Talent in the 21st Century

The secrets of identifying, attracting, developing, reatining and releasing talent to create world class performance environments
BY TO BY B A B B
M A N AG I N G D I R E C TO R , H A R R I N G TO N S TA R R

CONTENTS

03 05 05 07 10 19 32 40 41 43 47

THE CONCEPT INTRODUCING OUR PANELS ELITE PERFORMANCE PANEL TALENT CYCLE PANEL PART ONE: PERFORMANCE PART TWO: THE TALENT CYCLE PICTURES FROM THE EVENT OUR NEXT EVENT CONTACT OUR SPEAKERS EVENT FEEDBACK SUGGESTED FURTHER READING

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THE CONCEPT
HE IDEA OF Talent in the 21st Century originated from a private dinner we were going to set up for key clients to explore the whole concept of talent. As we continued to talk about it, it rapidly became apparent that there were so many different aspects that the subject deserved a far wider audience and our rst seminar was born.

Talent, in our opinion, is the greatest asset in any business. To be the best in your eld, you need to attract and surround yourself with the best people. Talent strategies are, however, rarely the key agenda on any boardroom table for many companies. Recruitment is seen as something that can be achieved with a hastily prepared advert and some gut based interviews. That said, those that build the best talent strategies are, almost universally, the leaders in their eld. This ranges from how that talent is attracted, to how it is developed and the culture of the environment set up to achieve that high performance status. We believe it starts with knowing what elite performance looks like and how you shape your team to espouse that culture. Once what great is has been identied, the next steps are to identify where those great performers are, to build best in class attraction plans, to recruit and onboard the talent, to develop them, measure them, to retain them and, ultimately, know when the right time to release may be.

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Harrington Starr is a business founded on the parallels that exist between sport and business. Our name derives in part from Bart Starr, former Quarterback for Vince Lombardis legendary Green Bay Packers team and, without question, one of the most inspirational examples of a high performance culture in history. We have been fortunate to meet, study, read and listen to some of the foremost thought leaders on the subject and have unearthed so many parallels and lessons that we have found both in our business and in those of our clients. One of the key similarities existed in talent. Its denition, how it is dened, how to nd it and more. We began talking about how, in both sport and business, it has never been tougher and more competitive to identify and secure the best in the world to join your organisation. Talent in the 21st Century was born.

--TA L E N T, I N O U R O P I N I O N , I S T H E G R E AT E S T A S S E T I N A N Y B U S I N E S S . TO B E T H E B E S T I N YO U R F I E L D, YO U N E E D TO AT T R AC T A N D S U R R O U N D YO U R S E L F W I T H T H E B E S T P E O P L E

--Friends of Harrington Starr such as Blake Wooster, Rasmus Ankersen, and Bookomis Richard Kilgarriff really then helped us to form the foundation of where these panels could take us. The idea of the Talent Cycle complimented Elite Performance and the list of panellists grew. The rst Harrington Starr seminar was born to marry closely with our Financial Services and Commodities Technology breakfast programme. Harrington Starrs events programme has been designed to bring together leaders in the nancial services and commodities technology sector to meet, connect and share business opportunities. Talent in the 21st Century saw two hundred of the leading names in technology from banks, funds, asset management, software houses, consultancies, exchanges and brokerages congregate and we are delighted to report that some exceptional results have already come from the introductions that were made. On top of that, some of the leading minds in sports and business thinking shared their incredible thoughts on the DNA of elite performers and how to crack the talent cycle. The following pages go some way to giving practical lessons that we learned from the day. Whilst each chapter could well be a book in itself, we hope that this high level view gives some ideas to help with your talent strategy.

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INTRODUCING --O U R PA N E L S

ELITE PERFORMANCE PANEL

BEN HUNT-DAVIS MBE
Co-Author of Will It Make the Boat Go Faster, business coach, keynote speaker, founder of a corporate development company and Olympic Gold Medallist in the Mens VIII at the Sydney Olympics in 2000. He worked for the British Olympic Association in the 2012 London Games and is has had praise lavished upon him from leaders ranging from Lord Coe to Lord Digby Jones. Ben takes Olympic-Winning Strategies for Everyday Success and has worked with an impressive list of the Worlds leading companies.

SIMON SEAR

Senior Change Consultant in Commodities Trading and Author of Kencho, The Art of Happiness, Simon has an incredible track record in building high performance teams. Currently the Commodities Practice Leader at BJSS, his impressive CV includes formerly being the CIO of Duke Energy, Head of IT at BP Trading and Interim Head of IT at Centrica Trading and Marketing. A Psychology Graduate, he has led Global teams of over 250 with budgets in excess of $80m.

GREG SEARLE MBE

Greg Searle is an Olympic gold medalist, winning the coxed pairs event at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics with his brother Jonny Searle and cox Garry Herbert. He also won a World Championships gold medal in 1993 with his brother. In the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, he nished third in the coxless four event. Following Atlanta, he converted briey to competing in the single scull (coached by Harry Mahon), and won bronze at the 1997 Rowing World Championships. He was a nalist in the coxless pairs at the 2000 Sydney Olympics with Ed Coode, nishing a disappointing and close fourth, having led much of the way. After his retirement as an international rower, Searle

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INTRODUCING --O U R PA N E L S

ELITE PERFORMANCE PANEL

joined the British team in the Americas Cup. He was a grinder in the 2002 Challenger Series. In one of the incredible stories of the London Games, he returned to international rowing at the age of 38 for the 2010 World Rowing Championships and won an Olympic bronze medal, age 40, in the mens eight at London 2012. Searle was awarded an MBE in the 1993 New Years Honours, following his gold at Barcelona. He now is a partner at Lane4 performance and delivers world class insight and advice to the UKs leading business minds.

SIMON HARTLEY

Simon has been applying performance coaching and World Class Winning Psychology to corporate clients for years, having helped the likes of Zurich, Skandia and Proctor & Gamble. He has been one of the UKs leading sports psychologists for fteen years working with Premiership Football Teams, Premier Rugby Teams, Olympians and a host of World Class Athletes. Applying those tactics, he has worked with businesses throughout the world helping identify the characteristics of world class performers. Simons books Peak Performance Every Time and How to Shine explore the secrets of success from proven winners from elds as diverse as MichelinStarred chefs to ground-breaking scientists. The lessons he has learnt are brilliantly transferrable into any environment and he will deliver a keynote that will bring practical lessons that will allow us to better identify the key traits of high performance that we can identify in both world class athletes and world class software engineers. The key characteristics remain the same. Simon will deliver the keynote at our December 4th event Be World Class.

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INTRODUCING --O U R PA N E L S

TALENT CYCLE PANEL

STEVE BACKLEY OBE
After seven Gold medals, three world records, two Olympic silver medals and one bronze, Steve Backley nally hung up his javelin at the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, showing he was still one of the worlds best by placing 4th in the nal. He was awarded an MBE in 1995 after winning European and Commonwealth Gold the previous summer. In 2002, he was awarded the OBE, after being the rst British athlete to successfully win four consecutive European Championship titles. Since retirement from professional sport, Steve has pursued a number of business activities. He is author of three inspirational books The Winning Mind, The Little Book of Inspiration and, most recently, The Champion in All of Us: 12 Rules for Success. As well as corporate speaker and published author, Steve continues to deliver sports commentary for the BBC and is booked for a range of other media and television appearances. He also concentrates on the training business he established with fellow Olympian Roger Black, BackleyBlack delivering Olympic Performance in the Workplace.

