Michael Floyd

If you believe in parallel universes, then there is a universe in which Michael Floyd is a professional tennis player. In fact, he’s so good he’s playing Pat Rafter in the final of the US Open.

Michael recounts, “I’m sitting back watching Lleyton Hewitt and Pat Rafter and thinking: maybe? It could have been? But probably not!”

He has a recurring dream where he’s playing Pat Rafter in the final at Flushing Meadows and it’s two-sets all, he’s up 6-5 in the fifth, and is serving for the match. He draws a deep breath to bring his nerves under control, bends his body at the hips to prepare to serve, then looks up and allows himself a brief moment to eyeball Rafter. His opponent has sweat pouring down his brow, he’s drawing deep breaths into his swollen chest. He looks a beaten man.

Michael soaks it up, a sense of satisfaction wells up inside, then he reverts to his serving routine. Head down, the ball in his left hand, the racquet in his right and three, always three, bounces. He tosses the ball in the air; arches his back as he pulls the racquet back behind his head and rises onto his toes. His body is now fully stretched as he pulls the racquet up to meet the ball at the precise moment it reaches the zenith of its rise. The sound is sweet as the racquet and the ball meet….

“That’s when I wake up. I always wake up at that moment.”

At the age of fifteen, Michael was a promising tennis player and was tapped on the shoulder “by a fairly well known coach at the time” to make a decision about his future.

Reflecting on that moment, Michael says, “at the age of fifteen I don’t know that anyone has the maturity to make a well-thought out decision around that kind of issue. That’s life-changing, significantly life-changing!

“So with my parents who have been, and continue to be, a fairly strong guiding light in my life, we decided it was best for me to focus on education.”

So that’s where the parallel universe was created. One person could have chosen a tennis career at that time but we’ll never know how that went, while the other person chose a reality which led to a corporate career. This culminated in the creation of a boutique human resources consultancy with a focus around attraction, retention and development of key talent within organisations.

Are there any regrets?

Michael responds, “I think within most of us, there is this nagging question: what if? How good could I have been?” He concedes, “would I have been a top ten player? Probably not. Would I have survived on the tour? Who knows. It’s just one of those things – you think about it, but not much more than that, apart from the occasional fantasy dream.”

However, the decision to pursue education didn’t really go to plan. Eleven weeks into a commerce/accounting degree on the back of twelve years at school, Michael decided he’d had enough of schooling and left university to join the workforce.

From that point, Michael confesses, “I don’t think I actually knew what I wanted to do until I was in my early thirties.”
There were false starts in several roles prior to the realisation that Michael had a knack for sales.

“I found I could build relationships with people quite well, and I established enough credibility and trust that I’m not just there to sell them a pup, if you like; I’m actually there to do what’s right. I progressed through a whole raft of sales roles in several organisations and that led to running a small division of a business, before heading into consultancy.”

At that time, though, “there was no plan, and I probably shouldn’t say that because that’s what we advocate to our clients and candidates. It was more about ‘what can I make out of this situation?’

“People tend to be quite good at what they enjoy doing,” Michael observes, “so I followed a path I was enjoying. I’d love to say I had a career plan, but I didn’t. I just took advantage of or leveraged situations. I suppose to some extent I built my own career path within the organisations for which I was working.”

Those organisations were largely in the consumer packaged goods sector: “high-volume food and beverage manufacturers, or anybody who sells a product through a retail or wholesale distribution channel.”

It’s an industry Michael and his business team know inside out, so when they set up Carrera in 2002, it was the obvious industry on which to focus. They looked at the companies for which they’d worked, as well as their competitors, and realised there was a lack of anyone doing anything about developing people.

In summary, Michael describes the process then as “just get people in, work them really hard, get them out and get the next one in.

“I thought there has to be a way of bringing people in, putting them in an environment where they actually like coming to work, can contribute positively to an organisation; grow, develop and contribute even more, which would take the organisation and the employee to an even higher level.”

Carrera’s business model has developed into getting the right people matched to the right organisations, and then helping both to be productive and grow.

That focus on solving his clients’ problems by finding the right candidates has created a new word in the English language, at least in the Michael Floyd dictionary: ‘clientsandcandidates’.

