Case studies

Early Stage Technology Venture

Bowcliffe were approached through our network by an early stage technology investment fund. The Investment Director was keen to pursue a University spin-out opportunity. The difficulty was that the "business" in its existing form was un-investable. The inventor of the technology, a major share-holder , was a University Professor with no intention of either leaving his day job nor relinquishing technical control of the fledgling business. The "company" had £30,000 of seed funding. It needed a CEO with specific industry expertise to take on the business and a Technical Director with sufficient gravitas and intellect to transfer the technology from the Professor to the business. Were this stage to be successful, a further £250,000 was available. If it was not a success, the business would fold and the new employees would be without a job. And the final hurdle...they had no money to pay recruitment fees!

Always keen to innovate, we agreed an arrangement with a minimal retaining payment, staging fees based upon the ability of the business to gain and draw down on 1st, 2nd and 3rd stage funding. If this failed at any stage, our fees would be lost. Utilising our deep technical understanding and broad network, we were able to identify the retired former CEO of the largest single player in their global industry. He was persuaded by us to back the gamble that the Investment Director had persuaded us to make. We followed this up by tracking down a former PhD student of the Professor (who had gone on to a successful commercial career) and completed the team.

Even in these uncertain economic times, the business has continued to make headway. As it currently stands, they have achieved 2nd round funding and are on course to make a profitable exit in 2011.

Cleantech Start-up

Through our VC network we were introduced to a rather unusual Cleantech start-up. With £2m in the bank, no employees and no facilities their high volume product had only ever been successfully prototyped in a Lab and had never been mass produced. The two owners had come into the business with hugely successful careers - just not in the industry they now found themselves in.

As ever with start-up businesses, we needed an innovative approach that could deliver all they needed, within a framework and timescale that fitted their planning, and at a cost that had not been budgeted for. By identifying the critical key hires and undertaking a minor piece of Organisational Development work, we were able to outline a structure for them a recruit the key individuals to build their business around. This included headhunting the Sales Director from the dominant player in their marketplace. We convinced him that our client was the future. He agreed. The business is now moving into full production and is set to redefine the parameters of its industry.

Third Sector

A Third Sector Charity, our client supplies services into the Government Sector on a commercial basis. With massive upheavals in Public Sector finances and increased competition from purely commercial business impinging on their traditional market, they were facing massive change, whether they wanted it or not. Key to this was their recruitment of a new Commercial Director to shape their markets and their new organisation around specific opportunities. This candidate would be someone whose skills would have been required in their traditional competitor base. Having used traditional "specialist" Public Sector headhunters unsuccessfully they were already heavily cost exposed - not great news for a charity.

We agreed a programme that would not only deliver the Commercial Director for a fee equating to the remainder of their original commercial arrangement, but also identify a talent pool that would help them to re-structure their organisation along more commercial lines. We would get our reward at this point. Part one is successfully completed - part two awaits...

Talent Mapping

We have enjoyed a long and successful partnership with one of the UK's largest technology consultants. As their business has broadened, they have made strategic moves into markets where they have had no previous business. Using a "blitzkrieg" strategy of creating teams and hitting the market hard rather than growing piecemeal, market intelligence, networking and key hires are the cornerstones of their success.

On numerous occasions we have facilitated this process by "Talent Mapping" industries and key competitors. As trusted partners, we understand where clients want their businesses to go and are out in the market months before the first move is made. Creating key relationships, orchestrating whole team moves and identifying acquisition opportunities have all been on the agenda for us. We understand the simple principle of shared risk and reward - we are strong when our clients are strong. It is what true partnering is all about.

Long Standing Relationships & Being There When Needed

All of our Consultants win business through industry referrals. We aspire to being a business that clients buy from, rather than one that sells to them - a subtle difference, but one that we believe is important. Having been retained a number of years ago by a FTSE100 business to recruit a Corporate Head of Security, we had no further dealings with them in their core business. An annual Christmas Card was the extent of the "marketing activity". This year the requirement came back around again. The HR Director made only one call. Taking nothing for granted we approached it as we do every piece of work - like it is unique. It was interesting to note that the role profile, competency framework and success measures/ KPI's created for the original Assignment had stood the test of time. It was also flattering to be given our work back several years later. The position now successfully head-hunted, we look forward to our next conversation c.2016!

Training & Development

Following a recruitment exercise with a client from a global manufacturing business, we became involved in discussions regarding Talent Management across the EMEA business unit. Specifically, the business had grown through acquisition and lacked the cohesion, culture and unanimity of purpose that truly World Class organisations have. The vision was present, but it was proving hard to live and breathe it when you are in over 30 different cities with nearly 20 different languages across Europe, the Middle East and North Africa. A decision had been made to hold bi-annual Conferences across the region to bring senior managers together, construct a new organisation and give a single platform and voice to all. However, they had no one true start-point for this process and no prior experience of undertaking this type of exercise before.

Communication was identified as the single critical success factor in the first Conference. Get it right, and the project would be up and running. Get it wrong and the project fails, potentially leaving the organisation in a worse position than it had been in the first place. First of all we designed and conducted bespoke qualitative and quantitative research to get a clear picture of what the delegates wanted from and thought they could achieve at the Conference. Likewise we looked for areas of shared success, frustration and areas for improvement. From this we supported our client in the design of their Conference. We introduced psychometric behavioural skills to give a common language to the business. The Conference included opportunities to workshop issues, share best practice and start the process of creating Centres of Excellence across the region as a support and development network. The process is now well underway. We look forward to continuing to support them in the future.