MIKE FORDE

Mike is widely recognised as one of the Worlds leading High Performance and Talent Management Consultants. Between August 2007 and June 2013 he was Director of Football Operations and Executive Club Director at Chelsea Football Club dealing with all areas of team performance. Mike advises elite performance teams in a variety of sports, is a

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INTRODUCING --O U R PA N E L S

TALENT CYCLE PANEL

strategic advisor to the San Antonio Spurs NBA team and is a sought after speaker in the business world, delivering over 50 keynote speeches a year across the globe on attaining high performance and maximising talent. Mike also sits on the P8 Summit with elite leaders such as Sir Dave Braislford, Arsene Wenger, Stuart Lancaster and Andy Flower to discuss what the best teams in the UK can learn from each other.

BLAKE WOOSTER

Blake is the CEO and Co-Founder of the 21st Club with Rasmus Ankersen. A forward-thinking idea entrepreneur, Blake fuses his passion for high performance with commercial creativeness to help deliver competitive edge. A key player in the sports data market for over 15 years - most recently as the global business development director at Prozone he is now focused on inventing new value by helping key stakeholders make future-wise decisions. Blake has a First Class Honours in notational analysis, and has achieved the highest industry accreditation in performance analytics.

RASMUS ANKERSEN

A leader in his eld, Rasmus has dedicated his life towards cracking the code of high performance. At the age of just 22 he became Head Coach at the FC Midtjylland Football Academy, the rst football academy established in Scandinavia, which has produced several top international players. Author of four bestselling books on talent and performance development in business and sport; the most recent - The Gold Mine Effect - has now been published in more than 15 countries worldwide and tells the story of how Rasmus lived and trained for six months

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INTRODUCING --O U R PA N E L S

TALENT CYCLE PANEL

with some of the worlds best athletes and coaches to understand: what really creates a gold mine of world class performers? Co-founder of the 21st Club, Rasmus continues to add value through public speaking, consulting and personal coaching to sports organisations, top athletes and business leaders worldwide. His new book Hunger in Paradise will be released in the UK early in 2014.

TOBY BABB

Founder and Managing Director of Harrington Starr, Toby has worked with the Worlds leading companies identifying and attracting talent for fteen years. Having worked in senior positions at FTSE listed recruitment brands, he launched Harrington Starr in the Summer of 2010 and it is now one of the UKs fastest growing businesses, helping connect exceptional talent and leaders in nancial services and commodities technology in over ve continents and twenty four different countries. Toby is a regular contributor to the FinTech press and a commentator on employment and business matters for the BBC.

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PA R T --ONE

PERFORMANCE

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THE SECRETS OF ELITE PERFORMERS

SIMON HARTLEY HAS identied eight common characteristics of elite performers in sport and business in his book How to Shine. As an Olympic Gold Medallist and partner at the brilliant Lane4 consultancy, Greg Searle has worked with some of the worlds leading brands and has a very clear denition of what it takes to reach the summit of performance. Ben Hunt-Davis has achieved his professional Everest and launched a hugely successful career with his consultancy Will it Make the Boat go Faster? Simon Sears stellar career has seen him rise to the top of one of the worlds most competitive industries in technology within commodities trading.

The panel uncovered more traits that unied the elite alongside these. Universal was the passion that elite performers have. I was very fortunate to have been invited to Harvey Thorneycrofts recent Psychology of Success showcase at Sandown Park. Speakers there included bomb disposal experts, the lead from Phantom of the Opera, gadget entrepreneurs and sporting leaders such as Andrew Strauss. Spending the day in their company and enjoying the time with our esteemed panellists, the overwhelming character trait that you nd is an overwhelming passion and an energy to achieve to the highest level they could. This made me think about the best with whom I have worked, the best leaders in technology I have met over fteen years working in the City. Who were the most successful people I knew, and the very best at what they did, and what was the main characteristic that they shared? Passion in abundance. A real enjoyment in discussing and debating their goal and purpose. They are hugely energetic and forces of nature. Everything is exciting. Find a passionate employee and you are well on your way to nding an elite performer. But passion alone is not enough, the next trait that the panel explored was the ability to focus on the details that matter. Unbridled passion would get you in the game but not set you up as an elite performer. The ability to focus on the detail, to cut out the time wasters to simplify the journey to the end goal was another area that the panel fundamentally agreed upon. Next came the ability to focus on the process rather than the result. World class performers in any domain share the ability to work in a systematic manner and rarely focus on the end result. They maximise their understanding of the journey to the destination and, in turn, the score takes care of itself. That rare ability to focus on the fundamentals and do the basics right time and time again was seen as key. Simplify, dont overcomplicate and do the little things exceptionally well.

All have incredibly different, broad and diverse backgrounds yet were united with remarkable agreement that, be it on the water, on a trading oor, the kitchen table of a start up software vendor or the halls of a multi-national conglomerate, the elite in their eld undeniably share a series of common characteristics that allow them to achieve whilst others fail. Alex Odwells brilliant Harrington Starr whitepaper recently suggested elite performance centred around 3Ts. These were Talent, Toughness and Time. Alex argues that a certain level of natural ability is essential in the makeup of an elite performer. On top of that the mental toughness not to give up and to work to the necessary level is key. The nal point of the troika is time, the 10,000 hours principal. You can read Alexs report in full at http://www. harringtonstarr.com/downloads/reports/.

