation to generating finances and ambition.

It sucks that it's passed on to fans but it's still baffling to me how ppl don't see how it's all connected.

The owners and Heck aren't talking any money out the club for themselves.

Don't be so patronising.

We went and spent a large portion of the available transfer money on a LB we weren't in desperate need of. We could easily have prioritised the RB or CB positions instead. 50m on a CM that we possibly overpaid for but could be a great investment in the future. We also brought back a player we'd sold for peanuts and paid what, 8m or thereabouts to be at Hull for a season in the championship. Instead of just initially loaning him out. We've had money to prioritise though.

You think he wasn't aware the club was losing money or the PSR situation when he arrived?! Of course he was. He would have been aware the moment he walked through the door as to the financial situation in the club and the implications. He was brought in for that very reason and to address it. He would have been fully aware of the need to cost cut and find other revenue streams, increase the charges of current revenue streams. Removing those STH out the way for the Terrace view in the Holte End at the beginning of last season proved that. It was just the beginning of the impact on moving around the STH's for more cash from elsewhere.

He still came out and talked shit after about the big 6 being broken up and not selling our best players and buying other teams in December of 2023. So if he wasn't aware of the financial situation he should be sacked for incompetence and talking bs.

Why spend thousands on a tunnel when minor changes could've taken place? Pocket the cash because who really cared about the tunnel being renovated other than himself as some personal stamp to pet his own ego. It's not a revenue stream.

As for him not taking money out of the club, that's wrong. He's not invested, an owner or a supporter and will be earning a huge wage with probably huge incentives to increase the revenue. He's definitely not working for free.   

[JAMAICAN-VILLAN]

2 hours ago, Andy_10 said:

I think the recent comments from Monchi & Vidagany explaining with honesty & humility why we did our business in the way that we did, goes to show that if you treat your customers with some respect, they will reciprocate.

If you treat your customers with arrogance, disrespect & for want of a better word, lies, then they will not respect you back & will question the motives for everything that you do.

Trust, especially in business is very hard to gain & very easy to lose.

From all the reports and pods I've listened to. Vidigany is an expert communicator and well liked by everyone.

Why not also have him handle things like this if we have no one else?

Although it might be unfair to expect so much of him.

[nick76]

7 minutes ago, Captain_Townsend said:

I can see CV Byrne's argument here  if, and it's a big if, the old badge was then retained everywhere. But Heck has now put his badge on the stands too. So there was no monetary saving. He could have saved himself a lot of bother by sticking with the badge voted in by fans if he was going to then change it according to his taste and have it on the stands.

Yep if he hadn’t changed the badge from the 22/23 version then it’s a good argument but the fact he did however slight the change was means that everything has to change.  Then the fact he said fans had been consulted about it.

I don’t like the not doing to ground redevelopment but can understand why Heck has halted it so I’m ok with that.

As for NS and WE, I bet they are pleased with some things Heck has done but heavily concerned on other things.  The current damaging of the image of the club in the media and having a divide with the fan base will not be going down well with NS and WE after all the effort they have built up along with the success Emery has done off the pitch.  They won’t be happy with the shine being taken off slightly.  I bet they are watching more closely than usual on that…

Edited September 6 by nick76

[JAMAICAN-VILLAN]

13 minutes ago, avfc1982am said:

Don't be so patronising.

We went and spent a large portion of the available transfer money on a LB we weren't in desperate need of. We could easily have prioritised the RB or CB positions instead. 50m on a CM that we possibly overpaid for but could be a great investment in the future. We also brought back a player we'd sold for peanuts and paid what, 8m or thereabouts to be at Hull for a season in the championship. Instead of just initially loaning him out. We've had money to prioritise though.

You think he wasn't aware the club was losing money or the PSR situation when he arrived?! Of course he was. He would have been aware the moment he walked through the door as to the financial situation in the club and the implications. He was brought in for that very reason and to address it. He would have been fully aware of the need to cost cut and find other revenue streams, increase the charges of current revenue streams. Removing those STH out the way for the Terrace view in the Holte End at the beginning of last season proved that. It was just the beginning of the impact on moving around the STH's for more cash from elsewhere.

