2018 and the start of this year have been a challenging, but very rewarding time for us. We have grown through realisation, deep evaluation, learning, and discovery.
We have evolved beyond our existing business brand, to deliver to you – Lacuna Search.
Here’s what we set out to achieve, and why we did it.
The choice to rebrand
For us, it wasn’t just about attaining a fresh new look and business name—it was a whole lot more.
We had the passion and the drive to evolve the business, with the desire to:
- Clarify our vision
- Strengthen our focus and direction
- Articulate our service offering
- Communicate with a renewed clarity
- Create real brand equity
- Build a business we are truly proud of
We wanted to take our business to new heights; it was just a matter of starting on the journey.
Getting started
We took the first step by asking ourselves what our future direction and purpose would look like when it came to business management systems, performance measures, accountability structure, company culture, and our external offering. There was one thing we knew for certain: we wanted to be the very best at what we do as a search firm.
From there we took a hard look at what competitive search offerings exist in the marketplace and what makes each of them different. It was exciting to look at our business and be able to clearly define what makes us unique.
We’ve come to think of this part as ‘business soul-searching’. Why are we doing this? It involved asking ourselves a lot of deep, probing questions. After all, defining our place in the search and recruitment market is more than just saying ‘We’re different!’ We had to prove our difference, demonstrate how we help people, and ultimately show our clients why we’re the best at what we do.
To do this we put ourselves in our clients’ and candidates’ shoes, and focused on the experience they have with us, rather than simply our processes.
We mulled over questions like: what are the most important metrics that will bring real value to our clients and candidates? What kind of recruitment processes do we use to analyse the skills, competencies and behavioural profiling of our candidates?
Are they progressive enough or can we explore other tools and assessments? How can we improve our role as a brand ambassador for our clients, to attract the best and most suited applicants?
We know that culture matters for our clients. Cultural alignment is becoming even more relevant, and enables a more engaged workforce, delivering less turnover. We have a genuine interest in learning about the differences in people and businesses that we work with, so how can we improve our approach to finding the right cultural fit, while also driving diversity in our new hires?
These questions helped us cut right to the core of what we deliver. But while we were working hard to make impactful and successful changes on our internal content, our company name, website, and collateral wasn’t reflecting this renewed passion.
We were presented with two choices: to repeat and do as well as we currently were, or to evolve and do exceptionally well, and take our business to those new heights.
We chose the latter because we see our business as a living, breathing entity; one that will never stop moving forward, never stop improving, and one that will always strive for excellence.
It was time to take true ownership of our brand. We needed to create a company identity that we believed in and connected with.
How we did it
At this point, we had a well-managed business with direction, purpose, and a unique search methodology. However, we wanted to do better, to wear our new direction on our sleeve, and to represent a business we were proud of. For us, that meant a business that’s passionate, progressive, purpose-driven, and profitable.
- We partnered with a professional branding company that understood us and showed just as much passion towards our journey as we did
We were excited about how our story and brand was going to be told so we went at it with a laser focus, speaking to a number of different branding companies to find the one that fits.
After an in-depth search, we decided to partner with Roobix. While we were immediately impressed by their capabilities, it was their genuine interest in our story and our vision that landed our decision. They had the experience, the track record, and the right values we were looking for in a partner, and we were confident they could take us on the right path to develop our new brand and build it with us.
Roobix took us on a six-month journey of discovery and new direction. Much like when we first started this process, they went to the core of what we stood for, consolidating our aims and visions, and then updating our image to reflect these changes.
In writing it sounds so simple! In reality, it wasn’t. It was long hours of meetings, strategy sessions, brainstorming, reflecting, analysing, and testing.
But they gave us the professional guidance, structured approach, and attention that was needed for something so important and personal to us. Like us, they’re in the people business. From insight to execution, the work Roobix did started and ended with a human-centric approach which we really appreciated.
So for any businesses out there on a similar journey, looking for more than just a ‘refresh’ of your brand, we can confidently recommend partnering with professionals like Roobix who know how to do it best.
- We created an environment of learning, open-mindedness, and “all hands on deck”
Managing our rebrand whilst continuing to deliver the highest quality of service for our clients was a challenge, to say the least. There were times of pressure, patience, sacrifice, and emotional stress that all come with the territory of building a brand.