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How he broke his swing down and re-invented Teachability, the growth mind set and a real hunger himself when he was at the height of his powers to learn was very clearly in evidence on the panel. was questioned by many. He has used that to forge Simon Sear has written books on his passion and himself back to the top of the rankings and removed spending time with him, he is a glossary of knowledge the complacency of staying in the same spot and both inside and outside of his profession. Ben Huntwaiting for others to catch up. That is what the elite Davis, Greg and Simon all show real desire to learn do so well. more about their industry, their specialism, their clients and performance. Again, the elite performers A lack of fear was another characteristic. As that I have been fortunate enough to meet and detailed above, Tiger rarely shows fear. The very spend time with all best are ready to make become genuine world calculated risks, to try experts in their eld. new things and not be There is a demonstrable afraid to fail. Whilst they ELITE passion for learning. may fall, the likelihood That key trait is another is that they will learn PERFORMERS ARE real indicator of the very from the failure and R E A DY TO C H A N G E , best in class. get back up again. As Matthew Syed regularly TO K E E P R E I N V E N T I N G Greg Searles story proclaims, the world of returning to the class ice skaters fall far T H E M S E LV E S TO G E T Olympic team for more regularly than the BETTER AND BETTER 2012, twenty years average ones because after winning his Gold they are pushing to try Medal characterised the outlandish. If they that learning mind set fall, they get up and do brilliantly. In 1992 he was open to ideas, hungry it again. That lack of fear, willingness to learn from to learn and won gold with his brother. Over time failures and to work out another plan is attainable experience supressed that desire and only returning by all but reached by few. to the water did he recognise that that an openness to learning and mind set was what made him so Elite performance does not come cheaply. The best much better for those games. Dont just hire for are relentless. They are prepared to work harder talent, hire for that ability to learn. than others. Olympic legend Daley Thompson famously would train twice on Christmas Day as his Elite performers are ready to change, to keep recompetitor, in his mind, may train once but never inventing themselves to get better and better. They twice. Boxer Floyd Mayweather famously wakes in have a stretch mentality and are never satised the middle of the night to train whilst his opponent with the level they reach. They are aspirational, goal sleeps. In business, those ready to outwork, outght orientated and have the competitive drive to be and commit fully time after time will nd the extra the best at what they are doing. Rasmus Ankersen gear. In the nancial sector, those that work harder, recently brilliantly blogged about Tiger Woods. faster and more ferociously than their peers win. That single minded, dogmatic characteristic exists both inside and outside work. A good friend of mine, a COO in a Tier 1 investment bank, was talking recently over dinner with our wives about his newfound obsession with Triathalons. His wife, a former elite tennis player herself, asked why a non elite runner would force himself to the point of sickness in training when he would never actually win an Olympiad? His reply told me everything about why he is elite in his eld: I just want to nd out how fast I can actually go if I give it everything in my physical means. That relentless desire to work hard and be your best is not a turn on/turn off tap. The very best will not be out worked.

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Perhaps best characterised with the Jonny Wilkinson story, elite performers take matters personally and are ready to take full ownership and accountability. So many people are ready to make excuses, to point ngers, to blame the weather, the market or their environment. The panel agreed that elite performers step up and take ownership for their performance. They dont wait to be asked or simply just do enough. The get things done and seize the initiative. The four Es were championed by Jack Welch and well supported in the work of our panellist in the second group, Mike Forde. We have spoken about energy, but Welch continued that the best performers and leaders would also energise others, had the edge of make the difcult decisions and would have the ability to execute. That last point again rang true. The very best have the ability to cut out the noise and execute time and time again. That ability to deliver is one of the key parts of the elite performance jigsaw. Without it, the performer may never make the leap from good to great.

It makes a formidable but highly attainable list. My belief is that elite performance can be achieved by anyone. It is found in a collaboration of those key characteristics brilliantly hi-lighted by the panel: Passion, energy, a focus on the details and the process, a hunger to learn, a readiness to change, a lack of fear, a real work ethic, ownership, the ability to energise others, edge and execution. Identify those characteristics in an interview and you stand a very good chance of uncovering a genuine elite performer in your eld.

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HIGH PERFORMANCE TEAMS

OVING ON TO the teams themselves, the key theme that emerged was that many of the characteristics of elite performers were shared by elite teams. Perhaps that is stating the blindingly obvious! Simon Hartley began the debate by identifying six key traits that he had seen in world class sports teams, SAS teams, Red Arrows and more. They all had focus, they had shared standards, a total appreciation of the individual, they gained strength from their differences, they are brutally honest and they are always learning and improving. A truly eloquent appraisal and each one undeniably correct.

During the debate, a further nine key themes emerge.

1. THE MAKEUP OF THE GROUP

A high performance team cannot exist without high performance talent. The elite teams that the panel had worked with worked hard to ensure that it had the right people on the boat. That, however, does not mean a team of star players but rather a star team. Ben Hunt-Davis admitted that his history making mens VIII could have had better individuals but the team worked exceptionally well together. Each person had a role, had blind faith in the other members of that team and knew they would perform. Often good teams will have members in that team, particularly in business, who are on for the ride. They have dis-engaged but the process of getting them out is riddled with politics and HR. We lack the decision making condence to make the tough call because of pride, budgets or personal relationships, and underperformance is accepted. Perhaps the interview barrier is too low and poor recruits are on-boarded. Trust evaporates and A players leave. A players want to work with A players and to have faith in the team and selection. This is one of the reasons why the SAS and their infamous selection process has catapulted them to one of the most legendary and elite teams of all time.

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The best teams in the world are meticulous in ensuring that they keep the best dynamic, have high barriers to entry and make swift and accurate decisions when they see engagement and performance erode. Outside of business, we see Sir Dave Brailsford courageously master this with Team Sky. The best teams dont have to be best friends or get along, as witnessed with Wiggins and Froome, but they do need to trust each others ability, have the right mix of skills and the right blend to become a great unit.

3. COMMUNICATION

Communication is absolutely fundamental to driving elite performance teams. Bens team was said to spend more time communicating out of the water than practising on it. Ross Brawns work at Ferrari has been copied and saved lives in the NHS by improving the channels of communication. So often mis-communication from leadership to shop oor kills a business. Greg Searle spends a lot of time working with businesses on their communication techniques. I have worked in organisations where the message is constantly top down, un-engaging and has no input or real buy in from the team. The result is a feeling of here is another initiative. A training session may be half-heartedly arranged, it may be read out in a morning meeting or simply an email sent. Chinese whispers spread from the ivory tower to the fourth line of contact and the language too detailed or full of jargon. Elite teams have clarity of communication that is genuinely worked on. They deliver the message with passion and enthusiasm. They get the team to co-invent the answer. They run workshops to ensure understanding and communicate time and time again ensuring it is not coercion but genuine engagement with the benets clearly explained. With that world class communication comes world class performance.

2. SYSTEMATIC PROCESSES

The best organisations that I have seen have a process that drives their performance. Lane4s Adrian Moorehouse often talks about his swimming training facility which had the quote emblazoned on the door that This organisations purpose is to create an environment where success is inevitable. Adrians gold medal a tting tribute to that quote! The more time I spend with elite performance teams in sport and business, the more I hear the word systematic used. Creativity undoubtedly plays its part but is most effective when encased in a systematic framework. This is where we see comprehensive playbooks, detailed manifestos, the critical non essentials and marginal gains that the likes of Simon Timson, Brailsford and Woodward subscribe so heavily. High performance teams spend time sharpening the axe before they cut down the tree. They plan systematically and create the environments where success is inevitable.

4. LEADERSHIP

--ELITE TEAMS H AV E C L A R I T Y O F C O M M U N I C AT I O N T H AT I S G E N U I N E LY WO R K E D O N

The most obvious of all of these is that world class teams are run by world class leaders. Simon Hartley gave the example of Michelin Starred Chef Kenny Atkinson. He works extremely hard to develop passion in his kitchen, will take his chefs to meet suppliers and develop an appreciation of the ingredients. His team care as much as he does about providing a great experience. He moves their interest from like to like a lot to love. Passionate leadership inspires a passionate team that deliver great results.

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It is often said that the leader sets the pace of the organisation and the elite performance teams see that in abundance. It is rare for great performance to be born from mediocre leadership. This is leadership that understands emotional intelligence, is obsessive about detail and passionate about their team and brand. They are relentlessly focussed on getting the business better and improving every touch point. Spending many years recruiting in the sector, without question the highest performing teams and growth businesses that I have had the pleasure of working with are led by hugely charismatic and driven leaders. The right leader will, very clearly, have a huge impact in the destination of the team. That is a huge feature of the brilliant book by Jim Collins, Good to Great.

