PUSH MANAGEMENT
ABOUT
Push Management is a boutique company focused on delivering strategy and quality planning to achieve meaningful and practical outcomes.
Founded in 2007, Principal Rick Heath delivers projects across Australia from national frameworks to strategic advice for sole traders.
Push Management is driven by a want to create genuine improvement for business and communities by working together. This interdependence is core to Rick’s strategic approach and the outcomes he seeks for his clients.
In an environment of ever-increasing competition for resources (time, energy, revenue, people) Push Management delivers careful and astute business development outcomes that seek to own and address challenges as opposed to deferring to third-party solutions.
…he has habitually combined ultra-practical approaches with a serious philosophical and investigative perspective.
Robyn Archer AO
PURPOSE
Push Management exists to investigate the status quo of accepted and potentially unproductive practice to affect positive change. It delivers evidence-based insight, structured systems and clear, creative strategic direction for people committed to influencing and delivering change.
VALUES
With a 30-year history of work and life experience supporting him, Rick pursues a set of values in Push Management that represent his personal approach to life. The pursuit of these values feeds the way in which he works and an ongoing search for self-awareness and improvement.
- Authenticity – being real, deeply honest and avoiding popularism
- Candour – to say the things that need to be said with care – creating environments where being brave but not brash is celebrated
- Interdependence – recognising that strength and sustainable solutions come from supportive, connected relationships
- Persistence – a ‘never give up’ attitude and a desire to question the status quo – getting to the core of issues and seeing projects through to the best possible outcome
- Evidence – insights and decision making based on research, relationships and rigour.
ABOUT RICK
Rick Heath is the Principal of Push Management.
He has a professional management career spanning over 30 years across Australia. He holds a Bachelor of Business and is a graduate of the WA Academy of Performing Arts. He has worked extensively in the performing arts industry as an advocate for industry reform, a consultant, producer, presenter, and contractor.
Rick has Chaired and been a Board member of arts organisations for the majority of this career as well as sitting on multiple grant assessment and award panels. He has been Chair of the Helpmann Awards Presentation for Children Panel, a member of the Panel for Regional Touring, and a Board member of The Last Great Hunt.
Rick is a Fellow of the DeVos Institute of Arts Management where he studied for three months between 2017 and 2019 under the guidance of Michael Keiser in Washington DC. This enabled Rick to further hone his strategic planning skills whilst developing a substantial network of international peers who continue to feed his professional practice.
Amongst other positions, Rick has worked as Event Operations Manager for the Sydney Opera House, General Manager for Buzz Dance theatre and Executive Producer for the Perth International Arts Festival. He is also a founding member of the Performing Arts Touring Alliance.
Together with Harley Stumm, Rick undertook a six-month national consultation project for the Australia Council for the Arts resulting in Australia’s first National Touring Framework.
Rick was Project Facilitator for the Contemporary Dance Model Development project (Future Moves), a $1.6M government initiative for the development of Contemporary Dance in Western Australia paving the way for the establishment of contemporary dance company CO3.
In 2018 Rick completed a state-wide community consultation that resulted in a 5-year touring strategy for the state of Western Australia, the outcome of which resulted in changes to government programs and continues to deliver industry reform.
Rick is a cultural advocate. He has a passion for strategic business development, and social enterprise, nurturing effective and productive relationships between suppliers and consumers.
…a high performing advocate and influencer.
Robert Love AM
The company is lucky to have a Director of your commitment, laconic demeanour and sharp mind.
Kim Beasley AC – Governor of Western Australia
HIS CAREER
Most recently Rick was National Producer for Big hART’s Songs for Freedom project encompassing a national concert tour, an album, documentary, and public awareness campaign.
Previously as Executive Director and Co-CEO of Black Swan State Theatre Company, Rick oversaw box office income increase by 38% and a 54% increase in membership, as well as a record-breaking philanthropic success.
Rick was the Executive Director of Performing Arts Connections Australia (formerly the Australian Performing Arts Centres Association – APACA) a national membership advocacy body between 2008 and 2019. Whilst managing PACA, revenue more than doubled, membership increased by 86% and annual conference attendance increased by 70%. Rick’s strategic approach saw transformative structural change in the arts and cultural industry particularly in touring practices and business-to-business relationships.
HIS APPROACH TO WORK
Rick challenges paradigms and empowers people to think differently.
His leadership is achieved by listening, using and building the strength of the people that surround him, being deliberate in seeking out cues that signal change, and developing alignment and shared purpose.
Rick holds truth as the foundation of all his work and seeks to create trust through credibility, reliability and strong relationships.