eFinancialCareersHistory, Lessons

John Benson, Founder & CEO

27th May 2010

eFinancialCareers – History, Lessons

• The early days• The challenges• It starts to work• International expansion• The eFinancialCareers culture• Why did we succeed?

Empowering financial careers worldwide. eFinancialCareers runs the web’s largest network of sites dedicated to jobs and career development in accounting, banking and the financial markets.

• Publishing websites in 22 markets and 5 languages

• Founded 2000

• Offices in London, New York, Singapore, Sydney

• Revenue Model: Recruitment advertising

Employer branding

Graduate recruitment

Professional education

• Team: 93 (UK: 72. Asia: 10. Australia: 13. U.S. 8)

Jobs and Career News for the Global Financial Community

eFinancialCareers & Financial Media brandsThe eFinancialCareers site network includes some of the world’s leading financial information companies

Diversified Customer Base

The Opportunity

Circulation in Millions

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Newspaper

Internet

Job ads in print set to fall dramatically

US Newspaper Job ad revenue

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Job ads online set to grow dramatically

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2002 - 2008

PRINT

ONLINE

US Job ad revenue growth 2002 - 2008

Source: Forrester Research

2000: Vision

To be the leading brand on the web for career advice and

jobs in the financial services industry

Challenges

• The Internet: The New New thing• Many naysayers• Competitive environment• Client & User education• Dial up connections• Hiring good staff• No roadmap

The New, New Thing & The Naysayers

• It won’t work• I won’t pay for anything on the internet• I don’t have email• You can’t compete with the big, established brands• The Dotcom bubble• How do we do this?

Education

• Ourselves• Our clients• Our ‘readership’

Model T Ford. Launched: 1908

Educate our clients

Educate our clients

“If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.”

Henry Ford

By 1918 half of all cars in America were Model Ts

Competitive Environment

• Very complex with multiple competitors

Recruitment agencies become media companies

European Financial Job Sites 2001

• On Vocation (Independent)

• GAAPweb (Independent)

• Just People (Recruitment Agency)

• Double Cuff (Recruitment Agency)

• Fincareer (Independent)

• Gold Jobs (Independent)

• FT CareerPoint (Publisher)

• eFinancialCareers (Publisher)

Monitor competitive position

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1,000

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/01

/20

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eFinancialCareers

FT.com (banking & financial mkts)

Totally Financial

New Industry Maturity Graph

Immature Mature

Many

Few

PA

RT

ICIP

AN

TS

TIME

Stage 1

Sta

ge

2

Stage 3

Stage 4

Stage 5

We are hereWe are here

‘The world is changing very fast.

Big will not beat small anymore.

It will be the fast beating the

slow.’

Rupert Murdoch, CEO News Corporation

It Starts to Work

It Starts to Work

• Key is the right number of job applications from the right people

• Get that right and all else will follow• The product & the user experience all important• Focus on the customer’s needs

New products:

Graduate & MBA Education & Recruitment

Student careers guides in 5 countries & 4 languages

2003– international expansion beginseFinancialCareers Markets

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2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006

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50,000

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2003 2004 2005

Unique user growth

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100,000

200,000

300,000

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2003 2004 2005

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Unique Users per Month (November)

$0

$500,000

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$1,500,000

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Q2'01

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USA

EMEAsia

Quarterly Sales 2001 – Q1 2006

eFinancialCareers – Sales Growth (Nov’05 Business Plan)

$0

$5,000,000

$10,000,000

$15,000,000

$20,000,000

$25,000,000

$30,000,000

$35,000,000

2003 2004 2005 2006B 2007P 2008P

Sales - USSales - EMEAsia

Company culture & approach

1. eFinancialCareers is a ‘Change Environment’

‘Nothing sows the roots of failure like success’

Companies get so locked into their ‘successful’ way of doing thingsthat they refuse to reassess their business, see or respond to new ways and innovations.

2. eFinancialCareers is a Team Environment

‘Leave your ego at the door’

3. Evolving team & organisational structures and responsibilities

‘To keep up with our growth, we have reorganised early and often. That keeps people fresh.

Over 7 years we have probably made 10-12 changes to the company’s

structure’

Meg Whitman, CEO,

4. Processes & direction can and will be constantly & safely reassessed

‘It is not the strongest or most intelligent of the species that survive.

It is the ones most adaptable to change’ Charles Darwin Author, ‘The Origin of Species’

2000: eFinancialCareers founded

2003: International expansion starts

2004: Open office in USA

2006: Open office in Asia-Pac Bought by /merged with Dice Holdings

2009: Group Revenues: $109m (eFinancialCareers: 27%)

Why did we succeed?

• Clear vision of what we wanted to do• Great team of people• Prepared to & wanted to learn (try & avoid hubris)• The Internet favours small, innovative, fast moving businesses• Flexibile, agile approach• Focused execution• Courage of our convictions• Tried to keep it simple• Moved early, moved fast (international expansion)• Fortunate in our competitors• Luck

… but it’s not over yet …

Only the Paranoid Survive

Andy Grove, Former CEO, Intel

The World’s Leading Career Sites for the Financial Services Industry