THE AMPERSAND It is popularized that a human year is roughly equal to seven dog years. What, then, does one human year equate to in small business owner years? Based on the amount of grey hair in my newest bio photo, the answer is: a lot. Though not quite cloaked in the mythology of a backseat birth on a cold winter night, the environs into which this business of ours was born in the summer of 2009, during the last Great Recession, were similarly inhospitable.
The prolonged downturn impacting our primary place of business, our beloved Calgary, Alberta, has hardened us to the reality that nothing comes easily, that you have to make your own luck and that relationships are everything. Absolutely everything.
For over 10 years we’ve seen the executive search industry transform. The largest Rolodex no longer wins the day; rather, the age-old art of storytelling and relationship building, combined with the age-new embrace of technology, have formed the foundation of our firm’s long-standing success.
In a booming economy, executive search firms are like wartime military defence firms supplying arms in the war for talent. But after the ongoing five-year downturn crushing Calgary, businesses that have survived have had to reinvent themselves. We’re no different. And it’s a reinvention mirrored by our city, too, as it goes through its own makeover.
And though presumptuous it may seem for a 10-year old to be opining of lessons learned, our 10 years are small business years which qualifies us as wise enough to do so. Here they are summarized in a special new page on our website for all to see.
