Our Manchester Director Pete Gillick was asked a few questions in the current issue of Greater Manchester Business week. The answers can be found below.
Taking on the Changing Landscape of Business
Pete is the Manchester office director of Calibre Search.
The 37-year-old says Calibre’s Manchester office is on target to turnover £3 million next year after recently moving into The Landmark building in the Northern Quarter.
His team of eight specialises in built environment (consultancy and construction), HVAC, IT and marketing in the north west, Birmingham, Cumbria and North Wales.
There is space for 18 specialist recruiters in Calibre’s new city centre base on Back Turner Street, which is inside a former textiles warehouse.
Didsbury resident Pete, a graphic design graduate with a passion for photography, has more than a decade’s experience at firms including Randstad and Eden Brown.
What is your business motto? Get the right people for the right job and get things done and done in the right way. It is pretty simple, but honesty is a good asset in sales.
How do you make contacts which are useful for business? I’ve done the job for a while now, so my name is known in the market. I network daily and if my customers are happy with the work, I ask for a referral. It’s a very powerful sales tool.
What makes your business different? We want customers to enjoy working with us. In our industry, that isn’t always the case, as there’s too much ‘short term-ism’ around. For customers to enjoy working with us, it doesn’t just mean developing personal relationships (although that is important). Primarily, you must do a great job, but also be honest. If the best solution isn’t there at that time, we would rather be honest, lose out in the short-term but sustain that long-term relationship.
What do you always have with you? Of late, it has been my phone and it was on high alert ahead of me becoming a father for the first time. In my job my phone can never be too far away, so my team or clients can contact me at all times.
Do you dress up or down for business? Somewhere in the middle. My ties are used for weddings and special events now - my weekly work attire is a suit and open collar.
Which individual has inspired you in your business life? There isn’t one person who has inspired me in particularly.
What is your proudest achievement? Professionally, it has been getting the Manchester business off the ground. It wasn’t long ago that I was in a room on my own with no windows. Now, we have eight staff and plan to expand and take the Manchester office to 18 in the next two years. We have just moved to a fantastic new office in the Northern Quarter. Personally though, it’s an easy one. It was me and my wife becoming parents.
Do you use social media and, if so, with how much success? Some, yes. It’s a good tool, but not the most important part of my role. As a rule, I spend most of my time with people and on the phone.
If you’d not gone down your chosen career path, what would you be doing? My degree was in graphics design and photography, so I do like to be creative. If I could have done anything it would be to travel the world as a documentary photographer.
What is the biggest challenge you face n business at the moment? I think it’s the ever-changing landscape. At the very least, you have to adapt, but ideally you want to be ahead of the curve. Technology, the economy, businesses changing working practices are also challenging
– the list is endless.
What is a tip for a successful business? I have a hands on approach and firmly believe in leading by example. My employees come first to me, so I set the standard, then give them the autonomy and freedom to prosper using their own style and methods. My second tip would be to always strive for continual improvement so you can continually succeed, especially in a forever-evolving industry such as recruitment.
At what time of the day are you most creative or inspired? At the start of the day and the very end of the day. The middle is the time for delivery.
Americano, latte, cappuccino – what’s your coffee break favourite?
Americano with milk - keeping it simple.