Will the desktop support engineer at a major investment bank buy in to the same purpose as the CEO? How can you develop a common purpose coming into an organisation with massive change and disparate groups with tens of thousands of employees? Google, Zappos, Apple, Toms Shoes, the Red Cross are some classic examples of businesses with very clear purposes that all staff clearly understand and buy into. That may be the iconic brand, the philanthropic cause or the world famous culture. But I clearly remember working for a brand who I feel got this very wrong. The business was perhaps 500-600 people strong and a multi sector business. What was important to one of those business areas was completely irrelevant to another and sitting on the Board meetings I would switch off for large chunks that had little or no interest to what impacted my business. The panel made a very good point here. The common purpose does not have to be the same throughout the organisation. A North Star is important for all of the teams to buy into, yet the importance is what impacts the ground troops. Powerful common purposes are what is important to every individual in the team. Spending time understanding their hopes, aspirations and dreams is key. From those, key themes arise and can be tied into the overarching goals of the business. Whats in it for me and the communication of how the purpose benets every individual is essential. The businesses who spend time really crafting a compelling and impactful purpose and then communicating that with care and precision to the business are another characteristic of elite teams.

5. HONESTY

Simon, Ben and Greg all used the example that the elite teams that they have worked with are brutally honest with each other. They are not afraid of confrontation and buy in to a spirit of candour, and real honest feedback. The best teams are constantly desperate to improve and see constructive criticism as essential on that journey. Those boardrooms that challenge each other, that give honest and open thoughts and really strive to get the best possible solution prosper. This was always very much a feature of the Pixar and Apple teams run by Steve Jobs. So often it is all too easy to nod and go with a ow. A feature of high performance teams seems to be that they create a culture where honesty and transparency is very much apparent.

6. PURPOSE

One of the most difficult areas of the features to attain in business that is a clear feature of elite performance teams is their shared common purpose. The best teams are united by a powerful, clear common purpose that drives and inspires the whole business. In a sports team that purpose can be very clear. A gold medal every four, a premiership title, the next game. In business this can be far more complicated.

7. STANDARDS AND CULTURE

Many companies claim standards exist in a business but these are simply posters on a wall or high level decrees delivered in an AGM or town hall meeting. Scratch beneath the veneer and very quickly you see a different picture emerge. The very best teams that the panel had seen, been in or worked with had very clear and, more importantly, live standards. A high performance culture would be regularly discussed and the mechanics of that worked on religiously.

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The interesting thing that emerges when talking further about the standards and culture of the highest performing teams comes when they are invented by the team themselves. Collaboration, co-invention, discussion and involvement were a feature of Bens crew in Sydney and there are countless examples of businesses doing the same. Steve Radcliffes brilliant book Future Engage Deliver I think brings this to life superbly. Sir Clive Woodward regularly talks of the teamship rules that his World Cup winning squad of 2003 came up with and built into a cultural manifesto that they took ownership for living. The best simply live their standards.

9. IMPROVING AND ADAPTING

Another feature shared by elite performers is their constant desire to continuously improve and adapt. We have spoken previously in this paper about the best looking to change, never being complacent and being ready to start again and re-build. This was very much a feature of Alex Fergusons Manchester United. Rasmus Ankersen gave us the wonderful example of Blockbuster and its fall. He writes In the late nineties Blockbuster collected more than $800 million in late fees (the fee you have to pay when bringing back a movie too late). It was a cash cow until a guy called Reed Hastings, the founder of Netix, created a business model that allowed customers to pay a at monthly fee and rent as many movies as they wanted - with no late fees. Reed Hastings idea left Blockbuster with two choices. They could challenge Netix, or ignore them. They chose the last option, because copying or challenging Netix would mean saying goodbye to the $800 million in late fees. Not really what the stock market would enjoy to see. It gave Netix time to improve and grow and suddenly it was too late for Blockbuster. Their unwillingness to destroy themselves and reinvent killed them in the end. This is one example of a business who failed to change, improve and adapt and are left for dead by innovative and energetic challengers. How often do we see that in the nancial sector?

8. ENGAGEMENT

Without wishing to repeat, the best teams are those with the most engagement. I say repeat because engagement to me comes from all of the above. Inspirational leadership, clear standards, regular, inclusive communication and a powerful common purpose. Engagement is very much a bi-product of an elite performance culture but you will always see that the best teams are the most engaged.

THESE NINE AREAS combine in the vast majority of the most successful teams in both sport and business. I hope that, as illustrated above, with real effort and planning all are attainable by any venture.

Perhaps the one area that I have walked away from the session with still some uncertainty is dealing with the maverick. The high performer who doesnt buy into the team. Ive spoken to the majority of the panel since the event and the eld is split. Some say the strength of the organisation and the leader should be enough to accommodate the maverick. Others argue that a bad apple quickly ruins the crop.

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My personal experience has been that high performers will often be spikey, difcult to manage and will put pressure on some of the key messages and lessons that you are trying to express to the team. Perhaps my biggest regret in my rst company was allowing my two top performers to act as toxins that slowly eroded the moral bre of our business. If I had removed those two extremely high performers from the company, retention levels would have improved and more business won. I didnt and the atmosphere became poisonous and full of cliques. It was a lesson in courageous leadership. That lesson has stuck with me and a maverick needs to t a very tight prole. The high performer, in my mind, has a very clear moral responsibility to the business. If your top performer does not live the values and standards of the business then I fundamentally do not believe that they can stay in the organisation no matter what their importance. In a sporting example, I am still dismayed that Kevin Peterson was re-integrated to the squad after his much publicised mutiny that effectively signalled the end of the career of Andrew Strauss. Top performer or not, in my mind, that star has to be the team. That said, I still believe that the maverick can be embraced, educated and given the engagement, ambition and purpose to achieve what they want to. They should be worked with incredibly hard because business is about performance. When the line is repeatedly crossed however, I rmly believe that there can be no place for blurred lines. Remove the bad apple. Elite performance cultures and high performance teams are hugely difcult to assemble. They are a Utopia that few can aspire to, yet those who get there have followed the blueprint that the panel drew out at the event. They have strong leaders who attract and develop the best talent. They communicate incessantly, operate with real honesty and consistently look to improve. They will share a powerful common purpose and have an incredible and highly charged attitude. Candidly looking at your team and working out what can be done to bring those core traits into your business can dividend incredible results. Our report after Khoi Tus event for us earlier in the year spreads further light on the power of SuperTeams. You can download a copy here: http://www.harringtonstarr. com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/SuperTeamsSummary.pdf

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PA R T --T WO

THE TALENT CYCLE

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WAS JOINED on the second panel by Mike Forde, Blake Wooster, Steve Backley and Rasmus Ankersen to discuss the talent cycle. This goes from identifying, attracting and recruiting the talent to developing, retaining and, ultimately, releasing. Each one is a book in itself and time restrains me from penning as much as I would wish. What I have attempted to do here is hi-light some of the key themes that I have seen and that the panel debated at the event.

