JBM 2019 Review

I can’t quite believe it’s the end of the year and a new decade is almost upon us. Where has the time gone?! ⏱

They say time flies when you’re having fun and I think 2019 has arguably been the most enjoyable in the 7 years since I set JBM up ?

I wanted to share some of my highlights and express my gratitude to a few of the folk that have helped us along the way this year (apologies in advance if there is anyone I forget!).

New Beginnings:

 12 months ago we decided to pivot JBM’s business model, moving away from working with corporate clients and shrinking the team to become a more specialist search firm. This was with a view to doubling down on what we are passionate about – partnering with high growth, values driven businesses ?

I’m not going to lie, this was a real ? moment but the positivity from the team (Alice, Peri + our advisory board) and from our clients and candidates gave us a lot of belief and I’m delighted to say that this re-focusing and our subsequent rebrand / new website,  has proved to be a big success! ?

Here are some of my personal highlights:

• Record breaking year for revenue generated, including 2 record quarters (despite having half the number of employees – go team!) ?
• Aby (aka Abatron) joined the team to focus on consulting and has had a brilliant start to her career as a JBM’er, placing several candidates in her first quarter! ??‍?
• Launching the 40 Minute Mentor Podcast! We have been blown away by the support and feedback we’ve had, from the amazing guests who have given up there time, to all those who have listened and given us feedback. We really appreciate it and can’t wait to share some v exciting episodes that we have coming up…stay tuned!  ?
• We’ve had the pleasure of placing amazing candidates (including a number at C-suite/leadership roles) into some awesome disruptive and market leading brands including Facebook, Carwow, Onfido,  Fluidly etc ?
• We moved to a fab new home on Bermondsey St, which has expanded our lunch options considerably…and my waistline! ?
• We’ve run 5 events, including 2 live podcast recordings and have plans to do more in 2020… ?
• And our epic yearly retreat (with other halves) where we spent quality time reflecting on the years successes, discussing things we need to improve and most importantly having fun (which included wine tasting, axe throwing, archery, clay pigeon shooting – thankfully, not in that order!) ?

Thank Yous!

There are so many people to thank but I’d like to start with our amazing team – Alice, Peri and Aby – who have worked tirelessly this year and who live and breathe our values every day. I can’t wait to see what we can achieve together next year! ??

We also owe our board advisors (Fred, Kresse, Naomi and Stu) a huge debt of gratitude for their continued wisdom, support and encouragement. Having such an inspiring, empathetic and reassuring group of individuals on hand has been a life saver at times and has made the challenging days, much easier to handle ?

And to all our JBM Ambassadors, candidates and amazing clients –  thank you so much for your continued support. Without you we wouldn’t be here and we are very proud to represent you in the market. All of us at JBM can’t wait to support you in the year ahead and have lots more fun and mutual success together! ??

And finally, thank you to the other loves of my life…not Ben Stokes and the England cricket (although they did make my summer!), my wife Lucinda and 4 year old daughter Sienna, who are the reason I do what I do and who have first-hand exposure to the highs and lows that come with the recruitment industry! Thankfully Sienna is far more interested in me re-enacting scenes from Frozen 2 rather discussing my pipeline, which helps me switch off! ?

2020

Looking forward, we are SUPER excited about 2020 and we plan to make it the best year yet!??

We will continue to strive to be the go to search firm for high growth businesses looking for the most ambitious and brilliant minds. We will bring you more podcasts, events and insights that we hope will entertain and inspire, and we hope to change the lives of lots of amazing candidates by finding them their dream job ?

Everyone at JBM wishes you a very happy holidays and a healthy, happy and prosperous 2020! ?

Cheers!

James