He still came out and talked shit after about the big 6 being broken up and not selling our best players and buying other teams in December of 2023. So if he wasn't aware of the financial situation he should be sacked for incompetence and talking bs.

Why spend thousands on a tunnel when minor changes could've taken place? Pocket the cash because who really cared about the tunnel being renovated other than himself as some personal stamp to pet his own ego. It's not a revenue stream.

As for him not taking money out of the club, that's wrong. He's not invested, an owner or a supporter and will be earning a huge wage with probably huge incentives to increase the revenue. He's definitely not working for free.   

I'm not being patronising at all, if anything you are.

If we go by your logic on this then, it means we should blame Emery for prioritising " stupid " transfers " we didn't need " in your view then. Lol FFS. Chris Heck doesn't sign players.

I'm sorry but again this is displaying arrogance of knowing more about what the club needs and the resources than the actual people who work inside the club.

On communications about decisions I've been consistent in saying I don't agree with how they have handled things.

I'm now of the viewpoint that if getting rid of Heck to bring in a more " likeable " character makes fans happy then so be it.

However just like in politics, it doesn't mean anything will change... it just means you would prefer to be told the same thing in a different way by someone you like more...it's the human condition.

I also liked Purslow and defended him the same way from people btw.

I don't necessarily like Heck ( I have neutral feelings ) as i did Purslow but I don't think him being " liked " is in my priority of considerations when it comes to his job.

Edited September 6 by JAMAICAN-VILLAN

[Captain_Townsend]

9 minutes ago, avfc1982am said:

 

Why spend thousands on a tunnel when minor changes could've taken place? Pocket the cash because who really cared about the tunnel being renovated other than himself as some personal stamp to pet his own ego. It's not a revenue stream.

 

I am so glad you raise both of these because it always gets raised by those who defend him: "we have constraints", "he has to maximise revenue".

He has spent a fortune on renovating the club shop, the tunnel, putting in more GA+ seats, changing out old seats for new seats. The guts of £25m by all accounts. But our capacity is the same, our GA+ offering has gone up but in Structures not suited to it, we now have a bigger club shop but the very same footfall as we have had since 2001, and our tunnel, well, did it need to be done?

Yet the argument for canceling a £100m investment in a New stand that would incorporate all of that in an appropriate space while adding 8,000 to capacity was that we couldn't do it because of constraints, PSR, champions league etc (even though several other clubs have done it in recent years while playing in Europe).

We keep hearing that he knows what he is doing but the contradiction between what I see with my own eyes just, I can't let it go.

Edited September 6 by Captain_Townsend

[MrBlack]

2 hours ago, OutByEaster? said:

It will be interesting to see how he reacts to the current storm around him.

Rightly or wrongly, I can't remember a Villa executive being subject to this much criticism in the time I've been here. I've obviously seen criticism of owners, but in this case the buck stops with Mr Heck - he can't sit silently on this, it'll end him if he does that, he'll never be able to show his face on social media again, and not just here, I mean in his future roles too. If he doesn't find a way to settle this, it'll stick with him like a stain through his whole career and it'll make his job at Villa from here on in a whole lot more difficult.

I don't think he's a bridge builder by nature, and he's definitely not someone who will take a step back, but I'm not sure doing nothing will be an option - there will come a point where if he doesn't address it, it'll make his position untenable.

 

 

He's done nothing on previous issues before. For example, the badge, which he revealed regardless and masked by some good news related to the adidas link up. 

I imagine his next communication, either directly or via the club, will be to tell us about something amazing he's done. He'll ignore the bad press on this, like he does about everything else he decides on, and find something else to be positive about. 

He's seen it work before, not so sure it will actually work this time though. 

[fightoffyour]

Say what you will about Heck but the man clearly has great foresight - joined this forum in 2007!

