Cosmo Currey is head of talent acquisition at Van Kaizen.

In just 18 months, Van Kaizen has grown from a local Isle of Man company into a global business with 25 people in 11 countries across six continents, giving it what is claimed to be the largest geographic footprint of any e-gaming recruitment firm in the world.

Founder Cosmo Currey talks about growth in a challenging market and the benefits of building an international business from the Isle of Man.

It hasn’t been a good year to start or grow a business.

This might be particularly true of the recruitment sector, with unemployment across OECD countries rocketing up by 4%, to levels not seen since the aftermath of the 2008 financial crash.

Hiring freezes have been common. Nevertheless, we have found ourselves growing rapidly.

In many ways, we have been very lucky. We always wanted to build a flexible remote business, in which everyone is empowered to work when they want to and where they want to, with no office overheads or commutes to bear.

Our people are used to that; indeed, it’s often a major reason they join us from more traditional businesses.

As a result, the global lockdowns have had less impact on us than on many other firms.

Our vision has paid off in other ways too.

We started the business with the firm belief that top performing headhunters generally don’t feel valued, particularly given the commercial and emotional challenges of the job.

We set out to remedy that, providing the most generous incentive structure in the industry, as far as we know.

The result has been that our people have weathered the economic storm unleashed by the lockdowns, even flourished.

We have made interest free bridging loans available for those who need them due to personal circumstance, mostly new starters, but it turns out our generous commission structure has kept our whole team well in the black, without hurting their savings or taking a penny from the taxpayer.

In doing so, our team have in turn helped many people find new employment in a difficult year.

The last bit of the puzzle is the Isle of Man.

We made the island our operational headquarters because the core team love living here.

As we have grown into a ‘micro-multinational’ with people on every continent except Antarctica, however, we have come to appreciate our island community in a whole new light.

We have found the support and the expertise here to help us through all the natural growing pains of rapid expansion.

relief

I have lost count of the number of times we’ve heaved a giant sigh of relief because we’ve found a local expert that can solve a problem thousands of miles away, whether that’s insuring contractors in Africa, reviewing contracts from the USA, opening multi-currency accounts for our work in Asia, or working out the statutory requirements of operating in the Middle East.

We have such an incredible cluster of globally connected specialists on this island, we should be truly proud.

As we look to the coming year, we should count our blessings.

While some are still suffering and there is much work yet to be done, our island has shown substantial strength.

Not just in avoiding the lengthy lockdowns being experienced elsewhere, but in keeping entrepreneurialism alive in our business community through a difficult

period.

We will need ambitious, outward facing businesses if we are to pick ourselves back up and carry on stronger than before.