Former Springbok rugby captain Gary Teichmann talks to Tracy Hancock of Engineering News about how he handles rucks in the business world to keep his company in play.

The basic principles of a winning rugby team apply to business, says former Springbok rugby captain Gary Hamilton Teichmann, who has used this philosophy to transition from being a professional rugby player to Teichmann managing partner.

He acknowledges that his rugby career may have helped the company – a civil engineering, construction, contract mining, plant hire and agriculture services and equipment provider for Southern and Central Africa – get invited onto tender lists in the early days, but maintains that winning a tender is about performance.

"Most of our work comes through a tender process. This business is all about performance and being able to deliver a high-quality project on time and within budget. In rugby we used to say, you are only as good as your last game, in business this is no different," Teichmann adds, noting that the company's recent success in Africa is testament to this.

Teichmann has ongoing business with blue-chip clients in Namibia, Zambia, the Democratic Republic of Congo and, most recently, Mozambique, and is looking further afield to secure opportunities in West Africa, particularly Ghana.

"We have a maverick approach to our business, where nothing is impossible. We have found that this best suits business challenges in Africa, where you have to be flexible and adaptable to survive. This way of thinking has seen us develop from plant hire into all the other sectors enabling Teichmann to offer a full service, including exploration drilling through our company T3 Drilling, which is headed up by partner and former Springbok teammate Adrian Garvey," notes Teichmann.

Born on January 9, 1967, the 46-year-old grew up in Gwelo (Gweru), Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe, Teichmann spent most of his time outdoors playing sport, partly because his mother was a tennis coach and “partly because we were generally a sporty family”.

Teichmann and his family moved from Zimbabwe in 1979, when he was 11 years old, to South Africa as Zimbabwe’s liberation war and foot and mouth disease impacted negatively on his father’s business.

He attended Hillside Primary School, in Laudium, Pretoria, and Hilton College, a private boarding school for boys, in Petermaritzburg, from 1981 to 1984.

Teichmann started his rugby career playing for the then University of Natal, in Petermaritzburg. From 1991 to 1994, he worked for a bank on asset finance deals with North Coast farmers and during this time he was recruited by the then Natal Currie Cup team, which he captained to two Currie Cup victories in 1995 and 1996. This team became the core of the team now known as the Sharks, which Teichmann led to the final of the Super 12 in 1998.

He became a professional rugby player in 1995 and played a full international game as a Springbok against Wales, in which the Red Dragons were defeated 40 to 11 at Ellis Park, in Johannesburg. After scoring a try in his debut test, Teichmann went on to accumulate many accolades, such as captaining the Springboks to 17 consecutive test match wins.

Also in 1995, Teichmann was approached by James te Riele, who studied with him at Cedara College of Agriculture, near Howick, in KwaZulu-Natal, about starting a business together, needing capital to buy a second-hand TLB. This was the start of the small plant hire business from which the Teichmann group of companies would grow.

"I had seen his entrepreneurial skills at work when we were at college and knew that with te Riele honesty was non-negotiable," says Teichmann, who believes that for any partnership to work, honesty is essential. This is a trait that he and te Riele have had within their business since its inception.

Prior to Teichmann’s retirement from professional rugby, the eighthman was a silent partner, playing rugby in Wales for Newport, after not being selected for the squad before the 1999 Rugby Union World Cup. He went on to captain Newport to their first Principality Cup win in 24 years in 2001.

“When I retired I became more involved in the daily operation of the company and was on the Sharks’ rugby board for three years. Rugby had been such a big part of my life; it was all I knew. Therefore, when I became more involved in Teichmann, I found that the company had grown rapidly and I had little knowledge of the business,” notes Teichmann.

However, with “vision and a hands-on management style”, Teichmann says he was soon up to speed. "Our key has been to reinvest in the business and realise doors of opportunity as they open. By capitalising these opportunities the Teichmann brand has become synonymous with delivering projects on time, within budget and in accordance with high quality and safety standards.

"At Teichmann, our ongoing focus is to deliver nothing less than outstanding service to our clients, no matter how challenging this may prove to be in Africa. We have achieved this over the years through experience and by aligning ourselves with the right partners who have a good footprint throughout Africa. Simultaneously, our founding principles of honesty and integrity, transparency and accountability are nonnegotiable. We have long standing relationships with many of our clients because they are able to trust and rely on our performance and business ethics."

According to Teichmann, one of the company's biggest challenges has been to find the right people for the business. "It's difficult to source and retain skilled workers in Africa so we grow and nurture our employees within the company and encourage those talented individuals who show promise and the ability to develop. We have also realised that to take the business to the next level we need people who bring professionalism, experience and qualifications to the table. Ken Gibbs, a qualified engineer with 28 years experience in Africa, has joined the team as partner and CEO, bringing the concrete aspect to our business that we never had before," says Teichmann.

Notwithstanding his success on the rugby field and in business, Teichmann sees his family as a blessing and his greatest achievement. The Durban resident says it's difficult to find the right balance between family, business and sport, and he is grateful for their support.