Interview: Jamie Livingston of Livingston James

Jamie Livingston learned rugby in Toulouse but had to step back from the game to further his career. Picture: Robert Perry

Livingston spent a year learning and playing the sport in Toulouse, studying at the French city’s Le Mirail university in an effort to reach the top of his game. Those were great times, he insists, but a different career path was already beckoning.

“I spent a fantastic, fun year learning rugby and then continued with delusions of grandeur, probably until I left university,” reflects Livingston. “Sadly, I realised that I wasn’t going to be a professional rugby player. The time commitment to try and keep up with some of those I was playing with wasn’t really sustainable with building a career in the recruitment industry. By my mid 20s. I moved to playing social rugby which I still do on the odd occasion these days.”

Livingston, who is also a graduate of the University of Glasgow, kicked off his career with industry heavyweight Michael Page International, rapidly working his way up to manage the firm’s Glasgow-based finance practice, in 2005. Less than a year later, he was charged with starting up Michael Page in Ireland, becoming director of Irish operations in 2008. He returned to Scotland the following year, adding a string of other business units to his remit.

The big push came later that year, when Livingston decided to go it alone. By January 2010, and with business partner and fellow group director Andy Rogerson on board, Livingston James had officially began trading. With offices in Glasgow and Edinburgh, the firm now boasts a headcount of 24 and has launched two specialist subsidiaries. Income is now in excess of £2 million.

Five years on and, again, there are no regrets. “I think Michael Page is a great business and I learnt a lot working there,” stresses Livingston. “Given the size they are, it can be a little more challenging to react to market conditions or to innovate … if you have a good idea it has to go through a number of layers.

“I now have the creative freedom to make decisions, working for myself. If I make a decision, right or wrong, it’s my decision.”

Livingston sees the roll-out of specialist brands as key to developing the business, and a springboard into markets south of the Border. Last April, the group launched Drummond Bridge, which is focused on senior supply chain and operations appointments. The division sits alongside Rutherford Cross, which focuses on senior finance appointments.

“Over the next 24 months, the plan is to launch another couple of brands in Scotland,” says Livingston. “We are reasonably confident that the next one will be marketing and communications focused. Then we have a few ideas around IT and change.

“The idea is to create five brands up here and then look to a move south thereafter. We need to test the model in a market that we know very well.”

That expansion into England is unlikely to be centred on London, a market that Livingston describes as too “transactional and salesy”.

He says: “The regional markets are much more relationship- and quality-driven. They take a little bit longer to get into and if you do a bad job everyone gets to know about it pretty quickly. We think our model would work better in the likes of Leeds, Manchester and Birmingham.”

Livingston also believes that with a demographic squeeze on the 35-45 age bracket in Scotland, businesses will have to look further afield for suitable top-level candidates.

“Looking at the data from the last consensus there is almost an hour-glass pattern. If you think about succession planning and where your next generation of chief executive is going to come from then that is a very narrow waist. We are going to have to think about how we address that challenge.

“Obviously we need to fast track and promote from within that bracket, but we are also going to have to recruit from outside Scotland.”