“When I joined Financial Times Recruitment Solutions back in 2008, the title perfectly summed up what we did,” he says. “However, over the last few years, we also developed the FT Non-Executive Directors’ Club very successfully. This started off as a job-board, but subsequently grew into more of a training and education product, especially with the launch of the FT Non-Executive Director Certificate last year. As it did so, the FTRS context became less appropriate and potentially more confusing for our users. So it made sense to come up with a more accurate umbrella title for what we do now.
“At the same time, we started thinking about our other plans for the executive market space moving forward, and one of the things we’ll shortly be doing is introducing new training and education products for executives, alongside the existing ones for non-execs. These will largely be focused on helping middle-ranking executives to make it to the top – equipping them to reach the next level and progress their careers, whether through the offer of great jobs via our existing platforms (the FT’s Thursday print section or through focused training via courses, seminars, workshops etc. So ‘Financial Times Career Management’ not only reflects our current situation better, but also our future strategy.”
This strategy is based on increasing engagement with the executive market by providing more touch-points for career development, rather than offering recruitment services alone. It’s evident that there’s a real thirst for relevant training among both the exec and non-exec audiences, and to boost this engagement further, additional career content will be featured on the exec-appointments.com site.
“Four or five years ago, the FT had no engagement at all with the world of non-execs,” says Steve. “Now we totally own that space, thanks to the success of the Club and our introduction of the market’s only formal qualification. Obviously the executive market is much broader, but we have similar ambitions there, especially in terms of middle managers looking to progress to the next level.”
To reflect this change, FTCM will be running two career workshops for executives in the autumn – on networking (Thursday 4th October) and social media (Tuesday 13th November), both with a focus on how to use these techniques for career success.
In recruitment terms, however, nothing will change – the FT and exec-appointments.com brands will continue just as before. As marketing manager Claudia Turner confirms, “The change of name is about reflecting our strategic direction and creating more synergy between our various products.”