IDENTIFY
The rst stage of the talent cycle is to identify what the right talent really is in your business. We can focus on ve factors here that may help.

1. DONT BE BLINDED BY THE BRAND

Rasmus often poses the question would you rather hire the top salesperson from Apple or a good salesperson from Microsoft? Most immediately say Apple but he urges them to think carefully. As Rasmus says, Apple has a product that most people are willing to sleep on the street to buy and his point is to look at the context rather than just the track record of the CV.

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I have seen thousands of CVs in the sector and have been involved in well over a thousand placements. One of the key things that I see is that the companies who are most open minded to the background of the CV are often the ones that secure the best talent. There was one business at the event itself with whom we have worked who get this absolutely right. Despite being a highly niche trading technology vendor, they have found a talent gold mine, to coin the terminology of Rasmus, by hiring from an online grocery retailer where a number of the key development features are the same. The rest of the skills can be learnt and built in. So often I see companies overlooking incredible CVs and hiring people because they have a Barclays Capital or JP Morgan on the CV. The actual facts are that often these Candidates will have had to take very little ownership and have a very narrow skill set. The CV from the smaller rm may bring more versatility and a hunger to prove themselves. That it not to say rule out the CV from the big institution, but do be more aware of the performance context. This also has an impact on salaries. Big companies pay bigger money for people from bigger companies. The facts of the matter are that there could be hundreds of thousands of pounds in staff costs to be saved by paying for talent, not for CV history.

3. HIRE FOR ATTITUDE

In a similar theme, talent identication, in the panels eyes, is just as much about attitude as it is skills. I recently saw Blake Wooster tweet that we should hire for attitude and not for skills. I understand that deadlines and front ofce pressure means that this can be difcult. Few are willing to wait in this economy whilst people bed in and get their experience up to scratch. There are, however, mistakes being made time and time again when companies hire a quick x who can do the job already, get bored and leave. The cost of churn and bad hires far outweigh the longevity and rewards of hiring the right person with a rst class attitude who will quickly get up to speed and really grow into the role giving more loyalty and stability.

4. LOOK TO HISTORY

Few companies actually take the time to look at their hiring history. Where have been the common features of successful hires? What characteristics have the people who have left the company shared? There is often a clear story woven into this and a roadmap for future hires. By looking at the history of talent in your business, far more accuracy can be made in making the right hire.

2. NEVER ASSUME

Steve Backley posed the question what does the perfect javelin thrower or sprinter look like? 6 6, 110kg, 8% body fat. Sprints 100m in 10.5 seconds and can bench press 180kg. You can then meet that person and they want to be a ballet dancer. Talent, in Steves eyes is behavioural. When you identify the talent, never assume that because it ts the criteria on the spec that it is actually the right hire to want to work for your business or brand. As it turns out, if I work on my pace and shed a few pounds I may just make it to Rio for the javelin nals. Watch this space! Again Rasmus leads with stories of companies who found gold mines for their business by the customer service that cab drivers showed. The best talent may be in the most unlikely source. So often our assumption of what and where the talent is and what it looks like inhibits us from truly making the best decisions.

--T H E C O M PA N I E S WHO ARE MOST OPEN M I N D E D TO T H E B AC KG R O U N D O F T H E CV ARE OFTEN THE O N E S T H AT S E C U R E T H E B E S T TA L E N T

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5. ANALYTICS

Google has led the way in talent analytics to identify their elite performers. There is arguably, no greater collection of elite technical talent anywhere in the world. Here are some of the steps they take: WITH HIGH INTEGRITY DATA THEY BENEFIT FROM ACCURATE EMPLOYEE SURVEYS that afford them insightful correlations that lead to better decision making. Many of their most celebrated innovations have come directly through the data. The decisions that Google make are not top down ngers in the air but data driven facts based off the thoughts and wishes of the business. This increases company purpose and engagement signicantly. DIVERSITY has proven one of the most difcult issues for tech teams in nancial services and commodities technology for many years. Google seem to be cracking the code and again data is at its very core. The team looked to analyse and identify the root causes of the issues that surrounded their recruiting, retention and development of female engineers. Dramatically improved results were almost instantaneous. Perhaps as expected for a company of Googles nature, ALGORITHMS AND PREDICTIVE MODELS have been developed to improve performance in hiring and retention. The data has told them which employees are most likely to become a retention issue and alert managers and tell them which approach is most likely to work in securing and retaining them. The predictive models hi-light what issues may arise on the horizon and what opportunities exist in their people management. Alongside this the predictive models allow for far better planning and capability assessment to allow for their rapid growth. THE ALGORITHMS also improved their hiring process. It has told them which candidates were the most likely to succeed when they were hired. This has prevented managers hiring for short term xes and again had a dramatic impact on retention levels. Group decision have been hi-lighted as a success point and no more than four half hour interviews are made. Any more had no market impact on the success of the hire but a noticeable impact on time and productivity. More accurate hiring decisions and a much improved interview experience with reduced time to hire were the direct results of what the data told them. The beauty of data is ITS ABILITY TO BE MEASURED. Rather than hypothesis and anecdotal evidence, the data used by the people analytics team at Google has allowed them to measure the success of their decisions and calculate the genuine value of their top performers. It knows, for example, that the difference in performance between a great technologist and a good one was as much as 300 times higher. The nal genius of the people analytics approach is that IT WILL NOT DICTATE TO THE HIRING MANAGERS. Instead the team act as consultants to their highly analytical audience who are presented the data, given the context and the story, and trusted to act accordingly. That is where data works at its best presented as a compelling story in a structured manner to help make the best decisions for a business. By adopting some of these principals and working to analyse performance in your business, talent truly stands out and be accurately identied.

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ATTRACT & RECRUIT

Perhaps one of the most overlooked aspects in attracting and recruiting the best talent into a business is the power of story.

HERE ARE COMPANIES who get this right and massive institutions with rich histories who just dont. I recently had a conversation with Times journalist and bestselling author Matthew Syed who told me of his work with one of the worlds most prestigious nancial institutions. He told me that they had a wonderful story to tell but it just wasnt mentioned in any part of their talent attraction process.

The story, mission, purpose, history and ambition of the brand are essential parts of attracting the very best to your business. Steve Backley spoke passionately about talent nding talent. Create a world class organisation, lift the lid of the honey jar and the bees will come. That message, however, needs to be clear, consistent and told in a compelling narrative. Everyone in the organisation needs to know how to tell the legend and social channels and company documentation needs to espouse it consistently. Blake Wooster made a brilliant point when he asked the room for a show of hands of who thought talent attraction was one of their most important strategies in their business. The oor united in raising their palms. When pressed on who had that as a feature of their board meetings and who had that dominating their websites very few hands remained. Talent strategy needs to be one of the key elements in the brand story and that story needs to be communicated using all media possible. Great talent is attracted to a great brand with a clear and compelling message.

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Allied to that, a great recruitment process is another fundamental factor to securing top talent. So often gut feeling and personal relationships dominate. People hire people like them, people who dont challenge them and very little training exists in how to effectively hire. The voice of HR often shouts the quietest. Processes themselves can be slow, laborious and uninspiring, losing talent to competitors on the way.

