The Shortlist – A Personal Perspective, from James Cooper

In this month’s edition of the Shortlist, we speak to Managing Director, James Cooper. Following an early career broking professional indemnity insurance at Heath Lambert, James joined global search specialists Eliot Partnership, where he rose to become partner and Head of London. He founded Damhurst in 2016 to deliver a new type of service and partnership model for the insurance sector.

​Direct, driven and passionate about his team, James has an innate skill for building strong relationships. In addition to leading the team at Damhurst, James sits on the board of the Lloyd’s Benevolent Fund, a charity providing support to those in the market who have fallen on hard times.

James told us about his motivation for setting up Damhurst, what makes it different from other firms, and why the team inspires him every day.

I set up my first company when I was still at school, much to my teachers’ annoyance! We built a mini web design agency called Thursday Morning Productions, and, truth be told, it went quite well. One of our clients then offered me equity in a JV, with offices on Regent Street in London, and we started selling high-end clothing online.

I had some excellent training and support. Back in 2008, I joined a very successful search firm when it was in its start-up phase called Eliot Partnership. I was given rope, space to learn and taught how to do deep, detailed and thoughtful research; it was an amazing journey. It also helped that my father was a Lloyd’s Underwriter, and for many years I had him on speed dial, peppering him with tedious questions about layering on towers, write downs, IBNR, RITC and many other bizarre insurance terminologies!

10 years ago, I could clearly see the insurance market changing. Insurtech was causing a real stir, regulation had taken on a new persona post-financial crisis and D&I was starting to dominate talent and leadership conversations. The market wanted a different type of conversation, but many of the known search firms still looked and felt the same as a decade previously. For me, that was the opportunity to start a new conversation, put a new brand out there and bring a fresh perspective.

When I founded Damhurst, I was young enough to bring a fresh pair of eyes and just about old enough to know what I was doing. The combination of those two things meant that some people gave us a chance. I will forever be grateful for those who were willing to back me in those early days – I will never forget who they were.

From the start, we encouraged our clients to use muscles they didn’t know they had, rather than copying and pasting what their boss did 10 years before. It is easy to introduce candidates who are familiar, but unearthing those who bring something different to the role and throwing a curve ball into the mix can achieve incredible results: it’s provocative, but if it’s smart, thoughtful and has a strong logic – it can be very powerful. That was where we started. That was the fun part. We still do this just as much today; creative thinking is in our DNA.

Growing a business to become one of the best in your sector isn’t easy, and the hardest part is working out who are the people who are up for coming on that journey with you. It was often a case of apologising on day one and saying “look, I’m pushing hard and am going to get a percentage of this wrong, but if you’re up for it, come with me and we’ll learn and work this thing out together.”

We’ve grown as a company every single year. On reflection, you can do it in three ways: by being the best at what you do; by being the most efficient and innovative; or you can – at times – just work the hardest. Here, it’s a mixture of all three at different times. Sometimes we run fast and push very hard and that’s asking a lot of the team. Often, you’re challenging people to do things they haven’t done before, and the sense of achievement when they do it is elating.

We do things differently at Damhurst. We solve our clients’ challenges – come what may. Historically, this has meant headhunting or board work, but we now combine this with executive coaching and an advisory business which helps clients work out the shape of the problem or opportunity. The breadth allows us to think creatively and be holistic when looking at a client, rather than just following a well-trodden path or set process. We can pivot and decide what we want to do for each client based on what we’re seeing.

It’s ALL about the people! Yes, I love what I do and I am equally proud of the people I sit alongside while building this business. I just don’t think I would do it outside of insurance. The insurance market is such a wonderful, caring and passionate group of people. Insurance encourages enterprise, it can be innovative, it has a great culture for developing younger people and has a commendable approach to enjoyment and entertainment.

No one at Damhurst has their title on their business card. If you agree the hierarchy before you start your day, you’re limiting what you can do as a team; you’re saying the ones at the back must stay at the back. You can be much more dynamic as a team if you work out your best formation for every situation.

It’s important to lean on each other, which you can’t do if you have a strict hierarchy: “I’m not allowed to lean on you because you’re my boss.” That just doesn’t work in human terms.

We all get a fresh start at the beginning of every day – every meeting, every conversation – so if you had a bad day yesterday, fine. Today’s a different day.

Headhunting relies on discretion. We’ve got some great clients out there, but we don’t tell anyone who they are.When any big merger gets done, the advisor, the banker and the auditor all get mentioned but never the headhunter – this is how it has to be. Someone once taught me, “strategy equals options”, and keeping your powder dry and your involvement behind the scenes allows you a far greater ability to support clients in times of need.

Outside of work, I love exercise and taking on physical challenges. I climbed Kilimanjaro with my wife last year and we’ve just attempted the 9 Peaks in 72 hours – we have unfinished business there. We’re doing Hyrox in three months’ time, and next summer we’re doing a 300k cycle. Now my kids are starting to get involved too.

It’s such a privilege to work with the team here. They’re a very cool group of people who have all grown in their roles themselves. They’re all completely different but they’re a lot of fun to work with. I’m so proud to say I work with them.