When talking about Carrera, Michael can’t say the word ‘client’ without subconsciously adding ‘candidate’ every time.

He explains, “for us it was always around the way we approached the person we were looking to put into an organisation. Rather than looking at them as a potential commission cheque – as most of our competitors do – we look at them as a real person who has a husband/wife/partner, probably children, a mortgage, car payments, school fees and more; what we are doing impacts how they live.

“We want to understand more about them so we can apply what they are looking for to an organisation in a more meaningful way.”

This is not simply a surface exercise as Michael notes, “it’s about that depth of knowledge and understanding; it’s about high touch with clients and candidates so that they get the best possible result from their relationship with us, and that goes way beyond traditional recruiting.”

That focus on clients AND candidates has been the backbone of Carrera’s success. From two guys who looked at the market and thought ‘there’s something not quite right here’, the company has grown, now consulting to companies nationally and internationally.

Technological progress has allowed Carrera to streamline its operation in recent years, but the core principles remain the same.

More than ever, given the impact of technology, “we are now focused on depth rather than breadth, so we want to have really deep relationships with our clients and candidates. The deeper we know and understand them the better we can help them.”

Michael believes Carrera’s desire to help both clients and candidates sets them apart from their competitors.

To accentuate this difference, “we’ve banned the word ‘agency’ in our office. We are not a recruitment agency.

“To me, agency means speedy transactions and there’s no depth. We are a consultancy. Our tagline is ‘Master Every Turn’. We want to be in a position where we are sought out by clients and candidates to help guide them and master every turn they make in their career.”

Reflecting over the more recent history of recruitment, Michael notes, “a decade ago a couple of very famous CEOs were quoted as saying companies like LinkedIn will be the death of recruitment agencies. One of them was fourteen years ago the other was twelve years ago, but guess what, we’re not dead.”

Michael believes Carrera is still alive and kicking because of its consultancy approach to the business.

Looking to the future, it seems more relevant that “rather than be seen as a recruitment agency, we certainly want to be focused around helping and guiding our clients and candidates.”

Michael admits the advancements in technology have brought challenges for Carrera, but the benefits are greater.

“Technology is a great aid for us when used properly. In dealing with clients, a conversation can uncover issues technology can’t, and in dealing with candidates, there is no substitute for a face-to-face relationship.”

Of course, “we can communicate online, and can access crucial information, but when it comes to finding the right candidate for the right client, there needs to be a personal relationship. We can leverage technology in many, many ways to make what we do more effective and efficient. But at the end of the day it will never replace human-to-human interaction.”

ADVICE

There’s one piece of advice from Michael Floyd which stands out from them all: “Don’t have a Plan B.” He believes your back-up plan can become your easy way out, when things get a little tough.

“Typically if there is a backup plan then that’s the plan which ends up being executed, or you don’t become fearless, given the view that, if that fails, I’ve got a backup plan,” he adds.

Michael believes if you want someone to be successful in their venture, this needs to be the strategy. “I know it’s really easy for me to say to someone else don’t have a backup plan. Most people want to succeed, so if you have no backup plan you’ll put all your energy into your project to make it work.”

It’s the advice he’s given his twenty-year old son who started his own business, and he’s also advising him to get some mentoring.

The thought behind that is “if you’re a younger entrepreneur there’s experience and exposure to different elements of business you don’t yet have which others do. I probably haven’t used mentors enough in my career. Find as many people as you can and just absorb everything they tell you.”

Frankly, Michael admits that “being in business can be very, very difficult and typically there is no-one there to reach out to and ask for help. So you need to have a mentor, or somebody close by, even if it’s for a brain dump or simply admitting ‘I’m not okay, can you help?’. You can never know everything and when you think you do, you’re about to fail.”

Michael also draws on his experience as a fifteen-year old, trying to decide between a sporting career and education when offering advice, especially to those in a similar position to that in which he found himself.

Returning to the initial parallel life scenario, “that whole experience certainly has influenced the way I advise my children. And it’s not around ‘get an education’ followed by ‘go and get a high-paying job’. It’s ‘get an education so you’ve got options and choices. Find something you absolutely love and are passionate about and just be the best at it you can be’.

“Having the choices and options that come with education gives you the ability to move on, to try something else, when things don’t according to plan – Plan A that is.”