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The Doyle Group |
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November 16, 2015 Issue |
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The Most Powerful Name In Corporate News and Information |
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IT Placement, Staffing and Consulting for Denver, Colorado |
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Founder
The Doyle Group
Interview conducted by: Lynn Fosse, Senior Editor, CEOCFO Magazine, Published – November 16, 2015
CEOCFO: Mr. Doyle, what is the idea behind The Doyle Group? Mr. Doyle: We are an IT placement and consulting firm here in Denver, Colorado, servicing the local market, focusing on building relationships for the long hall, and building a solid network of top professionals within the Denver area.
CEOCFO: How do you go about building that network? Mr. Doyle: It is not complicated. We spend a lot of time listening to what the candidates are targeting, listening to what our clients are looking for, having an intimate understanding of what the client needs, not only skill level but culture wise and matching the two accordingly. I think so many times people are rushing to make placements in our business and our focus is really on a two-client approach where we realize that if we service both of our customers, those who are hiring and those candidates looking for opportunities, that we really can have clients for life. That is why 90% of our business that we generate today is referral-based business.
CEOCFO: How do you understand what a company really wants and needs? Mr. Doyle: First, we have to identity companies who are looking for a true partner and who value our approach; provide us the time and resources to get to know their business and meet with their teams. We need to meet with the hiring manager, executive leadership or technical team leads to ask questions like “what are the selling points to work for this company, this team, what is great about their technology.” What are the growth opportunities today and in the future or what are your greatest technical challenges. Then we like to walk the client halls, get a feel for the work environment and the culture of the organization. It is often like peeling an onion where have to go through the layers to understand what it is that the customer wants. When asked to take on our second project or next executive search, we now have an even more thorough understanding of our client and what it will take for the next team or individual to be successful at each specific client we partner with. This is why our net promoter score of 89% is so high and why our clients keep coming back.
CEOCFO: Did you understand that client for life approach day one or did you realize over time that it would allow you to be the most successful? Mr. Doyle: I think I figured it out over the 19 years I have been in this business. When I first was introduced to the industry, it was much more of a numbers volume approach working for a large national firm. I thought this was silly. If we spend the time to really build these relationships, get to know our customers inside and out, maybe our trajectory would not be zero to one hundred in one year, but we can develop our clients for life and have steady growth. Plus it is a lot more fun working with customers who you genuinely enjoy and who trust you. Since our early beginning in 2009, we have had double digit growth year over year and are honored to be named to the Inc.5000 list the last two years in a row for one of the nations fastest growing companies.
CEOCFO: Are clients coming to you because they understand the depth of what you offer or are they often surprised to find out as they start working with you? Mr. Doyle: The unfortunate part within our industry is the bar is often set low, but that is where we can have the most impact by over servicing our clients. Our greatest value that we offer our clients is to save them time. We invest in getting to know our clients, ensure we have a solid technical understanding of the project or position, are efficient, transparent and communicate effectively, we save our clients time by only screening qualified candidates who are interested and excited about our client’s opportunities. Our clients lean on us to be an extension of their recruiting department whether they engage us for full-time hirers or if they are building a small team for project-based work. They know that we have their best interest in mind because they also realize that our goal is not just for that specific project or engagement but also for the long hall.
CEOCFO: How do you reach potential new clients and applicants? Do many people come to you from search? If so, what can they look for that will distinguish The Doyle Group? Mr. Doyle: As I already mentioned, 90% of our business is referral based. Often we have CIO’s or other IT leadership that find new opportunities and will bring us into their new organization because we have established a relationship and they know we can deliver. They appreciate the time and energy we put into every search and they know we are excellent at screening out only the most qualified candidates. We also have had consultants who land at a new client site and will bring us in because of our reputation and ability to deliver. Regarding identifying top candidates we also rely heavily on networking within the community and that is why we frequent local tech meet ups, are sponsors for Denver Start Up Week and are active with in the Colorado Technology Association. Additionally we do use LinkedIn and other career job boards as we are always looking for ways to expand our network.
CEOCFO: What is the environment like for tech professionals today in your geography? Mr. Doyle: I think the overall unemployment for tech professionals is under 3%. In Denver, it is under 2.5%. Additionally, Denver is attracting many tech professionals because it is one of the five fastest growing tech communities in the country and we are seeing a lot more tech innovation locally as well as larger tech companies moving here like Google in Boulder. It is definitely an employee driven market and that is why we advise our clients’ to find partners who are capable of selling their companies, their current opportunities, so our clients can attract that best talent.
CEOCFO: Do you reach out for candidates in other geographies that might be enticed to move to Denver or are you primarily working with people who are there? Mr. Doyle: We are definitely open to people who are looking to move to Denver and as I mentioned there is quite an uptick lately. I believe in the last census taken, Denver ranked as the #1 city in the country where millennials between the ages of 18-30 were moving. We are constantly getting an influx of new talent that is moving here from all parts of the country which is exciting for the city of Denver and employers in all of Colorado that are looking to add to their project teams.
