Gillespie Manners celebrates twenty years of Executive Search excellence

Gillespie Manners a main UK-based global Executive Search firm is celebrating its twentieth anniversary this month. Over the past two decades, the company has helped hundreds of craftsmanship firms around the world to grow through senior talent acquisition, having placed thousands of senior, specialist and C-suite mission-critical roles.

Over the years, Gillespie Manners has firmly established itself as a trusted, senior recruitment partner for the talent industry. The firm’s ethos centres around people. The organizational mission is to elevate its market sectors with the very best Executive Search service, ensuring successful outcomes for individuals’ career objectives 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 workers – people are the beating heart of our business. It was just as true in 2004 when we founded the business; it’s equally true today. A lot has changed in the talent market over the last twenty years, but people are the constant.

Rewinding to 2004, when the Executive Search firm was founded, the mid-market recruitment alternate was a proverbial wild-west panorama. It was Andrew Manners and Alex Gillespie’s disillusionment with “Pile it excessive, promote it low-tag, low-grade angle” taken by the alternate which led the pair to disrupt the norms and chanced on a expert, consultative agency with customer and candidate pleasure at its coronary heart. “There was a actual lack of craftsmanship of the complexity of the folks aspect of the recruitment job. Many companies on the time took a quantity-basically based gross sales come, and it lacked sophistication. We had been pushed by a resolve on to form a bigger trip for all folks eager at every stage of the device. We felt that senior talent acquisition deserved a increased stage 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 job-based, methodological framework to ensure the success of the mission-critical hiring initiatives for which they had been enlisted by clients. It didn’t take long for the firm to make waves in its markets; its first specialist focus was in the supply chain sector. One of the most significant names to join their retained client roster was DHL Supply Chain, which continues to 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’ history.”

Surviving and thriving after twenty years hasn’t always been smooth 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 companies make it past the three-year mark in the UK. And, globally, only 25% of companies survive fifteen years or more. That we are in the privileged position to celebrate our twentieth anniversary and embark upon the next phase of our business’s growth is a truly humbling experience. We owe our success to our workers, our board, the clients who entrust us to support them and our network of outstanding candidates.

The journey from a brand-new startup in 2004, to a long-established world leader in Executive Search has been one of continuous, incremental development. The first major shift in the firm’s growth was outgrowing their serviced office spaces, which prompted a move into their very own offices. Claire Tidy, Operations Director and long-time employee, with over 10 years of tenure at Gillespie Manners said of the move “It felt better. We were on our way, with an identity, a location, a home. The gradual growth of our space 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 growth”.

“I’m looking forward to the next chapter of our company’s life cycle. We’ve completed twenty years, and that’s true. It deserves to be marked and well-known. It’s quite a sight to look back on, and we’ve come very far. But one of my eyes is gazing up at the mountain ahead, eager to keep 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 rest for too long, to not become complacent and satisfied, which has driven its growth over the past two decades. What began as a niche specialist supply chain expertise in Executive Search has now evolved into a broad, comprehensive service offering. The talent acquisition landscape has undergone countless transformations in the twenty years since Gillespie Manners’ inception. To keep pace with its industry, the firm has established new practices in retail, robotics, automation, AI, and sustainability talent. 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 their craft.

“Our customary mission and vision statements remain true to this day. We aim to be the very best Executive Search firm in the world, and the largest in our markets. We believe in the robustness of our founding model and the senior talent acquisition services we provide. We will continue iterating, evolving, and scaling. There will be many more milestones to come in the story of Gillespie Manners,” states Andrew Manners Andrew Manners, summarizing his closing thoughts.

Gillespie Manners’ anniversary event 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 occasion, 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 craftsmanship. The firm has cultivated a diversified headhunting methodology which has enabled the placement of thousands of business-critical, senior and niche roles at numerous craftsmanship companies around the world.

www.gillespiemanners.com