From a back bedroom to offices on London’s Trafalgar Square, public sector recruiter Morgan Law, which this year claimed top spot in Recruiter’s Hot 100 recruitment companies, has come along way since its creation in 2000.

Each of its then 35 employees (it now has 45) contributed an impressive £195,600 to gross profit, a 36% increase in productivity on the previous year. In the year to 30 September 2009, turnover reached £37m, up from £24m in 2008.

However, ex-Michael Page and Hays recruiter David Morgan, who along with Simon Law set up the company, appears to be taking it all in his
stride. “I knew from the age of 16 I wanted to run my own business,” he says. “I always had it in the back of my mind to move from the North-East and to test myself in the capital,” adds Morgan.

Both Law and Morgan worked at Michael Page on the public sector team in London, where the two first met in 1998. It was there that they jointly came to the realisation that, as Law puts it: “We are both very good at what we do and that we didn’t need Michael Page to be successful.”

And so after investing £5,000 each, Morgan Law was born focusing on the public sector. “We spotted that no one was covering the public sector properly,” explains Law. Another attraction is the public sector’s stability - a big advantage compared with, say, financial services “where you can have a couple of good years and a couple of bad years”, he adds.

For Morgan, the sector is simply more interesting than the commercial sector, and the clients are more worthwhile. He compares the role of the NHS “whose purpose is to save people” with that of the banks “to line shareholders’ pockets”.

After starting off specialising in finance roles across the public and not-for-profit sectors, the company branched out by setting up a series of new divisions: marketing communications, HR, procurement/commissioning, interim solutions and executive. It’s an impressive track record of expansion. But for Law it is based on number of simple principles. “It’s about your staff and recruiting people that have the same ethos as you, that if you provide a quality service you will be successful,” he says. This dedication to service includes seemingly simple things, such as giving feedback to candidates, taking calls and honesty. “Recruitment is a very straightforward process, but it’s amazing how people manage to mess it up,” he says.

Secrets of their success It’s not necessarily about fees but the sportsman’s mentality of winning and doing whatever you can to be in a winning position, and not accepting second best or defeat

The company is always looking to improve its service by developing a partnership approach with clients, says Morgan. One example was setting up a website for Croydon Council (www.financecareersincroydon.com). Designed in Croydon Council’s colours and house style, and linked to Morgan Law’s own website, it resulted in almost 100 placings. “It’s about getting the best person, but also the best value for money,” adds Morgan.

The company’s values are encapsulated on the back of its business cards in the form of ‘Morgan’s Laws’ (see below, right). And for Morgan these are much more than empty platitudes, but a real and personal commitment. “Morgan’s Laws are our values. If I give you that, that is what you are going to get from our staff,” he says.

While commitment to shared values across the company clearly matters, both Morgan and Law acknowledge that a major driving force behind the company has been their relationship. “Both of us had skills and this burning ambition,” says Morgan. And this extended even their reason for going into business. “It’s not necessarily about fees,” says Morgan, “but the sportsman’s mentality of winning and doing whatever you can to be in a winning position, and not accepting second best or defeat.”

Morgan says that trust is “absolutely paramount” when setting up a business with someone else. While his own background is in permanent recruitment, and Law’s in interim, on a day-to-day basis, each tends to manage separate divisions within the company depending on where their input is needed most. At the moment, Morgan is working with the finance team, while Law is managing interim executive.

The big question for public sector recruiters is what impact the inevitable cuts in public spending facing the county will have on their businesses. While Morgan admits that the company is not planning to grow as aggressively this year as in the past, he predicts that some of the recruiters who entered the public sector within the past 12 months will falter, allowing Morgan Law to pick up marketshare.

And based on research among both its public sector and not-for-profit clients, he concludes that while efficiencies will undoubtedly be made, this doesn’t necessarily mean redundancies. In fact, it could boost demand for staff with the necessary skill sets, he argues.

While acknowledging the winds of change blowing from nearby Whitehall, neither Morgan or Law sees any reason to be deflected from their long-term goal. “We’ve the same business plan that we set out with 10 years ago to develop a multi-disciplinary recruitment business; there’s still room for this business in the public sector,” says Law.

Morgan’s Laws

• Be creative
• Respect all
• Quality matters
• Listen
• Be honest
• Know your customers
• Be responsible