Originally published in Mortgage Introducer – written by Jake Carter.
Getting to the top of your field is desired by many but achieved by relatively few – it can take persistence and a lot of hard work to move up the ranks.
Rob Jupp (pictured), group chief executive at the Brightstar Group, the UK’s largest specialist distributor of UK based, secured property debt, achieved his position by never giving up.
Getting to the top
“It was my misfortune at the time, but ultimately one of my greatest lessons, to lead a business into the Global Financial Crisis in 2007, and develop first-hand experience of a paradigm-shifting economic downturn,” Jupp said.
This didn’t necessarily prepare him for the COVID pandemic, where the speed of change was completely unprecedented, or make the subsequent challenges any easier to overcome.
However, Jupp said it taught him the power of resilience and importance of looking after the people around you, as well as creating a supportive culture, whatever was happening in the world around you.
In financial services, he explained, it was very easy to replicate the product of another business or claim to deliver better service, but culture was one thing that could not be copied. During challenging periods, it could be easy to take your eye off of this particular ball.
If there was any single reason behind his success, it was the collective efforts of his staff, Jupp said.
“My proudest moment is winning our second The Sunday Times Best Company to Work For, with the highest ever score achieved in the previous 21 years,” he shared.
Brightstar Group had a team who were willing to put in the hard work to succeed, because they knew that they would be supported throughout.
“That gives us the confidence to pull together for the continued pursuit of excellence in our business,” Jupp added.
Remaining successful
Remaining successful came down to culture and Clare Jupp, group director of people development at Brightstar Group, had been instrumental in shaping the culture at the business.
“We have a number of core values upon which we build that culture,” Rob Jupp said. “We are ethical and operate with honesty and integrity in everything we do, this is not about paying lip-service to an idea, but allowing our values to drive our behaviour.”
As well as this, the business embraced people development, working together to share knowledge and experience, as well as providing an environment where its people could thrive, not just in their jobs, but in their lives.
“Our two main businesses are Brightstar Financial and Sirius Property Finance and, with each, we break down the complexities of specialist finance to help brokers and borrowers achieve their goals and ambitions,” Jupp said.
“For our clients, we are committed to making their experience as easy as possible; we scrutinise every aspect of our engagement with brokers and borrowers to ensure that, whether they are working with Brightstar Financial or Sirius Property Finance, they achieve the best possible outcome with the least possible effort.”
The business recognised the value of strong working relationships, and a transactional approach simply would not work, he said.
Making money
Jupp said Brightstar provided brokers with the expertise and access to diversify their business into new areas, and the resources they need to scale up their operation.
“Brokers can choose to do work with Brightstar in a way that suits their business; if they want to keep ownership of advice, they can choose to harness our knowledge to research suitable solutions and manage the process with the lender,” he added.
Alternatively, Jupp said brokers could choose to refer a case to Brightstar to provide the advice in return for a share of the proc fee.
Sirius Property Finance, Jupp’s consumer-facing brand, provided specialist debt advisory for structured, development and investment finance as well as commercial and regulated mortgages.
“The businesses complement each other really well and we continue to explore new opportunities to grow and diversify into new areas where our unique culture can make a difference and add value to customers,” Jupp said.