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THIS ELEMENT IS VERY MUCH AN ENTIRE BOOK ON ITS OWN SO PLEASE ALLOW ME TO MAKE A SELECTION OF KEY POINTS TO THINK ABOUT:
Comprehensive interview training is an essential part of great interviews and attracting the best talent. Poor interviews turns great talent off.

Developing a great candidate experience is essential. The FinTech space is small and bad experiences go viral quickly. The sell, pitch and interview process needs to be rst class to get rst class people on board. A consistent process is key. Long delays, protracted interviews and poor communication allows your competitors to steal a march. Taking time to really tell that story in the interview and explain where the role develops, the training and scale of opportunity will really help secure the best.

Testing is another feature missed in so many processes. The SAS test in as close to real life conditions as you can possibly get. When you are through the process, you know your team are also highly capable. Designing conditions to stretch and test great tech talent can make a real impact. As a caveat to that, Simon Sear came up with a great example of a graduate scheme where he saw an individual who was streets ahead of all of the other candidates in the process. The group had to pass a maths test at 85% and the candidate only achieved 80%. With a lack of exibility, he was not allowed to hire that individual who shone in other areas. As Ramus has written, Dan Marino, one of the most famous Quarterbacks in NFL history, got one of the lowest ever scores in the Wonderlic test. On the surface, he should never have played in the NFL.

Tests are a great way of rening the talent pool but they need to have context and they cannot be nal. Great talent can be easily overlooked.

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Once on board, companies often feel that the job is done, yet the elite performance businesses and performers are brilliant at developing talent and taking it to the next level.

DEVELOP

TEVE BACKLEY AGAIN gave a brilliant example of how simple that development can be. His Dad was his coach. He would jump over the fence into a eld with him and put a stake in the ground just ahead of his previous best and said beat it. When he beat that he would push the stake back and say go on then. The coach understood the athlete and the triggers. In a corporate setting the manager must know the employee to press the right buttons to develop them.

Meaningful practice is a clear feature of elite sports teams. They spend hour upon hour practicing the smallest details of their performance. 95% of their time is spent preparing for 5% performance. In business practice is a tiny percentage and almost the complete reverse and the result is people doing the same thing again and again. The 10,000 hour rule to achieve world class performance only counts if the 10,000 hours is meaningful. The panel believes that companies and businesses need to spend far more time analysisng, developing and creating role plays and workshops that truly allow staff to develop their key skills in close to real life circumstances.

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Blake gave us a brilliant example of Sir Alex Ferguson producing meaningful training to create success. His team was branded lucky for scoring so many late goals. In fact, he would create training sessions where each team would pick cards and play for ten minutes with one needing three goals to get back in the game. The other team would have a different agenda. The result was on match days, they had prepared in as close as possible circumstances to the real event. We see the same practice having been made by Tiger Woods and his late father Earl. Businesses rarely spends the same time preparing their staff for real life issues and scenarios and do not have an answer when the stress arrives. If time is truly spent developing and investing in staff improvement on a daily basis, success of the group is an inevitability. Again, there are many thousands of books purely linked to staff development. This paper is not a how to but merely a clarion call to suggest that talent development takes a high priority on the table. That isnt just theory and courses but leadership investing and delivering their expectations and systematic process with absolute clarity to create that environment where success is all but guaranteed.

Blake Wooster has built an incredible career becoming one of the world leaders in performance measurement and analytics

MEASURE

is blog and twitter feed (@BlakeyGW) are followed by some of the worlds leaders in performance and he has consulted with the most successful sports teams in history. Blake was a Director at Prozone and has, more recently, co-founded the 21st Club with Rasmus Ankersen (www.21stclub.com).

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Who better than he to present ve pointers on the mistakes that he has seen made in the talent cycle? Blake writes:
In football, people say the league table never lies, when actually it often does! Sometimes factors such as luck and poor decisions mean that occasionally the result (and subsequent rankings) can be misleading and the underlying performance may actually be false (i.e. better or worse). And the same is true in business: organisations must look beyond a short-term gain and what can often a supercial result, and dig deeper to ensure that the underlying performance (which will impact the long-term) is on track.

1 WE FOCUS ON RESULTS AND OVERLOOK PERFORMANCE

In business and sport we tend to celebrate the superstar (the goalscorer or the top sales person) and forget the team and the environment that supports them. For example, the FC Barcelona striker Messi is clearly a wonderful player, but how much of his performance is a result of the team contribution (the context)? Similarly, organisations should always strive to reward those individuals in a team whose contribution is perhaps more intangible, and create an environment which celebrates an interdependent approach through co-collaboration.

2 WE FOCUS ON THE INDIVIDUAL AND FORGET ABOUT CONTEXT

Too often we look at data after the event and try to post-rationalise the performance. In other words we create our story of what we want to see. These phenomena can be referred to as hindsight bias or conrmation bias: I knew it! Organisations must instead strive to set themselves relevant performance targets before the event so that the objectives are clear. Only then can a post-performance appraisal be conducted impartially.

3 WE CREATE OUR OWN NARRATIVE AFTER THE EVENT

Big data offers unprecedented opportunities for discovery and insight. When used the right way, big data can help us understand what happened, why it happened and what will happen tomorrow. It can rinse our eyes and overrule our cognitive biases. But organisations must not forget big datas little brother: little data! Little data allows us humanise the big data movement and understand the story behind the numbers. We call this talent archaeology and helps organisations understand the reason for a certain event that little datas big brother sometimes overlooks.

4 WE IGNORE THE STORY

In sport and business, we often fall into the trap of rewarding the person who succeeded last time with the next best opportunity. This sometimes has merit (staff condence, rewarding top performance etc), but we can also fall into a perpetual cycle of giving the best opportunities (the penalty kick in football, or the new sales lead in business) to the current star. Organisations should always ask themselves: is this actually the best person for the task at hand? The top scorer shouldnt necessarily be given the penalty kicks.

5 WE LET THE TOP GOAL SCORER TAKE THE PENALTY KICKS

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Blake, Rasmus and Mike Forde are masters at measuring performance and, spending time with them, key stories emerge. There is often far more detail behind why results are achieved than the cursory, narrow minded approach that you take and your experience dictates. I once heard it called washing your eyes. Experience pushes us to make assumptions that the problem or situation that we are looking at is the same as one we have seen before. What these guys are great at is looking and measuring from different angles. They wash the problem, de-clutter the issue and nd out what the most important aspects are that move the needle in the words of Mike. Measuring your talent needs to be carefully looked at. Is the software salesperson at the top of the tree really better than the one who is fourth or did she inherit the best account or get passed the best lead? Measure with context.

RETAIN
The cost of losing sta is incredible.

EES, LOST BUSINESS, KNOWLEDGE LOSS and a lack of continuity can lead to thousands of pounds in lost revenue. Those companies that lead the charge are those that work hard and understand how to retain their best people.

Once performance has been accurately measured with real context around it and those who you want to keep identied, I have seen the following ten steps a feature of the very best brands to work for in our client base:

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Those that listen to their staff, that take time to understand their hopes, dreams and career aspirations and then take action to facilitate that path keep the best people. It starts with correct selection. Those companies who have truly understood the previously mentioned steps in selecting and attracting the best talent, who hire for potential as much as skill and who understand the history of talent in their business have much better retention rates than those who recruit with a nger in the air.

