Today marks our 4-year anniversary at Coopman Search and Selection. Andrew Murphy, Co-Founder & Director, shares key highlights and lessons learnt, out of many, that stand out since our launch…

1) 2019:
We set out to build a specialist agency that had deep market expertise and build partnerships centred around thought leadership. We wanted Coopman to be a sustainably led business that has an impact and created partnerships early on with; IYF, One Tree Planted, Narcissips.

2) 2020-2021:
Building a new start up through the Covid pandemic was arguably one of our biggest challenges, we managed to do this successfully, building out the team, winning the All Ireland Marketing award, for our creativity on a limited budget and becoming BCorp Certified which further solidified our position as a sustainably run business.

3) 2022:
We were proud winners of the Emerging Business Award at the SFA awards at the RDS in Dublin, continued to hire, doubling headcount from 2021 and sponsoring the inaugural FS Awards. Some other notable highlights included the team completing the 4 peaks of Ireland challenge in our annual fundraiser, and becoming a Great Place to Work certified business which was a nice way to cap off the year.

4) 2023 to date:
We successfully launched the London office, promoting William McCoppin to Director with the opportunity to grow Coopman on the ground. Our team went to Prague on an incentive trip and looked to develop our foundations as a business across both offices, enhancing our policies and benefits such as bringing in new health benefits and education support.

Andrew comments:

”Each year has brought highs and lows. Personally, 2023 has been the most challenging for our business. We’ve moved beyond the start-up phase, opened the London office which has made our business more complex, and have had to focus on solidifying business foundations – overhauling policies, procedures, and expectations to position ourselves for success in 2024.

Next year we’re looking forward to recertifying for B Corp with the aim of getting a score of 100, working with our consultants and teams to help them achieve their individual and company goals, and working with our back-office support functions in driving new initiatives, making the business more efficient.”

Key takeaways:

• It takes time to build a brilliant business, and patience is key
• Hiring the right people is key, keeping them is vital
• Opening new markets is hard and requires all your attention
• Maintaining focus on sales performance alongside building the structures and processes to facilitate further growth is an ongoing challenge

A huge thank you to the whole Coopman Crew, past and present clients, and candidates who have worked with Coopman. Let’s see what the next 4 years bring!

If you are looking for a career that prioritises progression, get in touch by emailing kimberly.braganza@coopman.ie.