Interview with James Ward, Managing Director of Marine Resources
by Mark Jardine 23 Jun 2016 14:34 BST
23 June 2016
James Ward and some of the Marine Resources team © Mark Jardine
We spoke to James Ward of Marine Resources about how he first set up the business, how it's grown, what sailing he's doing and also the Marine Resources win at the Marine Industry Regatta.
Mark Jardine: Can you tell me when Marine Resources was set up and how it was set up in the first place?
James Ward: We set the business up back in 2003. I was looking for a job with a boat builder in the Southampton area as I was relocating to the area. I'd been a boat builder for a couple years, I didn't know who to talk to about who was recruiting and where the jobs were, and didn't really have a central point to try to find out any of this information. I actually was having a conversation with a friend of mine who was working in recruitment and was doing quite well setting up their own recruitment company, and the idea developed from there. We started off working very, very locally, just recruiting boat builders, marine engineers and outboard technicians into the local yards and marinas, really just using my own network, friends from my mobile phone essentially, and we grew from there.
Mark: Since then of course the business has grown beyond recognition. What would you say is the biggest step that has driven things forwards for the business?
James: I think the concept of a recruitment consultancy, certainly in the leisure side of the marine industry was quite alien at the time and I guess me not coming from the recruitment background has helped with this. We've always tried to grow the business around what we think the industry wants in a recruitment company as opposed to a standard recruitment industry model. I think just constantly listening to what the clients want and understanding the industry, understanding the roles, and luckily enough having that technical understanding as well, has always been very useful to growing the business, we see huge amounts of repeat business.
Mark: With the marine industry, it is quite particular in its needs, so all the time you've just reacted to customers' needs rather than putting in a standard recruitment business model?
James: Yes, that's absolutely right, although now I suppose in the last year or two we have been starting to dip into a few practices which are more commonly found in the recruitment industry. We became members of the REC, which is the Recruitment and Employment Confederation, the trade body for the recruitment industry, and that has certainly helped us to look at some of our processes, a lot of our legal terms, and now, based on their templates, we've picked a lot of the good stuff, or what we like to think is the good stuff, from what works really really well in the recruitment industry and merged it with what we think the leisure marine and superyacht industry likes to receive in a service.
Mark: You've been a sailor most of your life. What sailing are you doing this year and how are things going?
James: We've still got the Lark, which we do a lot in, although we managed to snap the mast in our first event of the season, which has put us back a little bit, but we've just taken delivery of our new one, so I was rigging that up last night. We're now members of Warsash Sailing Club, so I'm hopefully doing some club racing from there and also racing on the Lark circuit; the Lark's have a 4 day Nationals in Lyme Regis this year in August which is a brilliant venue and won't mean too much time off work. We've also got a Mirror that I'm sailing with the family on the river, my eldest Jack who's 3 loves it. Also any other racing I can find the time for this summer.
Mark: Marine Resources took part in the Marine Industry Regatta just last week. Can you tell me a bit about that?
James: That was a really great day out and we were lucky enough to win the day which was a really nice surprise. We took the whole team along and closed the office for the day, which was quite a big deal for us. We've got a nice mix of abilities here in the office. Some of the guys do a lot of racing sailing, some have done a little bit before and a little bit of cruising, and we've got a handful of guys who have never ever been on a sailing boat ever. So it was a lot of fun - it was fresh, we had 20-25 knots of wind - we saw gusts up to 28 knots at times. It was a bit of a baptism of fire for some of the guys, but everybody came back thoroughly enjoying the day and it was a really nice thing for the team to be able to win the trophy as well. We've got it in pride of place on the windowsill in the office. The guys now have the bug and want to know what else we can go and try and win.
Mark: With events such as that, do you find them excellent for bonding the team and also networking in the industry?
James: Yes, absolutely. That event in particular, we really, really enjoyed. We go to a lot of boat shows and of course you see a lot of the same faces at those shows, and they're great for networking, but ultimately a massive percentage of people who work in this industry do it because they love the water, whether it's sailing or other watersports, so it was just a really good day to go and mix a bit of business and pleasure. There was certainly plenty of banter with a few clients leading up to the event and that banter will surely continue now we've won.
Mark: What are the big focuses for Marine Resources in the next couple of years?
James: We have a big focus on growth. We're now doing more and more in the Superyacht sector, with the big shipyards and a lot of companies who manufacture and produce products - also for the superyacht industry - so, that's definitely a market we're looking to expand into more. We've got a really great network in there already. Really we just want to continue to offer a service which people see a lot of value in. Ultimately it's a small industry, people usually do know a lot of people within it, but hopefully what we can offer is to provide further options to people's usual networks. That's really really important to us, that we keep working hard here to expand our business, expand our brand so we are linking up with even more people to make those introductions in the future. Definitely a lot of ambition, a lot of growth, and we're really excited to see what the future holds.
Mark: James, it's been fantastic watching the growth of Marine Resources - all the best for the future.
James: Thank you, Mark.