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Communication is key in companies who retain talent. They appraise, review, talk and take time to understand their staff. They then have very clear, very open communication and are very honest in letting people know where they stand. We have spoken about purpose before. The companies who have a purpose over pure pounds and pence and involve the team in designing and contributing to that purpose win.

They keep their promises. One of the biggest reasons we see for why people are leaving a company is because promises have not been kept and verbal contracts broken. The best keep their side of the bargain. Again, retention is down to involvement. Those who feel they are making a real impact in a brand will stay. Those who are puppets in an executive master plan leave. Investment in learning and development, involving staff in that plan and really facilitating mastery in your staff boosts buy in signicantly. The old gag of what if I train my staff and they leave being replied by what if you dont and they stay is very moot.

The companies who give real autonomy to their staff will again prosper. Employees hate being micro managed. They want to feel that they can invent and try new things. Googles 20% time has been well celebrated. Give autonomy and be delighted by the results rather than fearing the ramications.

Giving bespoke management time to individuals sounds obvious but neglect is one of the key reasons for people leaving a brand. One to ones, genuine interest and face to face time with employees boosts retention tremendously. Employees who are genuinely thanked and valued are the ones who stay. It is the little touches that make a big difference. Thank you and well done are two of the most powerful phrases in business and not used half enough.

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With everyone after the best staff, a genuine talent shortage and so much competition in nancial services and commodities technology, these steps are absolutely essential to ensuring that you keep your talent. You can read more about the cost of losing staff and how to retain your best performers in our whitepaper that can be downloaded at http:// www.harringtonstarr.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/Real-Cost-OfLosing-Staff.pdf

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The nal, and hardest part of the talent cycle is release.

RELEASE

ANY WILL KEEP HOLD OF STAFF based off former glories for far too long, hoping that the spark will once again re-alight. Many will fear headcount drops and accept underperformance for too long. Others will fear upsetting personal relationships. Average performers cannot be hidden in elite teams. In sports we see some great examples of talent bowing out or being released at exactly the right time. Amongst others Andrew Strauss and Sir Chris Hoy took the decision themselves. Sir Alex Ferguson, Sir Clive Woodward, Sir Dave Braislford and others have had incredible results by measuring when the talent was at its peak and having the courage to make the call to release it. Often highly contentious calls but rarely the wrong ones.

That is the nal feature of the talent cycle. Clear triggers, accurate measurement and courage is essential. Hope is not a strategy in talent management and great businesses have learnt to measure when the best time is to say goodbye to their former greats and release the ones who dont have the passion, talent or effort to take them to where they want to go.

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CONCLUSION AND THANKS

ALENT MANAGEMENT, as has hopefully been illustrated above, is a complex path but one navigable with a clear plan and direction. The 21st Century is almost certainly the most competitive period in business history. To be good is no longer good enough. Greatness comes through really understanding that clarity of direction.

The journey from good to great lies inexorably around the talent that your business or team is able to attract. By setting the culture, framing what great looks like and relentlessly pursuing that blueprint, we believe, now more than ever, that elite is attainable for us and for all of our customers. I have become fascinated in recent years with getting better. I have loved learning as much as I can about genuine talent. Harrington Starr is fortunate to work with some of the most inspirational and outstanding companies and technologists in the World. Our client base constantly inspires me and we are fortunate to speak to elite performers and organisations every single day. Without naming names, there are meetings that I return from hugely energised by what I have seen achieved and I am delighted that so many people are already on the aforementioned path. Our passion is to make our clients more productive and successful and I would love to talk to you about what I have seen in the best in the nancial services and commodities sector. We are striving to get there and by learning from the elite, we think we will. We were absolutely delighted to have got a panel of the calibre that joined us on the day, each one an absolute leader in their chosen eld. By listening to the best of the best, some clear avenues present themselves. I hope that previous pages have, at the very least, given some food for thought and help ensure that your business identies, attracts, develops and retains the talent that it deserves.

I would like to thank both of the Simons, Ben, Greg, Blake, Rasmus, Mike and Steve for giving their time to come and share their incredible anecdotes and stories with us. I have been truly honoured to learn as much as I have from all of you. I would also like to thank our guests who gave their mornings to join us at the Westbury. We appreciate how busy nancial and commodities technology days are for leaders such as yourselves and hope that you got the value you sought from the morning. Thanks also to Black Mountain Systems, our event partner on the day. They are unquestionably a high performance organisation. Their founders, Kevin and Andy, are truly transformational leaders with incredible track records in the US. These guys have achieved phenomenal success and are building a world class team in Europe. Their talent has produced spectacular returns and I would like to highly recommend that you talk to Peter, Tim and Omar about how they not only identify and attract talent but also drive their business to elite performance. A truly inspirational brand to work with. Finally, in the spirit of elite organisations, I would like to thank my incredible team at Harrington Starr. The dedication, ambition and passion that they show day after day is truly humbling. Their effort in producing the spectacular morning on October 22nd showed just how great they can be. That truly excites me.

Thanks very much for reading and I look forward to seeing you at further Harrington Starr events in the near future .
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PHOTOGRAPHS BY PAUL CHAMBERS WWW.PAULCPHOTOGRAPHY.CO.UK

PICTURES FROM THE EVENT

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o t s k n a Huge th came! o h w y d everybo

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OUR NEXT EVENT

The Fifth Financial Services and Commodities Technology Breakfast will be held on Wednesday December 4th at the Westbury Hotel in Mayfair.
HIS IS ANOTHER CHANCE to meet and connect with one hundred leaders in the sector and enjoy a keynote from Simon Hartley, author of How to Shine. Simon will explore the secrets of world class performance that can be seen in any high achiever be it a software engineer or a three Michelin Star chef. One of the UKs leading performance psychologists, he has worked with business leaders, premier league football teams and championship winning rugby squads.

This is a unique opportunity to network with some of the leading companies in the industry and all delegates will receive a complimentary copy of the book. The last remaining spaces are still available so please get in contact here should you wish to attend: http://www.harringtonstarr.com/events/ fth-nancial-services-commodities-technologybreakfast-world-class/

INVITATION
The Fifth Financial Services and Commodities Technology Networking Breakfast
THE WESTBURY HOTEL BOND STREET MAYFAIR LONDON W1S 2YF
WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 4th, 2013 7:45 - 10am

BE WORLD CLASS

GLOBAL LEADERS IN FINANCIAL SERVICES AND COMMODITIES TECHNOLOGY RECRUITMENT

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CONTACT OUR SPEAKERS

@GregSearle2012 | 01628 533 733 www.lane4performance.com

GREG SEARLE

www.mikefordeperformance.com

MIKE FORDE

@BlakyGW | @RasmusAnkersen | 21stClub

BLAKE WOOSTER & RASMUS ANKERSEN

RICHARD KILGARRIFF
@bookomi www.bookomi.com

07595 594 578 simon.sear@project44.co.uk

SIMON SEAR

0871 399 0650 | info@backleyblack.com

STEVE BACKLEY & ROGER BLACK

SIMON HARTLEY
www.be-world-class.com @worldclasssimon

07855 508 593 | @olympianben www.willitmaketheboatgofaster.com

BEN HUNT-DAVIS

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THANKS TO OUR EVENT PARTNER

Black Mountain is a software company that develops innovative, tailored solutions for data aggregation, process management, and business reporting.
WWW.BLACKMOUNTAINSYSTEMS.COM CONTACT: U.K. +44 (0) 203 116 6520

