The day has finally come when I can shout from the rooftops, and share the news, that Digital 51 has been acquired by Rethink!
Today is such an exciting, nerve shredding, and important day for Digital 51, and me personally. Let me explain what’s happening, and what this means.
Rethink have acquired Digital 51, and all of our assets to form the fourth part of their recruitment brand portfolio. As part of this acquisition, I will also join Rethink and become their Group Director of Growth (more on me at another time though.)
I have to pinch myself when I look at the graphic linked to this article, which sees Digital 51 sit alongside market leading brands under the Rethink Group such as, Rethink Talent, Digital Gurus, and Infinite Talent. These organisations, are serious players in their markets, with brands that are absolute powerhouses. Digital 51 is now part of that squad, and boy am I up for the challenge of ensuring we not just keep up, but lead the way.
There will be time for me to explain why I decided to make this decision, and what this means for me personally in the coming days and weeks. However, I am certainly not running away from the business, our offering, our partners, or those businesses and individuals who have put their faith in Digital 51 over the past two years.
I hand on heart believe we have just dramatically enhanced our offering to the people and businesses we already work with, and those we will go on to work with.
Let me just be clear about some things though:
- I will remain the key point of contact and leader of Digital 51.
- I will continue to adorn the purple, pink, and white of our beautiful brand with pride – Time for some new merch anyone!?
- I will now be working with a much bigger delivery team, with an amazing technology and delivery capability, which is proven it’s success, time and time again.
- I am super excited to tell you more about the amazing Tania Edwards, who is going to be my kindred spirit in taking the Digital 51 and Rethink project to the next level.
Digital 51 will continue to:
- Deliver based on our values of Freedom, Expression, and Personal Choice.
- Offer the same product-based recruitment and talent solutions, which have seen us succeed in the last two years moving forwards.
- Be immersed in the markets I believe we have disrupted across Product, Creative, and Development.
When I started Digital 51 near enough two years ago to the day, did I think the business would end up being acquired in the next couple of years? No. I would be lying if I said that it had been an ambition of mine to do that, or that it was on the initial roadmap. Without sounding arrogant however, I had always expected we would be approached about being acquired, as I knew the business, offering, and brand would make an impact. It has.
I feel honoured that I have been approached a few times over the past two years by people and businesses who have wanted to either invest or acquire Digital 51. I always listened to what they had to say, but I always politely declined their offer.
Then Rethink came along.
One lunch, in a Korean restaurant in Soho last October changed everything.
If you know my background, then you know prior to launching Digital 51, I was the Commercial Director of Digital Gurus, which is the agency arm of Rethink. I know Rethink, and their offering, but boy have they flown in the two years since I left. I have never hidden that leaving my role at Digital Gurus and the Rethink Group was a hard decision. As much as I was passionate about building Digital 51, I loved my previous job.
When I met with Rethink CEO Mark Lee for lunch in the aforementioned Korean restaurant, I had no idea where it would lead. I honestly thought we were just catching up, and if I am being honest, I was debating raising investment, and I knew Mark had his investment radar on. I am honoured that lunch went much further though and led to Rethink acquiring Digital 51.
So, there we are. Rethink Group makes Digital 51 their first acquisition following the Management Buyout they completed themselves in 2022. If you still don’t believe this has happened, then check out the announcement on the Rethink website too. It’s real people. It’s happened. It is happening.
For now, I am working on speaking to those organisations who have partnered with Digital 51 in the past two years to ensure we continue to deliver for them moving forwards. I am also excited to be building Digital 51’s next phase of development. In partnership with Tania Edwards we will build Digital 51 to be a purely project, solutions, and outcome based talent partner. We will be working with businesses and organisations who need more than just a bum on a seat approach to hiring, but at the same time don’t want to lose control of their own processes. We know there is a gap between where Contingent Recruitment stops, and Recruitment Process Outsourcing (RPO,) starts. We plan on filling and dominating that gap.
There will be so much more to come on this exciting news, but for now it’s time to crack on and get to work.
06.02.23 – The hard work starts now.
