Should I recruit my talent from a direct competitor?

Having recently built a business from scratch, and in the process built a high performing team, this was a question I regularly asked myself. It was also a constant source of debate with my other direct reports.

With the high level of market opportunities in the insurance sector that exist across Europe, and the potential positive impact of changes to business models available through technology such as digitalisation, perhaps as some companies look to improve performance and change some of their business leaders they should maybe ask themselves the question above.

 Answer YES - if you want people who; probably know your market intimately, have a proven record of delivery and can provide a safe pair of hands.........

 Answer NO - if you need a fresh look at; your issues and opportunities, new ideas from another sector, encouraging a higher level of innovation, increasing the appetite for risk and reward, your business model, the real potential performance of your current markets, how to be more creative in looking at new markets, generating ideas to move with changing consumer attitudes, how to construct a plan to take you ahead of your competitors.........

 The premise being that the safe pair of hands will keep you on your current route with maybe a slight improvement in your performance due to some tweaking of people, performance and cost cutting.

 For companies that really want to change and improve they possibly have to be more radical in their recruitment strategy and shortlist. Don't get me wrong I am not suggesting a big move from say the travel industry to insurance. Transferring from sectors too far apart rarely works. But I am suggesting you consider other insurance sectors and possibly other financial services sectors as you look at the talent available.

 So are you a yes or a no? You should have the appropriate discussion with your recruitment adviser. It might make the recruitment process more onerous but the final outcome could be much more beneficial to your company.

 For my start up we recruited from inside the parent company, from direct competitors, from other sectors of insurance and even from other sectors where we felt skills where transferrable. Our approach was flexible based on a clear profile of the skills we needed. We definitely learnt it is not just ‘yes’ to the same sector.

 Happy recruiting.