ChapmanCG - Beyond Year 1 and until the End
In a previous post, I wrote about the first year of ChapmanCG, my first company. For any budding entrepreneur, Year 1 is the key to success. My goal was to break even on costs but, most importantly, to excel in service and relationships, creating a solid foundation for future abundance.
Back when ChapmanCG started, it was the peak of the global financial crisis. Competitor firms were going to the wall. Companies were not hiring HR leaders. Everything seemed like doom and gloom. We tuned out the noise and stuck to looking after HR leaders, especially the vast number losing their jobs.
I remember my calendar was full to the brim with 20-40 short chats a day with leaders across the world. It was this care, day-in and day-out, that built our reputation. We always got back to people, we did what we said we would do, and we went the extra mile. As soon as the market turned in 2010/2011, our young business went to the next level. We were rewarded for the loyalty, trust, and consistency we had shown.
I hired Ben Davies and, not long after, Stefanie Cross-Wilson. From there, our team scaled quickly. Soon, I had Albert Kwong as our CFO. Within a few years, the business scaled to 80+ people across the world. We became the most prominent HR-specific search firm in the world and regularly beat the top global search firms for top HR roles.
I put ChapmanCG's success down to:
Sticking to a specific function (i.e., HR).
Adding significant value for HR leaders through market intelligence and networking.
Creating a one-stop global platform for the team growth of global HR leaders.
Building an innovative, remote-first culture that prioritised work-life balance.
Trusting my team and always creating succession beyond myself.
Always innovating and growing the business.
Ultimately, my decision to transition the company beyond my ownership—a process that began 11 years into my journey and was completed 3 years later—was driven by my desire to take a break, reset, and work on future projects.
My interest in design and nature, coupled with my desire for a slower life, prompted this change. Living this life for the past three years beyond ChapmanCG has brought new perspective and allowed me to reinvent myself.
My advice for any founder, based on my journey:
Give yourself a finite time in each area of focus and move to the next area of strategic focus quickly.
Put your name on the door if you are prepared to focus on and grow the brand; if not, don't.
Create your management team fast and delegate day-to-day decision-making to them.
Keep yourself focused on the future, interpreting trends and managing potential business obstacles.
Be analytical and financially savvy—my best decision was hiring a highly competent CFO early on.
When you start to sell, double down on keeping the company stable with key talent.
Once it's sold, get out of the way. For me, it was hard to leave my "baby," but ultimately, my legacy was that it could survive beyond me.
Acknowledgements
A special thanks to Oscar, my Co-Founder, for beginning the idea with me and for his partnership until 2019.
To Ben Davies for his contributions and for taking over from me after being one of the first employees.
To Stefanie Cross-Wilson for her friendship and longstanding contributions in various roles.
To Albert Kwong for being my highly competent CFO.
To Carrie Gray for many years of service as my COO.
To Jessilyn and Marq Lim for their loyalty and assistance from the very start.
To everyone else, including all of our wonderful employees.
And finally, to the global network of HR leaders who believed in ChapmanCG and supported us from the beginning through my departure, and hopefully, still do today.