But it’s a creative process, so naturally, that involved stepping outside our comfort zones. To combat this, we created an environment of learning, open-mindedness and “all hands-on deck.” This created a real sense of comradery and courage which helped drive all of us towards our shared vision, and keep our Lacuna values at the front and center of what we were aiming to achieve.
- We were intensely curious
To elevate our offering we knew we had to dive deep into the industries in which we worked. We needed to be relevant and always thinking about how we can add value to our clients and candidates, and the spaces we work in.
We had countless discussions and sought advice from industry peers and contacts, clients, and mentors, and delved into books and podcasts that allowed us to grow both professionally and personally.
2018 was a year of deep evaluation, curiosity, learning, discovery, experimentation, and change. It was a year of growth.
- Through it all, we maintained a sense of humility—and a sense of humour
It was hard work. Doing everything we wanted to do, when we wanted to do it, was a constant uphill battle against competing timelines and workloads.
Maintaining our client requirements as our priority meant that our rebranding timelines occasionally moved. But we just had to adjust, take each challenge as it came, and make sure we kept our long-term perspective in mind.
We made sure to never lose sight of why we were doing this. It was never boasting about our achievements, or keeping ourselves in the spotlight at the expense of our clients.
That’s not our Lacuna character. Our goal has always been to build a company we were proud of, and one that we connected with. One that strives for continuous improvement and excellence. We’re passionate about the value that a high-quality search can bring for our clients, so that’s where we kept our focus.
Because it’s more than just about us—it’s about the value we can bring to you.
And we realised quickly that if we couldn’t take each bump in the road with a grain of salt, focus on the bigger picture, and make sure we have fun along the way, then our successes would feel hollow.
All work and no play can be draining; it saps morale and reduces creativity. As a team, we’re all hard-working by nature, and we like doing things that matter. So for us, ‘fun’ was to make sure our priorities and values remained aligned, that we stayed focused on accomplishing our goals, and we did it with a positive mindset.
When we approached our work this way we found ourselves more open to change, more flexible, more creative, and more motivated—all which helped us maintain a close team culture and keep the business moving forward.
Our drive and passion during this time made sure we kept our sense of humour and pushed us to challenge ourselves—which resulted in the team signing on for the 2019 Margaret River Ultra Marathon Relay. We’ll tell you more about that in the future.
Who we are today
We’re proud to say that we achieved exactly what set out to do. We’ve created a meaningful, thriving business and brand which we’re proud to represent—one we’re connected to.
Welcome to Lacuna Search.
Lacuna Search partners with business leaders invested in the quest to find quality hires. We work with HR, Executives and Functional hiring managers working in a range of energy & resources companies from start-ups to majors.
Our name stems from the idea of lacuna—a blank space.
Why the blank space concept? It resonated with us. With this concept, our sense of purpose goes beyond transactional recruitment or ‘filling a gap.’ We approach each search as a blank space, as no two companies or role requirements are the same. This thinking encourages us to remove our blinkers and consider alternative solutions in an industry where companies and resource trends are constantly evolving.
We developed our unique search method to support us in how we operate. It is an intelligent process that allows us to apply a rigorous framework we can trust, with the flexibility and agility to tailor our approach for each campaign.
We are driven by our vision of a world where businesses thrive on organisational alignment. Where company strategy, processes, technology, and individual teams rally toward a common purpose, to achieve the success that everyone shares in. Our mission is to create exceptional alignment between the companies and the people we work with. It’s what makes us different. To continue to strive towards the highest standards of dedication, quality and building genuine relationships. We aim to fulfill our vision by staying true to our values of Ingenuity, Passion, and Perseverance. They’re the character that guides our Lacuna approach, standards, and our team culture.
We’ve spent our time not just rebranding our business, but in repurposing ourselves. We’ve learnt new skills in project management, developed new industry partnerships, and created a new team-wide collaboration approach that allows us to provide the very best results for the people we work with.
We’re energised and more focused than ever. We’re genuinely interested in learning about you as a person or business, and championing who you are.
Our new brand has inspired us to always keep learning, to explore all possibilities, to always look for a clever solution—and to never give up, even if it means exploring new avenues and pathways, to pivot, evolve, and refine, until we achieve success.
If you’re interested in following our journey, receiving valuable industry insights and opportunities, please keep revisiting our website and join our Lacuna network by following our company page on LinkedIn.
It’s been quite a journey, and we’re excited for you to continue on it with us.
Author: Kelly Arnett, Director of Lacuna Search.