18/08/2026
They joined you in 2021 on big salaries. They couldn't perform in the 2024 market, so they moved on. Now they're building the exact business that competes with you.
I keep noticing this in recruitment.
The senior leaders hired at the top of the market, £150k plus, quietly moved on when the numbers stopped working.
Fine. Happens.
But here's the bit that catches me. They weren't replaced with bigger and better.
Most weren't replaced at all.
And a good chunk of them didn't retire or go internal. They started their own firms. Same sector, same clients, same candidates. Competing directly with the business that used to pay them.
They'll be building right now. Lean, hungry, no overheads, and they know your playbook because they wrote half of it.
Meanwhile back at the business they left, who's actually managing the teams?
Or are there 200 consultants sitting in an office somewhere unsupervised, perish the thought.
I don't fully know how this plays out yet. But cutting the leadership layer to save cost while your former directors set up across the road doesn't feel like a saving to me.
It feels like funding your own competition.