APSCo Ian Knowlson

Ian has had an impressive career to date, spanning over 35 years in recruitment, talent acquisition, solution sales and training sectors. His track record of establishing, growing and revitalising failing recruitment businesses across the UK and Europe, in a myriad of sectors including IT/Technology, Engineering, Telecoms and Public Sector/Not-for-Profit, gives him a wealth of personal experience to draw upon.

Having worked as a UK Sales Director for Hays Specialist Recruitment for 11 years, Ian understands the complexities of corporate resourcing and constructing high return client relationships. He has led the sale and delivery of Managed Services contracts with values of up to £20M per annum, and delivered numerous long-term, high-value partnerships and business critical high-profile projects.

As a strategic partner to many blue-chip organisations, Ian has worked at board/cabinet level to assist strategic decision-making in skills availability within regions, sectors and countries. The organisations Ian has helped with his innovative solutions-focused approach include Barclays Bank, Clerical Medical, NHS Connecting-for-Health, DWP, MoneySupermarket, AXA-Direct and Leicestershire County Council.

Current Since establishing his own business nine years ago, Ian has worked closely with some of the UK's most successful recruitment businesses and entrepreneurs, as well as leading names in the recruitment/talent industry, to support the transformation of their businesses, their teams and their lives.

Specialisms

Principally Ian focuses his expertise in four areas:

• Growth management & business planning: Ian has a proven track record, stretching back many years, growing clients' businesses and delivering typically between 30-300% year-on-year growth in (GVA/Margin/Turnover).

• RPO/MSP: Building on his personal experiences, Ian supports many businesses with bespoke RPO/MSP sales strategies and equipping their sales people with the skills and behaviours required to sell MSP/RPO solutions to large public-sector/corporate/global businesses. Ian has run numerous recruiter programmes that have delivered several multi-million pounds worth of new accounts.

• Mentoring and Leadership Support: Supporting his clients in creating, developing and delivering their personal and business growth plans is key to Ian’s approach. This comes from his passionate belief that to deliver real, sustainable success, his mentoring and leadership support must be truly aligned to your personal/corporate vision. Through this, his impact is truly transformational.

• Executive Coaching: From MDs/Owners of niche SME Recruiters seeking to achieve high-performance-growth, to C-Suites executives in some of the leading recruitment and talent businesses in the UK, EMEA, Asia-Pac and the Americas, Ian has supported many executives on their personal transformational journeys in the following:

•Achieving Strategic Goals

•Becoming an effective leader

•Developing Talent

•Improving Team Performance

•Managing Personal Challenges

•Developing Leaders.

Employing Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) and management psychology, Ian is able to support, coach/mentor and teach leadership, emotional intelligence and solution sales relationship skills to his executives, delegates and cohorts that takes others years to learn.

As well as being the founder of Talence, Ian is also a global influencer sighted by Onalytica in the Top Ten Social Media influencers in the world on the #Future-of-Work/Future-of-Talent/Recruitment, working with leading brands such as IBM, Cisco, Sage and Salesforce.

Reference 1

“For this multi-million pound international recruitment group that provides talent across a wide range sectors including IT/Technology, Engineering, Aerospace, Construction, Energy, Automotive, Transport, and Professional/Commercial, Ian has provided a range of services over the past five years including one-to-one executive coaching to senior managers and directors, mentoring and leadership support to the groups future leaders. In addition Ian has used his unique blend of skills to deliver a group-wide bespoke MSP/RPO programme of training and coaching to fifty+ members of the senior leadership and middle management sales/account teams on winning and delivering recruitment solutions for new and existing clients."

Reference 2

“Ian started working with this SME Recruiter in 2013. At the time, the business had an MD and two staff, turned over £1.2m per annum and operated in the logistics, industrial and construction sectors and was operating out of one room in a rented/serviced office. The MD was personally responsible for 80% of the business and was very much working “in the business”. Ian worked with the MD to devise an initial three-year growth plan with new operating models, niche markets, recruiters operating vertical specialisms, new branding websites, offices, recruitment and consultant training policies, KPIs and performance management frameworks as well as consultant day plans, daily and weekly reporting, new profitability measures. The result has been to transform the business, the people and the lives of all of those involved, especially the directors. Between 2013-19 a further two three-year plans were developed and executed, seeing the business grow over 700%. Business is currently projecting a turnover well in excess of £8.5-10m. In addition, the business has seen a huge increase in the profitability of the business it writes (profitability per head up 300%) and the MD personally has no day-to-day client responsibility for placing workers or managing requirements; instead, he now has a team of highly-skilled and competent recruiters. Today, the business operates from a brand-new, funky purpose-built office owned by the Directors; they employ over ten staff and have significant expansion plans. The MD spends 80% of his time working “On his business”, managing and developing staff. All of this has been achieved with the support Ian’s Growth and Exec Coaching, Leadership and Mentoring Service. The business has exceeded its three-year vision set in 2013 and recently produced a new 2020 plan to take them on to the end of the decade.”

Reference 3

“Today this business is under new ownership, but in 2013 Ian worked closely with the MD and directors to help them create an initial three-vision for this IT SME Recruiter, as well as delivering a full future leadership programme. During the 6-7 year association with this client, Ian and his associate team subsequently continued to create further three-year-visions for the whole and individual parts of the business, provided further leadership support and mentoring, running bespoke workshops and coaching support programmes as well as assisting the original business leaders establish new teams in UK, US and Germany. Revenues today are many tens of millions more than in 2013 and the MD has successfully sold his stake in the business and moved into a new life. Ian and his associate team successfully supported the transformation of the business, people and lives of those in it.”

Reference 4

“Struggling to move the business forward in a tough competitive industrial and generalist temp market, in 2017 this small provincial SME generalist recruiter engaged Ian to work with the MD to help transform the business. Ian worked with the MD and his team to create a three-year programme, and implement new operating models, commission and bonus structures, niche markets, new branding websites, recruitment and consultant training policies, KPIs and performance management frameworks, as well as daily and weekly reporting and new profitability measures. In addition, together they made a strategic hire of a new Operations Director. The business doubled its turnover in year one of the programme and is on target to do the same. This has seen new niche sectors, geographic offices and working practices. As a result, with the proceeds the MD has been able to buy-out another director and is now looking to re-develop the businesses prime property. Once again, with Ian’s support the MD has seen the transformation of business, the people and the lives of those in it.”

Reference 5

“In 2015 the directors of this Midlands Engineering and Technology recruiter engaged Ian to help the business create a three-year growth plan for the business. In addition, Ian provided coaching support to the directors with new operating models, niche markets, recruiters operating vertical specialisms, new branding websites, new purpose designed offices, recruitment and consultant training policies, KPIs and performance management frameworks as well as consultant day plans, daily and weekly reporting, new profitability measures. In addition, over the subsequent years Ian has provided run a full future leadership programme, as well as providing further leadership support and mentoring, running bespoke workshops and coaching support. Once again the result has been to transform the business, the people and the lives of all of those involved, especially the directors.”