Staff Embrace Dream Opportunity

26 January 2005

Staff Embrace Dream Opportunity

The owners of contracting experts Emergent & Co have given their consulting staff a dream opportunity to become business owners.and expanded their service to clients at the same time.

Emergent Temporary Resourcing, launched today to provide temporary staff at the high end of the executive support market, has a structure never seen before in the New Zealand personnel consulting industry.

The two directors of Emergent - Carmen Bailey and prominent entrepreneur Diane Foreman - have given their three consultants and commercial manager a significant stake in the new business and empowered them to set up and run the company in their own time.

The four staff members - Jane Wimsett, Rachel McNaughton, Kirsty Simpson and Rachael Lewis-Green - say they were stunned to be given the opportunity, especially as two of them are still aged in their 20's.

"None of us anticipated being business owners at this stage because of the number of barriers to entry in this industry, especially cashflow," said Jane Wimsett. "But with the financial backing of Diane and Carmen we can enter the marketplace with confidence desperately keen to be the best in the business."

Emergent Temporary Resourcing emerged from a strategic planning session in mid-2004 in response to continual client requests.
"Emergent specialises in contracting senior staff and we were referring all other requests to other consultancies," Jane Wimsett said. "We appreciated that there was a need to be more responsive to client needs and provide a wider service."

Being client- focused and able to expand contracting solutions for valued clients was one of the two main reasons Emergent co-owner Diane Foreman backed the business. The other reason was the people involved.

"Carmen and I have a great deal of respect for our new business partners," Diane Foreman said. "Good people are hard to find. When you have them, don't let them go, give them motivation to stay.

"We're pleased that Emergent has helped incubate and develop these women from a business perspective and it's time to offer them a new challenge.

"We'll give them support whenever necessary, but this is their opportunity to explore ownership and management. It's up to them.and I have no doubt they'll be successful."

"We're living our dream," said Jane Wimsett. "We appreciate it's partially a retention strategy on Carmen and Diane's part, but we care more about the opportunity than the reasons behind it.

"The potential financial rewards aren't a prime motivating factor either. It's all about the learning potential, the mental stimulation and the chance to shape a company and culture that is unlike anything in our industry."

The quartet has divided up company responsibilities between them based on their areas of expertise, employed their first consultant and confirmed their strategic direction.

They are targeting the high end of the executive support market - PA's, EA's and coordinators in fields such as HR and marketing.

"Contracting and temping is the way of the future," Kirsty Simpson said. "We firmly believe businesses should retain core competencies but hire in quality specialists to do specific jobs. It's a case of having a good person for a short time, not an average person for a long time.

"We're taking that philosophy into the new business and we're looking forward to overseeing the building of strong relationships with the best temporary staff. We enjoy following people's careers and we now have a whole new segment to keep an eye on. It's an exciting time!"

ENDS

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