[TRO]

2 hours ago, Rightdm00 said:

He is doing exactly as the owners want. If they didn't want a guy who's behavior/decisions could possibly peeve off fans they wouldn't have hired him. He is a known quantity. 

I suspect a significant part of the job he is doing is supported by the owners, not sure about the collateral damage to the fans.

[JAMAICAN-VILLAN]

16 minutes ago, Captain_Townsend said:

I am so glad you raise both of these because it always gets raised by those who defend him: "we have constraints", "he has to maximise revenue".

He has spent a fortune on renovating the club shop, the tunnel, putting in more GA+ seats, changing out old seats for new seats. The guts of £25m by all accounts. But our capacity is the same, our GA+ offering has gone up but in Structures not suited to it, we now have a bigger club shop but the very same footfall as we have had since 2001, and our tunnel, well, did it need to be done?

Yet the argument for canceling a £100m investment in a New stand that would incorporate all of that in an appropriate space while adding 8,000 to capacity was that we couldn't do it because of constraints, PSR, champions league etc (even though several other clubs have done it in recent years while playing in Europe).

We keep hearing that he knows what he is doing but the contradiction between what I see with my own eyes just, I can't let it go.

Mate i suspect if there was no PSR the stand redevelopment would already be in process.

People smarter than me have already explained that doing it now would have reduced capacity, earning potential and disposable income even further NOW which would make our immediate PSR issue even WORSE!

Take Heck away from the situation for a moment and please consider that view point.

I doubt things like the tunnel cost anything significant whatsoever and believe Adidas had a hand in this.

Which is why i've been one putting the consideration into whether developing a New Stadium ( Not affecting PSR ) whilst continuing to get as much income as we could at VP, would be a good thought.

Edited September 6 by JAMAICAN-VILLAN

[TRO]

11 minutes ago, MrBlack said:

He's done nothing on previous issues before. For example, the badge, which he revealed regardless and masked by some good news related to the adidas link up. 

I imagine his next communication, either directly or via the club, will be to tell us about something amazing he's done. He'll ignore the bad press on this, like he does about everything else he decides on, and find something else to be positive about. 

He's seen it work before, not so sure it will actually work this time though. 

I think he will seek advice on how to repair the Damage, and eek out the best person equipped to help him.

so if you see Jhon Duran deep in conversation at the Belfry lounge with Chris Heck, it's safe to assume, Chris is receiving counselling.

 

[CarryOnVilla]

Just now, JAMAICAN-VILLAN said:

Mate i suspect if there was no PSR the stand redevelopment would already be in process.

People smarter than me have already explained that doing it now would have reduced capacity, earning potential and disposable income even further NOW which would make our immediate PSR issue even WORSE!

Take Heck away from the situation for a moment and please consider that view point.

Which is why i've been one putting the consideration into whether developing a New Stadium ( Not affecting PSR ) whilst continuing to get as much income as we could, would be a good thought.

He groundhog days his distaste about the new north stand being delayed as often has he can, he’s been told this almost everytime to no avail 

sooo…

[CVByrne]

29 minutes ago, Captain_Townsend said:

I can see CV Byrne's argument here  if, and it's a big if, the old badge was then retained everywhere. But Heck has now put his badge on the stands too. So there was no monetary saving. He could have saved himself a lot of bother by sticking with the badge voted in by fans if he was going to then change it according to his taste and have it on the stands.

The badge voted by the fans would have required a big rebrand if we adopted it as the official. Instead it was a one off and only used on the clubs kit while the older Lerner bade was retained. Our current badge is an update to the Lerner one. According to Price of Football to roll out the change (which was significant change to the badge from Lerner to fan voted one) would have cost "the salary of a first tea player for a season". Now the price of football podcast is highly respected and so I take the costings they got (not from the club but from their sources in the game) as fairly accurate. 

Iterations on an established design don't require a rebrand. Our current Crest and the last Lerner crest are clearly visually very very similar. Meaning a rebrand not needed as the crest is iterative not completetly new.