On 14th November 2023, St James’s House launched a beautifully designed, fully illustrated book to mark King Charles III’s coronation and 75th Birthday.
As well as charting King Charles’ life and vision, the book presents examples of achievements and progress made by selected organisations, including K2, during the monarch’s lifetime. Following is a copy of the interview with K2’s CEO Nick Plummer, which is featured in the book.
“We live and breathe our customers. We have seen competitors grow too fast and lose focus and become disconnected from the customer. That’s why we set high standards for client and employee satisfaction. If we get that right, everything else will follow.”
From ‘King Charles III: The Leadership and Vision of a Modern Monarch’, published by St James’s House:
Making the move
K2 Corporate Mobility settles talented employees into new locations globally by practising a personalised, empathetic and ground-up approach.
When, in 2002, Nick Plummer borrowed £3,000 from his mother to start a business, she was sceptical. More than 20 years later, her generosity has been rewarded through the success of the company Plummer began with that loan: K2 Corporate Mobility. A business-to-business global relocation specialist with over 300 staff in 12 offices across nine countries, K2 helps companies large and small relocate their employees, working alongside HR departments to manage everything from removals to school-finding to immigration. From its Guildford, Surrey headquarters, K2 can create personalised support packages for short-term mobility needs, long-term international assignments, permanent transfers, group moves and domestic assignments, providing a single point of contact and reducing the stress on individuals and their parent companies.
“When I started K2, I couldn’t have imagined what we’d achieve,” says Plummer, “but looking in the rear-view mirror, there’s a lot of hard work – but also science. Business people understand a lateral approach to problem-solving and this is what K2 is about.”
As the founder of a global company, Plummer takes a huge interest in sustainability. K2 has made a series of commitments to reduce its carbon footprint – and in 2022 it became a participant of the UN Global Compact (UNGC), the world’s largest responsible business initiative. This means the company is committed to the UNGC’s principles regarding human rights, labour, environment and anti-corruption, incorporating these into wider strategy, culture and daily operations.
Plummer also understands the value of human talent and the benefits of having a happy and motivated workforce. The Kinetic Cash Plan was launched in 2022, followed by The Great Place to Work Certification in January 2023. The plan, through which each employee effectively becomes a partner in the business, receiving an equitable profit share every year, is just one of the reasons why K2’s employee satisfaction rate sits at 96 per cent. “When you have passionate and motivated employees, you can achieve anything. At the core of our success is our ability to attract the right people in the right positions, and then retain and reward that key talent,” says Plummer.
K2 prides itself on understanding the personal concerns of individuals – and their families – who are moving to a new country to start a new job. The company takes on the burden of responsibility and ownership, removing much of the administrative and logistical stress as possible. It manages all aspects of the process, such as finding temporary or permanent accommodation; securing school places; managing the immigration process; arranging the packing, transportation and unpacking of personal effects; creating tailored insurance products; providing post-service KPI (Key Performance Indicator) feedback; and even supporting the spouse as they contemplate their own career.
“It’s a complete service. We work alongside our valued customers for up to three months, potentially a very testing period for them, and help them acclimatise when they are starting a job in another country with a different culture, new neighbours and new schoolfriends. We recognise it is essential that the family is happy and settled, otherwise the individual moving jobs won’t be. We work with about 50 per cent of the companies in the FTSE 100, all of which have a focus on talent management. K2 places great value on talent management, so we dovetail with the corporations that share our talent management ethos.”
The company’s success is, in great part, due to a company culture defined by “Q”, a combination of IQ and EQ (Emotional Intelligence). Q gives staff a shared sense of identity and purpose, across the company and internationally. Staff with Q recognise that moving can be stressful for clients, so they require a committed, empathetic service.
In 2022, K2 launched a new five-year plan for growth and development, the Kinetic business strategy, which has six pillars: Sustainability, People and Culture, Commercial, Technology, Marketing, and Partner Network. The sustainability element is particularly dear to Plummer. He was raised in Norfolk as the son of a farmer, spending his formative years outdoors and learning to appreciate the importance of nature. “In 2022, we embarked on our ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance) and sustainability drive. Some of the highlights include signing up to the UNGC and developing a great relationship with the Sustainable Supply Chain team at Bath University, who are helping us to future-proof our supply chain process.
“We also created the K2 Foundation, to focus on supporting good causes such as children’s education around the world; we engaged with EcoVadis, a trusted provider of business sustainability ratings; and we are being rated in relation to our Scope 1 and Scope 2 carbon emissions, and have invited all our service partners to be rated as well. The aim is to get 70 per cent of our global partners EcoVadis-accredited by the end of 2024. Our next step is to reduce all plastics in our supply chain.”
K2 continues to evolve, expanding overseas in the locations that offer clients the greatest value. Offices in Houston, Miami, Pittsburgh, São Paolo, Paris, Stockholm, Malmö, Dubai, Singapore, Cape Town and Sydney allow companies to relocate staff almost anywhere in the world. Where K2 does not have a direct presence, it still offers the services of fully vetted, accredited and trusted expert partners who deliver the same K2 experience across 186 countries worldwide. In addition, K2 Bespoke was launched in 2021 to focus on C-suite, or executive-level, individuals. The K2 Bespoke team work with the boards of ten FTSE 100 businesses to offer an even more individualised and expansive service. “We live and breathe our customers,” says Plummer. “We have seen competitors grow too fast and lose focus and become disconnected from the customer. That’s why we set high standards for client and employee satisfaction. If we get that right, everything else will follow.”
