Talk us through the recent success of Barrington James in Singapore…
It has without a doubt been a crazy year for everyone in 2020, but I am extremely proud of how the team in Singapore has kept their focus throughout all of the challenges we have faced.
I joined the business in the 2nd half of 2019 and since then we have grown both our headcount and revenue extremely quickly. The key to this has been the development of our consultants – across the team we have almost 100 years of Life Science recruitment experience, which puts us in a great position to become trusted advisors to our candidates and clients across APAC.
With less than 3 months left of 2020, we are on track to grow at 70% and have the largest team of Life Science specialists in Singapore.
Why is now the right time to expand within the Asian Market?
Despite the challenges that COVID has presented in the region, it is still very clear that demand for talent is growing in almost every single market. In order to service this, we are looking to set up a new team to focus on China, Hong Kong and Taiwan in 2021, which will create even more opportunities for career development for the existing team as well as people joining us next year.
We are also going to be launching in Japan with a full office set-up planned for end Q1 2021. Japan presents a really unique market opportunity which has continued to be at the forefront of both pharmaceuticals and medical devices. We have constantly been asked by our clients and candidates around the world for support in this market and we are delighted to finally be able to provide that support across a number of markets.
What was the reason behind launching in Japan?
Having worked in APAC for 11 years with a significant number of years supporting a Japanese business, it is very clear that in order to be successful you need to be in the country. It is crucial for us to be able to meet our clients and candidates in all of the markets we currently operate in but we believe that this is even more important in Japan.
Coupled with this, the market opportunity is huge with the pharmaceutical market worth almost $80 billion in 2019. There are also global leading medical technology firms based in Japan that are constantly looking for new talent to join them in a very challenging candidate market.
With that, we are extremely pleased to announce that Sejin Oh has joined the business from October 1st. Sejin comes to us with extensive experience on the agency side as well as leading the TA function for Abbott in Japan for the last couple of years and I am very confident with him driving the business it will be a great success.
If you would like to discuss working with us in Japan please don’t hesitate to reach out to myself (stuart@barringtonjames.com) or Sejin (Sejin@barringtonjames.com).
