"If we have obvious candidates in our networks, most hiring managers tend to go there first. Beyond that, you have to sell yourself as the hiring manager. You also need to sell the organisation and the journey that they're on and, therefore, the opportunity for the candidate. Now, if that can come from a longstanding name in the industry like Oakstone, it has a degree of third-party validation. And that's, I think, one of the key reasons that we would use a firm like Oakstone.

Oakstone haven't tried to overreach and be jacks of all trades, masters of none. I think having a tight focus on the types of profiles that they can recruit, and the strength of their network has really been something that I've defaulted to, as opposed to going to a larger firm that might purport to be able to recruit everybody, anybody and everybody. They've kept very tight in terms of where their expertise is, and personally, that attracts me to working with them."

Nick Bareham - Revenue Leader and Fractional CRO