Leveraging Local Talent & Fostering Partnerships: An Interview with James Rigg, General Director – CGP Vietnam
Leveraging Local Talent & Fostering Partnerships: An Interview with James Rigg, General Director – CGP Vietnam
Recently, we got hold of James Rigg, General Director of CGP Vietnam where he shares an insightful look into his journey and the exciting prospects awaiting CGP in Vietnam.
As a dynamic leader with a wealth of experience in the industry, James brings a fresh perspective and a passion for driving growth and innovation. With his strong leadership skills and strategic vision, he is poised to spearhead CGP's expansion into the vibrant Vietnamese market.
During the interview, James shares his insights on the opportunities and challenges of establishing a presence in Vietnam. He discusses the importance of understanding the local culture and market dynamics while staying true to CGP's core values and commitment to excellence. James also highlights the immense potential that Vietnam offers, with its talented workforce, thriving tech industry, and a growing demand for advanced language models like ours.
From Global Recruitment to Southeast Asian Expansion: James' Journey of Success and CGP's Entry into Vietnam
Having roots back in UK, James started his 23-year career in the recruitment industry where he worked for a global recruitment and outsourcing company specializing in the energy sector. His job was closely related to overseas regions and was often travelled to different countries to work with local teams to:
Oversee and execute the company's quality assurance procedures,
Address business challenges,
Handle team restructuring, or
Prepare for the company's establishment of new local entities.
“These experiences have given me great exposure to working in different countries and cultures. In my previous company, I was responsible for setting up the Brazil office, and later I was sent to South Korea on a long-term assignment to match local career opportunities for expatriates and local Korean nationals. It was during that time, I gained exposure to the Malaysian market, taking on a more regional role, servicing clients in Southeast Asia and also developing our regional offices. That was the beginning of my entry into the Southeast Asian market.”
This work experience allowed James to explore and understand more about Southeast Asia, especially Vietnam. "Many of our global clients have operations in Vietnam, so I decided to set up an office in the country. After a series of market research, business plans and proposals, I was approved to start managing and operating the Vietnam Office." James settled down in Vietnam since then and later got acquainted with CGP.
"I got in touch with CGP through some colleagues in the management team. After all, we are both active in the same industry, so there is a big chance of intersections. Based on my experience of the Vietnam market and the vision & values of CGP Group, both of us were aligned and we agreed to launch the business into Vietnam with my scope to manage and develop CGP’s business in Vietnam.”
CGP Group's Commitment to Long-Term Partnerships and Sustainable Solutions
During his learning about CGP Group, James was impressed by the pursuit and sense of mission that people have here for service professionalism and value, which is an important reason behind his decision. "Every regional leader I've worked with or talked to here has a very open mind and is committed to finding the best solution for our client, providing full support and always having a view of long-term sustainable relationships with both clients and candidates.”
In James' view, CGP truly regards customer satisfaction and service quality as the focus of the business, building relationships with customers based on understanding them, and takes it as CGP’s responsibility to help them overcome the challenges in their daily work. James admits that he often sees transactional business relationships based on short-term results in the recruitment industry, but he believes that it’s not the right vision and value to have when establishing long-term sustainable partnerships with clients and candidates alike.
“During hard times, such as what we have experienced in the past few years, establishing long-term partnerships with clients is the only way to benefit both parties and overcome difficulties. To realize it, we need to work closely with our clients to establish a deep understanding of their challenges and needs. As professional service providers, we can do much more beyond filling positions. We should keep improving our value by providing data and market intelligence to customers based on our understanding of industries, allowing our clients to make the best talent-related decisions for their business needs."
Unleashing the Potential: CGP Group's Expansion in Vietnam and the Vision for Comprehensive Service Excellence
Living in Vietnam for many years, James witnesses the vitality and potential of this emerging market, which makes him full of confidence in the company's expansion in Vietnam. "Manufacturing and Technology have been popular industries in Vietnam, and energy is also developing rapidly. The market continues to attract foreign direct investment. For us, there are many opportunities to cooperate with multinational and local companies."
As Vietnam continues to participate in the operation of the global economy, it has become a market that cannot be neglected. The establishment of the Vietnam office enables CGP to provide more comprehensive and complete services for enterprises, and efficiently support the expansion and layout of enterprises in Southeast Asia.
"I hope this comprehensiveness is not only geographical but also in terms of the service model." James plans to build the business starting from the mid-to-high-level executive search, and then develop outsourcing services as the team grows. "The demand for outsourcing services in the Vietnamese market is growing stronger as talents look at more flexibility in how they are engaged, so we must also bring more value to customers with flexible and diversified services and become their true business partner."
Nurturing Talent and Empowering Growth: CGP's Vision for Professional Training and Development in the Recruitment Industry
In addition to business development, James is also planning the internal construction of CGP Vietnam. "Based on my experience, the turnover rate will be a big challenge for us. There are always limited talents who are passionate about the recruitment industry and have rich experience, so we will establish a training mechanism for newcomers to the industry as well as fresh graduates, fostering them to become professional consultants."
In James' plan, the training mechanism will be one of the key drives of the company's operations. On the one hand, it is conducive to building a balanced and diversified team of "experienced and green ones" which will be a foundation of the healthy and sustainable development of the company. On the other hand, it also comes from his inner responsibility and mission for this industry and this land, as a foreign business leader.
“As a foreign company, we have the responsibility to bring benefits to the local society, not only through CSR projects but also professional training and development, to improve the skillset and abilities of local practitioners, which may generate long-term value and far-reaching significance for the overall service level of the industry. I think this is what we, CGP Vietnam, should do and can achieve.”
It is inspiring to hear James talking about his vision for the company and the industry. With such an open-minded and visionary leader, we believe that CGP Vietnam will create new legends along the way!
Who are we?
CGP Vietnam is part of the CGP Group. CGP Vietnam specializes in Executive Search, Contracting, Recruitment Process Outsourcing (RPO), and Human Resources Outsourcing services to multi-national and domestic firms. With a team of experienced consultants dedicated to helping our clients and candidates in finding the perfect match, we believe our role is to positively impact and change their journey for the better. Covering mid-to-senior level positions, we service Accounting & Finance, Consumer, Financial Services, Healthcare & Clinical, Human Resources, Industrial & Engineering, Sales & Marketing, Technology and Energy space.
CGP Group was established in 2012 and is one of the largest recruitment solutions with 19 offices and 500+ team members worldwide, spanning across China, Singapore, Hong Kong, Japan, Thailand, Middle East and the United States.
We are committed to not only competing but exceeding the industry’s Best-in-Class practices led by the guideline of continuously optimizing our user’s experience and connecting online and offline channels in the executive search industry to help our clients find the best candidates and our candidates to be matched with the job that best fits them.