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EVENT FEEDBACK
W E H AV E B E E N OV E R W H E L M E D W I T H T H E S I M P LY S T U N N I N G F E E D B AC K T H AT W E H AV E R E C E I V E D F O L LOW I N G T H E E V E N T I T S E L F. HERE ARE JUST A FEW OF THE EMAILS, TEXTS A N D T W E E T S T H AT H AV E B E E N R E C E I V E D :

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Thought today was truly excellent. Congratulations. Thanks so much for putting together such an inspiring event and for all you guys are doing to help us push our business forward in Europe. I enjoyed myself immensely and thought that the panelists did an excellent job reminding the audience of all the things they need to be doing to inspire world class performance at their organizations. Looking forward to grabbing a pint when I am next in London and please let me know if you ever nd yourself in the states.

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THESE EVENTS ARE QUITE S I M P LY T H E B E S T F R E E N E T WO R K I N G E V E N T S I N LO N D O N . T H A N K S !

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I just wanted to thank you for hosting another great event yesterday. I thought the panel were excellent. Each event seems to get better and better and I am beginning to wonder how you can keeping topping them going forward!

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It was a privilege to be able to attend such a riveting session and much appreciated. Thank you. Thanks for a great event today. It was inspiring and motivating to listen to all those great achievers. Please also extend my thanks to your team who were very courteous and professional throughout the event. Firstly congratulations on putting together a great event, I thoroughly enjoyed it. Thought it was well thought out, and I gained a lot from it, which is more than I can say about most of the other events I attend. Quick note to thank you for the invite to this mornings breakfast session. Thought it was a really good session and the speakers you had were fantastic. As you said, I just wish there were a couple more days to discuss the topic further!

R E A L LY E N J OY E D T H I S M O R N I N G A N D W H AT A C O L L E C T I O N O F P E O P L E T H E R E ! PA N E L L I S T S A N D AT T E N D E E S A L L S E R I O U S LY I M P R E S S I V E . T H O U G H T I T WA S G R E AT. T H A N K S F O R H AV I N G M E A LO N G .

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Great event and panelsmany thks for the invite and organizing. Just a quick note to thank you and Harrington Starr for this morning. It was a very well organised, interesting and inspiring event which I thoroughly enjoyed. Really enjoyed it, you are a great host and Im very very pleased to see how much you have achieved and in such a short time, awless.

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I wanted to thank you for a fantastic morning! Thoroughly enjoyed the panels and the insights they had to offer. I managed to catch up with some excellent people and really appreciate your hospitality. Well done on getting everyone there and without sounding patronising, you should be proud!!

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T H A N K S F O R A G R E AT E V E N T T H I S M O R N I N G . I C A M E AWAY W I T H T H E C ATC H P H R A S E PA S S I O N OV E R P O L I T I C S W H I C H I L I K E TO T H I N K I S M E !

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What can I say!!! To say I was impressed would be an understatement. What you put on this morning was incredible. I loved it as I know everyone else did too. I thought it was so well put together. Your presentation was on the button and I loved the panel idea. Good to meet you this morning and thanks for the invitation. An interesting and educational cut on talent management. I made a few interesting new contacts this morning and re-connected with others. Very inspiring session this morning organised by Harrington Starr on Talent in the 21st century. Great speakers and insights and some vision to crystalise how the world is changing. Really enjoyed the event, the mix of top sports people and business works very well indeed. Thank you for the invite and well done you and your team. This morning was excellent .... really enjoyable and some great insights. Great event and panelsmany thks for the invite and organizing. Thanks to @harringtonstarr for putting on an excellent event for thought leadership and networking this morning. #leadership #FinTech

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Thank you very much for a very interesting morning, very kind of you to invite me. Nice Job today. Very good and seemed to get very good feedback. I very much enjoyed this mornings event, the speakers were very interesting.

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J U S T WA N T E D TO S AY T H A N K S F O R T H E I N V I T E TO DAY, W H AT A G R E AT E V E N T - R E A L LY I M P R E S S I V E . M E T S O M E R E A L LY I N T E R E S T I N G P E O P L E A N D T H E PA N E L W E R E G R E AT AC T U A L LY G AV E M E LOT S O F I D E A S .
Thanks for today. It was very enjoyable and thought provoking. I really enjoyed the event yesterday, it was well organised and the panellists were great. I wanted to drop you a very quick line to thank you for inviting along to the talent in the 21st century event. Both Navid and I found it extremely well run and we look forward to the next event that you hold. I am writing to thank you for inviting me to your event this week, it was great to see how many people you had assembled to come and listen to such a great panel. Many thanks for an excellent event on Tuesday. It was the rst I have attended and will certainly come to others.

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GLOBAL LEADERS IN FINANCIAL SERVICES AND COMMODITIES TECHNOLOGY RECRUITMENT

SUGGESTED FURTHER READING

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GLOBAL LEADERS IN FINANCIAL SERVICES AND COMMODITIES TECHNOLOGY RECRUITMENT

About HARRINGTON STARR

Harrington Starr is a recruitment business based solely around the needs of the customer. Global specialists in Financial Services and Commodities Technology recruitment, Harrington Starr offer permanent, retained, interim, and contract solutions to over 400 of the leading companies in the world and many thousands of the globes most talented industry professionals. Covering Investment Banks, Hedge Funds, Prop Trading Houses, Exchanges, MTFs, Market Makers, Brokerages, Trading Companies, Vendors and Consultancies, the company is ideally suited to connect world class talent with world class opportunity. We strongly believe in authentic networking and being of service. With this in mind, our offer extends well beyond traditional contingency recruitment. White papers, commentaries, market information, networking introductions, consulting, video, content and a series of events all combine as complimentary services aimed at delivering true partnership in deed as well as word. The foundation of the business is, however, excellent delivery with old fashioned values of manners and respect. We believe in excellence through understanding both the sector itself but also the real needs of our clients and candidates. We love this industry and would be delighted to discuss the Harrington Starr Mystique and how we can help you in more detail.

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GLOBAL LEADERS IN FINANCIAL SERVICES AND COMMODITIES TECHNOLOGY RECRUITMENT

T: +0044 203 587 7007 E: INFO@HARRINGTONSTARR.COM

WWW.HARRINGTONSTARR.COM

HARRINGTON STARR LIMITED

99 WATERLOO ROAD LONDON SE1 8RT
@harringtonstarr (search Harrington Starr)

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DESIGNED BY DANIEL BIDDULPH ~ DAN.BIDDULPH@ME.COM

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GLOBAL LEADERS IN FINANCIAL SERVICES AND COMMODITIES TECHNOLOGY RECRUITMENT