Hats off to asset management firm’s head of culture for £7m revenue record

A Cheshire asset management company is on course for record turnover of £7m, thanks to the creation of the role of head of culture within the firm.

This is according to Equilibrium Asset Management’s managing partner Gaynor Rigby who handed Sarah Warburton the job at the Wilmslow firm last summer.

It has enabled Equilibrium – whose finance and investment experts look after more than £650m worth of assets for more than 850 families across the UK – to further grow its headcount to 63, up from 22 in 2010.

The company, also boasting an office in Chester, is now recruiting more talent after being named fifth best small company to work for by The Sunday Times in March.

Rigby said: “One of our philosophies is that we certainly don’t do traditional career paths.

“The head of culture role came from me not being a fan of traditional Human Resources (HR) and I’d say creating that position has been as important a decision as any over the past seven years. For me traditional HR disempowers the people who are actually in the position to do the HR role.”

Rigby, who joined Equilibrium seven years ago after almost two decades spent rising through the ranks at Toronto-based business coaching company Strategic Coach, said Warburton has a wide-ranging role, being in charge of recruitment and also leading the firm’s very own ‘Spirit Team’.

“The fact Sarah is leading recruitment frees up team leaders to appraise their staff,” said Rigby, “which we feel is right as they are the people who are with each other day-in-day-out.”

Looking forward, Rigby said: “Our goal was to achieve stable and sustainable growth over the past three years, which we have achieved. It’s about making sure you have secure foundations and then building up from there.

“I’ve been reading a lot of books about what is next for a company of our size and how you grow such a business.

“The Times 100 win was significant for us as it not only means our staff are very happy, it essentially means our clients feel that they are taken care of and are getting a great service.

“What we have is a strong moral compass and a good and happy working culture.

“New products will always come out, and our role is staying true to our core principles and figuring out what we do next and how we get into another demographic.

“We have found our niche. We now need to be engaging with clients earlier on in their own individual journeys.”