Gillespie Manners, a leading UK-based global Executive Search firm is celebrating its 20th anniversary this month. Over the last two decades, the company has helped hundreds of technology businesses around the world to expand through senior talent acquisition, having placed thousands of senior, niche and C-level mission-critical roles.
Over the years, Gillespie Manners has firmly established itself as a trusted, senior recruitment partner for the technology industry. The firm’s ethos centres around people. The organizational mission is to provide its market sectors with the best Executive Search service, ensuring successful outcomes for people’s career goals and business aspirations. And this is exemplified in the unparalleled client and candidate service the firm delivers. Andrew Manners, Co-Founder reflects on this milestone anniversary and remarks that “whether it’s our clients, our candidates or our employees – people are the beating heart of our industry. It was true in 2004 when we founded the business; it’s equally true today. A lot has changed in the technology market over the last 20 years, but people are the constant”.
Rewinding to 2004, when the Executive Search firm was founded, the mid-market recruitment industry was a proverbial wild-west landscape. It was Andrew Manners and Alex Gillespie’s disillusionment with “Pile it high, sell it cheap, low-grade attitude” taken by the industry which led the pair to disrupt the norms and found a professional, consultative agency with customer and candidate satisfaction at its heart. “There was a real lack of understanding of the complexity of the people side of the recruitment process. Many firms at the time took a volume-based sales approach, and it lacked sophistication. We were driven by a desire to create a better experience for all people involved at every stage of the process. We felt that senior talent acquisition deserved a higher level of intellect and professionalism to be attributed to it” Andrew Manners explains.
The new approach taken by Gillespie Manners was refreshing for clients and candidates alike. They created a process-based, methodological framework to ensure the success of the mission-critical hiring projects for which they were enlisted by clients. It didn’t take long for the firm to make waves in its markets; its first specialist practice being in the supply chain space. One of the first big names to join their retained client roster was DHL Supply Chain, who still work with Gillespie Manners today, twenty years on. This two-decade-long partnership is a highlight that Alex Gillespie, Co-Founder reflects upon “To have made over 100 placements for the world’s leading logistics specialist, and nurtured a professional relationship that has withstood two decades is a monumental achievement in Gillespie Manners’ story”.
Surviving and thriving after twenty years hasn’t always been plain sailing for the firm though. As Alex Gillespie points out, “We’ve ridden out not one, not two, but three once-in-a-lifetime global events with two economic crashes and a pandemic”. And Andrew Manners comments on the grit and determination employed by Gillespie Manners and its workforce, with a reminder that “Only 40% of businesses make it past the three-year mark in the UK. And, globally, only 25% of businesses survive fifteen years or more. That we are in the privileged position to celebrate our 20th anniversary and embark upon the next phase of our business’s growth is a truly humbling experience. We owe our success to our employees, our board, the clients who entrust us to support them and our network of fantastic candidates”.
The road from a brand-new startup in 2004, to an established global leader in Executive Search has been one of continual, incremental improvement. The first large shift in the firm’s growth was outgrowing their serviced office rooms which triggered a move into their own offices. Claire Smart, Operations Director and long-term employee, with over 10 years of tenure at Gillespie Manners said of the move “It suddenly felt elevated. We were on our way, with an identity, a location, a home. The gradual expansion of our home has been a physical marker of our success. We’ve gone from that first floor of our office to three and now considering the next phase of our expansion”.
“I’m looking forward to the next phase of our company life cycle. We’ve achieved 20 years, and that’s brilliant. It needs to be marked and celebrated. It’s a hell of a view to look back on, and we’ve climbed very far. But one of my eyes is looking up at the mountain ahead, eager to continue climbing and peak my head over the horizon. I’m excited for what’s next” says Andrew Manners on marking the achievement.
And it’s the firm’s refusal to stay still for too long, to not get complacent and comfortable which has empowered its growth over the last two decades. What began as a singular specialist supply chain technology Executive Search practice has now evolved into a much broader service proposition. The technology industry has undergone countless transformations in the 20 years since Gillespie Manners inception. To grow with its industry, the firm has founded new practices for retail, robotics, automation, AI and sustainability technology. Each arm of the business is deeply embedded within its respective market vertical as part of the firm’s long-term mission to champion talent at the cutting edge of technology.
“Our original mission and vision statements remain true to this day. We want to be the best Executive Search firm in the world, and the biggest in our markets. We believe in the robustness of our delivery model and the senior talent acquisition services we provide. We’ll keep iterating, evolving and scaling. There’ll be many more milestones to come in the story of Gillespie Manners” states Andrew Manners, summarizing his final thoughts.
Gillespie Manners’ anniversary celebration is a reaffirmation of the business’s vision for the future as much as it is a recognition of its achievements to date. And now, in the month of their milestone celebration, the firm has been shortlisted for the Global Business Tech Awards as a finalist in the ‘Best Tech Recruiter’ category. The Executive Search firm is uniquely positioned, at this pivotal juncture in its journey, to continue building upon two decades of growth
About Gillespie Manners
Gillespie Manners is a global Executive Search firm championing talent at the cutting edge of technology. The firm has cultivated a unique headhunting methodology which has enabled the placement of thousands of business-critical, senior and niche roles at hundreds of technology businesses around the world.
