Annie McGraw joined Investigo Executive’s Change and Transformation team in May 2021. As well as building out the business’s interim practice, she’s run a half marathon, completed the Yorkshire Three Peaks challenge and hosted an exclusive dinner for chief operating officers. The Associate Partner reflects on an eventful first six months with Investigo, and how a high-performing, entrepreneurial environment has allowed her to thrive.

Why did you join Investigo Executive?

I was at my former company for eight years. It felt like quite a big jump but I wanted a new challenge and to experience a different type of recruitment business. When I was specifically asked by Investigo to come on board to help build out Interim Exec, my mind was made up.

As a result of Investigo’s rich history, reputation and scale, we’ve got multiple resources at our fingertips and different solutions we can offer our clients, such as Caraffi and Definia. Given I focus on interim roles and the marketplace is ever-evolving, it’s important to be able to offer consultancy solutions to clients. It’s something they definitely need. It’s not a start-up business – it’s tried and tested, so we’ve got many case studies to talk about, which gives us instant credibility. For my network in that interim space, it’s important for them to know we have that consultancy offering.

What have you found?

I feel like my values are aligned with Investigo’s values. Sport and fitness have always been a big part of my life. Before I even joined, the company encouraged me to take part in the Investigo half marathon for St Mungo’s, so I felt a big sense of belonging before I even joined. I won the women’s race and the company sent champagne to my house! Only a few weeks into joining the Change and Transformation team, we did the Three Peaks Challenge in Yorkshire, walking a marathon over two days. The charity side and the fitness side are important, and I felt imbedded in the culture of the company straight off the bat.

Everything here, the standard of professionalism and commerciality, is super on-point. From the get-go, I’ve been constantly raising my standards to match others around me, including from other teams.

What’s your specific role within the team?

I was brought on board to build out the Interim Executive Practice. I specialise in COOs and change and transformation roles. Instantly when I joined, I was given the freedom to host a COO dinner at the Ivy. I was encouraged to keep building on my network and the free reign is empowering.

You can be your authentic self here and add value in certain ways. You get training sessions in areas you want to develop so you can be an all-rounder. It’s not just a job – you get out of it what you put in. Your all-round character is valued here, not just sales targets and numbers. The company don’t hire in their own image.

What have been the highlights of your first six months?

The run, the Three Peaks Challenge, the dinner. Settling in really quickly and landing a number of people within my network into interesting and large programmes of work. The feedback from clients gave me almost instant reassurance that I made the right decision. I value clients’ opinions and when I told them I was joining, they were really positive all round because Investigo was a brand they knew – either Investigo had recruited them or they’d used Investigo to hire. At exec level, our clients and candidates are the same people, so we need to be giving them a good experience no matter who they are. Investigo treats its people like that too. When I joined, I thought: “If that’s how well they’re treating me, how must they treat their own clients?”

What have been the biggest challenges?

Making the decision to join was a big challenge as I was at my previous firm for a long time and Investigo was a different prospect. Despite the business’s scale, it wasn’t long before I understood who did what, given the open nature of the business. If a client gives me a role and it’s not right for Interim Exec, often there’s a whole team who can look at it rather than just one individual. This is so useful from a cross-selling point of view and an example of the different resources at your fingertips for clients.

Why would you encourage a potential new hire to join Investigo Executive?

You learn A LOT. I learnt so much even in my first week. Everyone here is impressive in their own right, so there’s always someone to learn from. I’m a firm believer that you’re the average of the five people you spend the most time with. Your standards are based on the people you surround yourself with. Like it or not, at least two of them will be your colleagues. Make it the right five!

What’s the one piece of advice you’d give to someone joining Investigo Executive?

Put yourself out there – the more you put in, the more you get out. If you want it to be a job where you use your freedom to focus on building out your own market, it can be. But if you want more and to get involved in all the other aspects Investigo has to offer, such as charity, runs, D&I, you can – and people will listen to your input.

If you’d like to speak to Annie about your next interim executive-level role or hire, please contact her.