CEOCFO: Are you able to help guide employers in what their expectation should be from their employee, particularly as you are deal with generational differences and different mindsets? How do you help your customers bridge the gap? Mr. Doyle: As a partner to our clients, we have to be fair and honest and have candid conversations about what the market is doing today. Not only what the candidates are looking for, but also what the hiring authority is targeting. We have one very large established bank as a customer who thinks that 8-5 offers a great work life balance and we know companies like LinkedIn just rolled out unlimited vacation. The beauty of our business is that we are that go between that when we do talk to candidates we can ask them what they are ideally looking for. If you listen carefully and not assume anything, the candidates will tell you if upward career mobility, geographic location, work life balance, pay are the most important. We can then express to the hiring authority what that individual is looking for and see if there might be a match before the candidate even interviews. Again, here is where a lot of time can be saved based on knowing the intangibles of the job or the candidate and who is motivated by what. Connecting only those candidates who are right for that particular client. Right now it is in an employee driven market place so often times companies are either not going to fill their positions or they realize that maybe they need to add some additional perks and that is definitely where we can help educate them on what the market is doing.
CEOCFO: Where do you focus your efforts in giving back and why is it important for you? Mr. Doyle: I just feel like any time you have an opportunity to start a business in your local geography, it is really the community that you work in that supports your business so it only makes sense that you want to give back to the same community. We had massive fires in CO Springs a few years ago and major flooding up north and the Red Cross was a huge supporter of that relief effort so we focused on contributing to the Red Cross during these years. There is also the Tennyson Center for Children here in Denver, which is a phenomenal organization that takes in at risk youth who do not have anywhere else to go after they have been kicked out of the Ronald McDonald house and some of the other shelters. The Tennyson Center is often these kids last resort. We realized that it was a great organization to support. We definitely want to make sure that we are supporting the community in which we live. Much of our focus is around youth just because we feel that is where we should spend our financial responsibilities and help give children a better opportunity than what they have today. Within our six years of existence, we have given over $60,000 to local charities so we are definitely proud about that.
CEOCFO: What are the intangibles you want in the people that work for The Doyle Group? Mr. Doyle: We are going through our core values this week and two of the things that stood out from an internal survey taken is our focus on trust and integrity. We realized that in order to support these values as a company we have to be able to continue to build a team who cherishes these core principals. We are all here to build a business and generate revenue, but it is very important to everyone who works at The Doyle Group that they can trust and respect those who they work with every day.
CEOCFO: What has surprised you as The Doyle Group has grown and prospered? Mr. Doyle: Maybe not a surprise, but validation that our client for life approach and our focus on two-client’s and how the market has embraced and received our philosophy has been awesome. It is reaffirming when we hire team members from within our industry who might be skeptical of our approach. They feel hindered by our process that maybe it is slowing them down because we spend so much time making sure each candidate is right for each placement. Then it clicks for them and they see how happy our two clients are. That is awesome! Over the last 3 years, we have grown 86%, a testament to the way we conduct business, and to the special team we have here at The Doyle Group.
CEOCFO: How do you manage the challenges of rapid growth? Mr. Doyle: Our culture and our mission to each other is too important to let little things go. If there are issues, we need to address them today and then move on. Based on our core value system, if there are people who are not aligned with our goals and our culture then you have to take action and that sometimes means parting ways with team members. A lot of time and energy goes into retraining their replacements, but it is all worth it to keep our culture strong and position us for continued growth. We have to have a foundation that is stable so we can continue to grow.
CEOCFO: Why choose The Doyle Group? Mr. Doyle: We have cultivated a network of top technical talent along the Front Range, which is invaluable when these resources are hard to find. Additionally our desire to know our customers intimately both for the technical requirements and best cultural fit so we can save our clients time and only present the most qualified candidates. Lastly, our transparent approach of making sure our clients are aware of any concerns we might have of why the candidate may not be the perfect fit so that that every client can screen more intensely to ensure they have a valuable candidate. Once a client experiences our process and rigor in identifying the best talent, we are confident that we have found a client for life.
CEOCFO: Do you find that companies are valuing the relationship of working with people more than they might have five or ten years ago? Mr. Doyle: I think so. I think often times you have to educate folks on why it is important. For us to become the best partner to our client’s we have to spend the time to get to know the ins and outs of our customers and that means developing tight relationships so that we can sell their opportunities in this tight market. Our area of focus on Executive search or more specialized positions we need to be able to have candid conversations with all parties who are involved because we are not in the business of providing commodity resources. The more information we have on both of our clients, the better we are able to serve both client’s accordingly. |
“The beauty of our business is that we are that go between that when we do talk to candidates we can ask them what they are ideally looking for. If you listen carefully and not assume anything, the candidates will tell you if upward career mobility, geographic location, work life balance, pay are the most important. We can then express to the hiring authority what that individual is looking for and see if there might be a match before the candidate even interviews. Again, here is where a lot of time can be saved based on knowing the intangibles of the job or the candidate and who is motivated by what. Connecting only those candidates who are right for that particular client.”- Andrew Doyle
The Doyle Group
Contact: Andrew Doyle 720-744-6583
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Andrew
Doyle