Richard Harpin has had a hugely successful career in business. Having founded Homeserve in 1993, he helped build it into one of the UK’s largest home emergency businesses. He served as CEO until its acquisition in 2022 by Brookfield Asset Management, in a deal that valued the business at £4.1bn.

He has since founded the investment fund Growth Partner and Business Leader. Here, he covers the importance of hiring your replacement, killer interview questions and recruiting a good headhunter.

When is it right to hire my replacement?

Divyesh Kamdar, managing director, Comline Auto Parts

If you are running a business in that scale-up phase and you want to go quicker, you should be thinking, I really want to focus my attention on the parts of the business that I’m good at and I can bring in somebody that could run the day-to-day better than me.

If you have a proven business model and the company is growing, where would you choose to focus your time next if you got somebody who could run the day-to-day? I always look back and wish I had hired my replacement earlier. I waited eight years. Ben Francis [at Gymshark] recruited his replacement Steve Hewitt after only three years. I very much say, get on with it! Now is the right time.

What are the top five things you look for when making those key hires?

Julie Chen, chief executive, The Cheeky Panda

It is around the level-five leadership characteristics (from the Jim Collins book Good to Great). You need people who are agile and fast-moving, and people who are used to rolling up their sleeves rather than getting other people to do it for them. Ones who can test and learn, copy and pivot.

There are three values I look for: first is courage. We don’t always have the data and if we’re not being courageous – but not too courageous or stupid – then we are not going to be able to move the business forward.

Second is persistence. Bring in people who will keep pushing and will find a way to overcome obstacles. And with that is integrity, being able to confront brutal facts. What are the things in your business today that people need to talk about? We have to get them on the table and have a discussion, and then as a management team take the right actions, not skirt around the issues because they are a bit difficult to talk about.

Third is people who have humility, but a great will. They are ambitious, but they are ambitious for the business, not just their own career. They could be really reserved, quiet, even shy, but they have knuckled down, they are into the detail, they are rolling up their sleeves and they are really making the business happen.

Once you have hired a key senior member, how long do you give them either to thrive in the role or to exit?

Daniel Dunn, chief executive, Paperplanes

I look back and think in some instances I gave people too long. The discipline that I now recommend is to make sure you are very clear about what they need to achieve in their first six months.

Those could be quantifiable – some specific numbers as objectives – or qualitative. As that person is coming up to six months in the business, get some 360-degree feedback from their peer group and their direct reports, as well as sitting down yourself and thinking, “I was really excited in the final interview about this person joining and coming to work for me. Do I feel even more excited now or less excited, or really let down and disappointed?”

Clearly if it’s the latter two, then you need to have that hard conversation. I have certainly not always got recruitment right during the years. I would say my success rate is about 75 per cent. We must be able to put our hands up and say we got it wrong, then have that honest conversation with the person.

Do you keep to a structure in an interview or have a chat and see where the conversation goes?

Nicola Merritt, chief executive, Cortus Advisory Group

I have a very structured interview process. I like to divide an interview into three parts. First, I have some killer questions for the interviewee. Second, we discuss the role and the business they would be joining. Third, ask for killer questions from them to me.

For my killer questions, the first one would always be what a candidate achieved in their childhood, either overcoming adversity or a significant achievement. I ask about specific achievements in the roles they have been doing. I would ask if they read many business books or how they get their business learning, because I am looking for an inherent curiosity.

I would ask about what motivates the individual and what their long-term career plan is. I would also take a topic out of their CV that is more general. If they have worked in retail, I might ask how they think the high street is going to look in 10 years.

The most important thing is the final interview presentation. I send out some information to that individual on the business and ask them, in no more than 10 PowerPoint slides, to put together a five-year plan for the business and then a few more specifics. That is when you really find out whether the candidate has what you are looking for.

I would avoid gut feeling to make sure that you don’t have any bias in how you are assessing that candidate. Some people would rather have an open, flowing conversation and a chat, but I would rather structure it and go for those killer questions.

When trying to scale, how do you balance giving someone who already works with you the potential to grow with the company versus hiring somebody who could allow you to grow faster?

Andrew Moses, managing director, The Config Team

You need a combination of both. First, recognise that you will need to do some external recruitment. Second, think about what you can do now for people coming through your business who have real potential. Could you get them a coach or mentor? What external courses will help them develop their career? What additional responsibilities could they be given?

How can we recruit well without using headhunters?

James Wooster, founder, Owner Venture Managers

In the early days of HomeServe, it would be a combination of keeping a black book of people I came across who I thought were smart and would love to have in my business. That happened with my business development director from Boots in Nottingham, Jonathan King, who I did call, hire and promote to do my job in 2000.

I used to do my own headhunting, but I came to realise that there are professionals who do it a lot better. Headhunters are expensive, but I believe that they are cheap and really valuable if you hire the right person – and you are more likely to hire the right person if you have done a proper process and you are using the right headhunter.