Eight Years of JasperRose: A milestone interview with our Founders
The number eight has immense cultural, spiritual and religious significance across disciplines and places, and is even a lucky number in China and Buddhism. But it also has huge significance to us, personally. To commemorate our eighth birthday, we have interviewed JasperRose’s Founders and Directors, Kristy Jasper and Rosie O’Callaghan, in what it means to them as leaders to have reached this milestone. They discuss their initial vision, key moments, hurdles, victories and plans for success in a deeply personal account of leadership.
The number 8 appears in a lot of creation mythology. For example, In Ancient Egyptian mythology, there are eight primordial deities of creation in the Ogdoad.
When you both created JasperRose in 2015, what vision did you have in mind?
KRISTY: A relationship driven business, always looking at the long term, rather than the short term. Off the back of this, I am proud to say that we have so many long-standing relationships with both candidates and clients that we made when setting up our business, that we can call loyal value customers of JR.
ROSIE: To build an agency that was an expert in recruiting accountants in the consumer sector. From day one we have focused on creating success together with both our candidates and clients and are very much focused on long term relationships.
In Wiccan belief, there are eight Sabbats or festivals dividing up the Wheel of the Year.
What are some key milestones or moments from the last eight years of JasperRose?
KRISTY: Our 5th Birthday party was definitely one: celebrating in style with over 100 clients. It was an amazing night and I can’t wait to post our Eighth Birthday party this November. The other one has to be navigating through Covid, like everyone, but coming out of it stronger as a team, both operationally and in terms of profitability.
ROSIE: Rather than milestones, I like to reflect on the business and its successes on our anniversary. Running a business is fast paced and always has its challenges so it’s important to look back at the highlights of the year. When I look back at what has been achieved in the past year, I am also proud of how we have rebuilt the business since Covid, really focusing on working in line with our core values, I feel that we are a stronger business as a result. We have also successfully navigated a changing economy within the recruitment landscape, I am proud of how the team and business have adapted to this.
In Pythagorean numerology, the number 8 represents victory, prosperity and overcoming.
How would you relate these sentiments (i.e. victory, prosperity, and overcoming) to JasperRose and our Eighth birthday?
KRISTY: When working in an industry with people at the heart of it, I think the plus points are you get to meet different people, build great relationships and gain lots of job satisfaction helping both clients with a key hire in their business and ultimately changing candidates lives and developing their careers. The negatives of working in a people focused industry, is that people have their own minds and personal circumstances which impact their decisions and actions. With this, over the past 8 years, we have had to overcome lots of hurdles where people for their own reasons have changed their minds or they haven’t quite worked out, whether that is internally in our business or candidates and clients we have worked with. Every week we are faced with new challenges and new victories! 8 years on, this is still what gets us out of bed every day. You never what the day has in store for you in recruitment.
ROSIE: We have overcome so much in these last 8 years and whilst lots of the challenges have felt really hard at times, it has made the business and myself stronger as a result.
I like to think that everyone person in our business as well as every candidate and client that we work is always striving for victory and prosperity. I take pride in the fact that JasperRose can support both our candidates and clients in achieving both victory and prosperity and that JasperRose as a business supports our employees in doing so too.
The number 8 in numerology is also associated with natural leadership, management skills, and high achieving in business and finance.
As leaders, what would you like JasperRose to achieve in the coming years?
KRISTY: It is very important to us both to maintain the level of service our customers are used too, whilst growing our business. Whilst difficult to do when scaling quickly, we decided that our brand reputation is more important to us than doubling in size in the next 12 months, but to grow organically with only the best people who work to our values.
We have so many exciting projects that are in the pipeline in the next 12 months, such as focusing on diversity and inclusion in the workplace and working towards becoming a B Corp, to name just a couple.
ROSIE: We have so many great long-standing relationships with clients in the consumer space that I would love to be able to expand our business offering to them by recruiting for other departments within their brand.
The focus for now is continuing to provide the best service in the market through going above and beyond for both our clients and candidates, operating as a true expert, and building long-standing relationships. Our business has been built on these core foundations and will continue to grow organically through keeping really focused on these 3 points.
And finally, personally, what does JasperRose turning 8 mean to you?
KRISTY: It actually means the world to me. There have been so many late nights working, not to mention sleepless nights, tears and of course many many happy moments and memories gained over the last 8 years, to get to the 8-year mark fills me with pride. Rosie and I were great friends when we set JasperRose up and to be able to say that we are still great friends and have an excellent working relationship is a massive success to me.
I am looking forward to seeing what the next year has in store for JR.
ROSIE: It means a huge amount; I am so proud of where the business is today. I personally have learnt so much over the 8 years and look forward to a continued journey of growth for myself and the business over the next 8 years.
Concluding Thoughts
In the last eight years, JasperRose has overcome highs and lows to get to where we are today. As leaders, navigating these hurdles has taken vision, drive, and passion about the future of the company from Kristy and Rosie, supported by the whole team at JR as well as our candidates and clients.
us at JasperRose, it is a number that we are proud of as it signifies perseverance on our journey to be the best in our market.
We look forward to future Birthdays and milestones in the coming years on our mission to create success together.
