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The Four Pillars of Success in Growing Your Recruitment Business, with Doug Baird, Ep #122

Apr 22, 2022

I am always fascinated by hearing how recruitment business owners navigate their journeys through difficulties to grow their practices. That’s why I am very much delighted to share this episode with you on how my special guest, Doug Baird focused on four strategic pillars to successfully grow his small contract recruitment firm into a leading consultancy group today.

Doug is the CEO at New Street Consulting Group (NSCG), a people advisory firm that helps their clients find, assess, build and accelerate teams and leaders who are as good in practice as they are on paper. NSC has been ranked as one of the best small companies in the UK, previously ranked in the Sunday Times’ Fast Track 100, and Doug himself has been a finalist in the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur Award.

Episode Outline and Highlights

  • [2:40] How Doug started his recruitment firm leading up to the foundation of New Street Consultancy Group.
  • [9:30]  NSC’s approach to offering client solutions via meaningful strategic conversations.
  • [13:50] Growing through acquisitions - Doug shares his thoughts.
  • [18:54] Doug’s Four Strategic Pillars for growing his recruitment business.
  • [24:10] How to use the sense of dissatisfaction to achieve more in your career.
  • [29:54] Discussion on some of the biggest challenges that Doug had to navigate through.
  • [32:26] Sharing best practices to find the right people for your recruitment business.
  • [34:35] What is governance and what does it mean for your organization?
  • [37:11] How to balance your team’s structure when bringing in talent.
  • [44:12] Utilizing technology as you scale your business.
  • [49:43] Looking back at his journey, what are the things that Doug would have done differently?

The Four Pillars of Success in Growing Your Recruitment Business

Doug shared his story beginning in 2003 when he started Interim Partners. They started off as an interim management provider and contracting recruitment business. In this interview, you will hear how he was able to lead his company to growth which ultimately led him to establish a professional services consulting firm, the NSC Group.

I asked for his critical success factors and you will certainly enjoy how he laid the foundation of his business growth on four pillars: talent, structure, governance, and technology. You will also hear us discuss each of these and I am confident that you will be able to pick up several golden nuggets of wisdom to use in your own journey of scaling your business.

Using the Sense of Dissatisfaction to Your Advantage

Tony Robbins once said that being dissatisfied is one of the best ways to achieve more and stay motivated. This is definitely the same with Doug. He believes that having a sense of dissatisfaction and having the courage to walk away from what you are famous for can work to your advantage. He revealed how this mindset gave him a clear vision of his end goal. Related to this idea, you will hear from this interview why growing your business via acquisition makes sense in certain situations. 

Strengthening the Pillar of Technology to Scale Your Business

We also covered utilizing technology to effectively manage your recruitment business. Doug shared how they had to let go of some legacy systems they were using and how they adapted by using contemporary technology. We were very specific with some tools such as SalesForce, Bullhorn, Marketo, Cascade for HR, and others. An interesting thing that Doug shared is how they are using Salesforce and Bullhorn at the same time despite the potential overlap. You may be able to relate with some of the technologies mentioned.

What Would Have Doug Done Differently?

What I consider to be the best part of my conversation with Doug in this episode is when he responded to the question of what he would have done differently. “I would probably have tried to have held onto people, some of them that I’ve had at the very beginning,” is how Doug puts it. When you listen to this part, you will hear Doug’s sincerity as he further elaborates on what he meant. 

Our Sponsors

This podcast is proudly sponsored by i-intro®. 

i-intro® is an end-to-end retained recruitment platform. Our technology and methodology allows recruiters to differentiate themselves from the competition, win more retained business, bigger fees and increase their billings. Be sure to mention Mark Whitby or The Resilient Recruiter for a 25% discount. Book your free, no-obligation consultation here: www.recruitmentcoach.com/retained 

Doug Baird Bio and Contact Info

Doug has 25 plus years in recruitment and professional services where he created and managed companies operating within Interim Management, Executive Search and Leadership Consulting. Outside of work, his four children keep him busy. With his family, Doug loves traveling, skiing and cinema. He enjoys rugby, plays golf badly and loves learning new things - fortunate to be heading to Harvard in May.

People and Resources Mentioned

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