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In this episode of Recruitment Leaders Unlocked, Dave Pye interviews Craig Davies, CEO of Orbis Group, a global talent solutions partner specialising in tech, financial services, and life sciences recruitment across the UK, US, Europe, and Middle East.
Craig shares his remarkable 10+ year journey building Orbis Group from startup to a 100+ person organisation, including the challenges of rapid scaling during the post-COVID boom and the difficult but necessary transformation that followed. He discusses how the company implemented “The Orbis Way” – a structured operating model that focuses on performance per head rather than just headcount growth.
Key topics covered include:
– Trust-based leadership principles and when they can go too far
– The “no dickheads policy” inspired by the All Blacks’ Legacy book
– Scaling from 30 to 100+ people and back to 50 with better foundations
– Building future leaders through formal development programmes
– Maintaining culture whilst making tough people decisions
– The importance of staying connected to the front line as a leader
– Creating challenge states vs threat states in high-performance teams
Chapters:
00:00 Introduction to the Podcast and Guest
01:10 Craig Davies Introduces Himself and Orbis Group
02:44 Leadership Principles and Trust
05:33 Challenges and Evolution in Leadership
11:54 Balancing Performance and Company Culture
17:58 Biggest Leadership Challenges and Overcoming Them
22:21 Post-COVID Business Transformation
22:59 Building a New Operating Model
23:56 Focus on Performance and Efficiency
26:37 Developing Future Leaders
29:27 Leadership and Succession Planning
32:36 Empowering the Senior Leadership Team
38:17 Reflecting on Leadership Journey
Craig provides honest insights about leadership mistakes, the real cost of keeping the wrong people, and how external leadership training transformed their senior team. This episode is essential viewing for recruitment leaders navigating growth challenges, building resilient teams, and developing the next generation of talent.
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