Flying high: the teamfrom la international

14-May-2008

LA International has become a leader in public sector recruitment — and won two awards to prove it. Colin Cottell reports

Stoke-on-Trent is not the first place you would expect to find an award-winning recruitment company. The location of the company concerned, cheek by jowl by Waterworld on a nondescript industrial park, does little to dispel this notion.

However, a clue to the fact that this is one company able to put Stoke firmly on the map lies in its name. LA International Computer Consultants suggests a company that is upbeat, confident, outward looking and successful. Such traits were recognised by the judges when LA International picked up both the Grand Prix Gold Award and Best Public Sector Recruitment Firm trophy at the 2008 Recruiter Awards for Excellence.

This impression is magnified many times over by even the briefest of conversations with Paul Lukic, LA International's founder, chairman and chief executive.

A former management consultant, Lukic founded LA International in 1982. Lukic has been at the helm ever since as the company has grown into an enterprise employing 106 staff, with a projected turnover of £75m in 2007/08 and a pre-tax profit for 2006-2007 of £1.69m.

The company has grown its revenue between 30% and 35% in each of the last three years, and turnover is expected to top £100m in 2008/09. The company now has 1,000 contractors on its books.

So what does Lukic see as the key to the company's success? "It's the single-site philosophy," he says. "Combined with technology, it enables cost efficiencies and value-added services we can pass on to our clients."

Lukic (right) adds: "Multiple-operation branches are old hat and have been from the start of the century. I believe that modern communications means that it's totally practical to service contracts from a central hub."

Lukic says that in the company's early years, he was "working for success". But from the later 1990s, he says he began to see a vision for the company when he realised the potential for supplying security-cleared IT contractors. "That's why we set up the government division," he explains.

According to Lukic, this vision has become all-encompassing. "You have a vision that is so powerful that passion and determination take over and you develop a sense of destiny, a will to win and be the best."

LA International's clients are a Who's Who of UK industry, with 90% of FTSE 100 companies currently using it, including household names such as GlaxosmithKline and Tesco.

The company's particular strength, however, is the public sector division, with a projected turnover this year of £60m. Clients include the Ministry of Defence and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. LA also provides contract staff for companies such as EDS and Fujitsu, which supply IT services to clients in the UK security and defence sectors.

Stephen Turnock, LA International's head of operations, agrees with Lukic that identifying a market for recruiters to supply security-cleared staff to government departments, particularly defence, has been key to LA International's success.

"The need was for much more than just the right people with the right skills, but the right person with security clearance," he explains. The company employs two people to carry out security checks on candidates to a high level. This gives the company a major competitive advantage over other recruiters, who have to pass the CV to the client to do the checks, he says.

The market for security-cleared staff in the public sector has been given a boost since 9/11, with the continuing terrorist threat. This is increasingly becoming the norm in the engineering and nuclear sectors, Turnock adds.

Another key innovation was the development of a state-of-the-art database of contractors. This now contains half a million candidates. However, the beauty of it, says Turnock, is that it identifies not only those people with the right qualifications, but with the right security clearance as well.

Turnock also points to the way the company manages its contractors. "There is no point sending a contractor to London when the contractor doesn't want to work in London," he says.

The company's management style also plays a part. "There's nobody on top of you every two minutes, but a clear strategy on how you should be working. Here we believe in people. If they have got the ability to do it then they are allowed to get on with it."

Turnock, says that none of this would have happened without Lukic's drive and ambition. "Everything you see today is the vision of Paul Lukic. We have become his vision," he says.

The company is certainly not one to stand in the way of ambition, says Turnock, citing Jamie Davies, director of both the national security and defence and public sector divisions, who joined the company only eight years ago. Davies is now a board member.

Some people who came to LA International as temporary staff are now earning £100,000 a year. "I have always felt that there's no limitation and you can do as well as you want to do," says Turnock.

There is also an emphasis on developing the company's own staff, says Paul Kay, LA International's sales director.

"Our success has been because of the guys who came thorough the ranks," he says. Kay adds that increasing the graduate intake, so they now account for up to 20% of staff, has been particularly helpful, with some graduates now in charge of major accounts.

Kay says the company is conscious of the need to be seen as a employer of choice. He points to quarterly incentives, a good work/life balance, and company trips to Ascot and Rome as helping to make sure that people "want to work here". Kay adds: "You become an employer of choice by becoming successful, and this attracts better candidates."

Managing director Scott Henry points out that the firm's success is founded on the knowledge and experience of staff with five to 20 years experience in recruitment. Turnock, for example, has been with the company for 17 years.

The company's 6% staff attrition rate is impressive testament to the fact that people enjoy working there.

Davies admits the company faces several challenges in the public sector. The first is the continuing need to provide ever greater value for money, something which has been accentuated by the introduction of private sector procurement policies, which puts margins under constant pressure. Davies says the key to keeping long-term public sector contracts is getting the right people. "Your traditional hard-nosed salesperson will not be successful in this market," he says.

The company is fiercely proud of its status as an independent and self-funded recruitment company not beholden to shareholders. "This provides commercial flexibility," says Davies. It also changes the employer/employee relationship. "When you are part of a large corporate, you are looking at shareholder contentment. For us, it's making sure we are successful, expanding, and enjoying what we are doing."

Being on a single site is also helpful. "There's more of a sense of family and a sense of belonging," he says.

While the company confidently expects to hit the £100m revenue mark this financial year, with £5m pre-tax profits, according to finance director Paul Martin, there is little likelihood of the company resting on its laurels.

LA International's aspiration is to reach a turnover of £200m, says Henry, adding that they will do so "without acquisitions".

Henry is equally bullish about the UK economy, dismissing any talk of a downturn, saying he hasn't seen one.

Kay points to huge untapped markets in the health and local authority sectors. He says the private sector is also ripe for expansion, through leveraging the relationships the company already has.

The company also intends to build on its services to clients in 23 foreign markets since its inception. "It's a growth area," says Kay. "The UK IT contractor workforce is very transient, and there's a huge supply of candidates who work in the European market place, as well as Saudi Arabia and the Middle East."

Lukic is also in expansionist mode, though he will not be drawn on the details. But one thing is clear: while he is at the helm, everyone at the company is in for an eventful time.

"A true entrepreneur will probably bite off a bit more than he can chew, knowing that he will learn how to chew it," he says.



LA International Computer Consultants: a snapshot

• Founded: 1982
• Staff employed: 106
• Moved to new £2m HQ in 1999
• Approved contractor to government for security-cleared staff
• Projected turnover 2007/08: £75m (projected turnover 2008/09: £100m)
• Pre tax profit 2006/07: £1.69m
• Dun & Bradstreet platinum financial rating