Memories of our first steps.........

I was recently interviewed by Global Recruiter.com about starting up, here's an excerpt:

Q: When, where and by whom was EBC established?

A: It was 2004 and I was coming back from a visiting a client who had left a large Telco to start a Systems Integrator with some of his colleagues. I was inspired by his courage and ambition and thought to myself, if he could do it, why not me? It was very fortuitous that at the same time, some respected and likeminded colleagues had similar motivations and so our firm was born, commencing trading as Ethos Corporation in 2005.

There were six founding partners, we had a handshake deal that we'd stick at it for five years no matter what, one unfortunately had to return to the UK after four years for family reasons however the rest of us stuck together. Now 12 years on there are three of the founders still here. Over the years we have added to the shareholder group, we've always had a philosophy of distributed ownership and we are lucky to have such a committed and talented group of individuals, without whom, we wouldn't be where we are today.

Q: What was the primary objective of creating the company in terms of the market/clients/candidates intended to serve?

A: Probably no different to my own motivations for getting into recruitment back in 1996. With no barrier to entry, the industry produces varying degrees of service quality and it doesn't take much to stand out. If you can be highly conscientious and committed to your craft, there is considerable upside to be had. We compete in the white collar ‘mid-market’, we classify that as $100k-$400k or the contracting equivalent.

Q: How would you characterise the early days? Did the company grow quickly?

As someone once said to me, "the only person who calls you in your first week is your mother". It was a bit like that, a pretty silent office for a while and we had all the heavy legal reminders about restraints which are more confronting when your own money is on the line and the last thing you can afford is a legal battle! In some ways, it was good, it forced us outside of our comfort zone and made us very match fit.

We bought second hand furniture and we couldn't afford removalists so instead we borrowed a relative’s Ute. We didn't have much money. We'd committed to a three year lease on 340 square metres – enough space for 30 people – and didn't pay ourselves for a year. To save a taxi fare my dad once drove me to visit a client who was a long way away and hard to get to via public transport. He waited in the car park for the hour then drove me back to the office. We had put all our savings into the business. My wife had just had our second child and we lived off the credit card and payed it off by drawing on the mortgage. Failure was not an option! There are similar stories for the other founders too. It all sounds pretty "Mickey Mouse" compared to our more comfortable existence today but it does make you respect what you had to do.

In terms of growth, it's a massive leap of faith for people to join a start-up however we were fortunate enough to be well networked and well regarded enough to be able to get some critical mass reasonably quickly. We had 25 staff by the 18 month mark. This really enabled us to smooth out the ups and downs, create energy and start to shape the culture. It was a smart move.

Q: What were the main challenges for the business and how were these overcome?

A: Nothing too significant or unique. Like many we were hit by the 2008 GFC/Credit Crisis, however we were lucky enough to be able to fund our operating costs without remuneration changes. Nor did we lose anybody. However profits were down a fair bit! Missing out on a couple of good potential hires is always frustrating and not making early enough firing decisions on a couple of occasions was sub-optimal. We also invested in a business in Melbourne that never evolved beyond a shadow of what we have here in Sydney and Singapore. It was disappointing it didn't live up to its potential.

Q: How important has it been to find, retain and develop the right staff for the company?

A: We are nothing without our people, the success of the business is fully attributed to them. The performance of the business each year is a reflection of our engagement levels and whether or not we've hired well and retained. EBC today is better than I've ever seen it, the chemistry and energy is remarkable – I feel the influx of youthful talent blended with some very experienced heads has served us quite well. We benchmark engagement each year via our Opinion Poll – it keeps us honest!

Q: What is on the horizon for the company?

A: Forming the Ethos Advisory Board in 2013 was a turning point on our journey and forced us to honestly appraise the future of the business - would it be the same in five years time or something much more robust and substantial? The Advisory Board really set the wheels in motion on a number of initiatives whether that be scale, annuity income volume, customer concentration, people engagement, leadership succession, geographic footprint and so on. Our people have transformed our business on each of these measures. The merger with BeathChapman to create Ethos BeathChapman was born out of the Advisory Board, a really great step for both businesses, Matt Beath is highly regarded in Asian circles and over the last five years has built a fabulous business. We first worked together in 1999 and it's good to be working together again.

As has been announced, we are delighted to welcome the Nikkei listed Will Group as a majority shareholder of EBC. This is a very strong endorsement of EBC and sets us up nicely for further expansion, such as the creation of complimentary service lines, additional office geographies and so on. Further down the line, the non-Japan assets of Will Group will be consolidated into a separate listing which will bring further capital and opportunity to the business and our people. It will hopefully will be a very exciting next chapter!