Kirkbright

Looking beyond the day to day

Choreographing the Dance between Leadership and Strategy

July 2011

 

“How do you constantly reinvent yourself as a creative organisation and develop an inspiring team of leaders at the same time”?

This was the rather unfair and extremely thorny question hurled into the air at the start of Kirkbright’s  inaugural Breakfast Club event earlier this month.

And (despite the fact that it was only 8.00am!) there were not only many thought-provoking responses - but also fantastic camaraderie and support between the participants.

The forum was attended by board-level senior execs from organisations across the sector - including advertising giant BBDO, communications group Bell Pottinger, digital agency Reading Room and CPL and Objective Productions from the TV industry.

Participants quickly identified they were all facing similar leadership challenges and found it refreshing and reassuring to be able to brainstorm these issues with colleagues from across the creative sector in a safe and structured environment.

One participant summed it up: ‘Many thanks for the invitation – a breath of fresh air and an opportunity to look beyond the day-to-day with a congenial group of people.’  For full details and to find out how to join the Breakfast Club click here.

Welsh businesses creating the future

The ‘Creating the Future’ event held at Caspian Point, Cardiff Bay on 9th March 2011, attracted  Creative Leaders from across Wales, industry related agencies and representatives from the Welsh Assembly Government.

Guest Speaker Simon Clegg from Mackintosh Capital gave a  unique insight, from an investors perspective, on the challenges and opportunities for welsh creative companies to grow beyond Wales, including ideas on how to attract financing for growth and the critical role IP plays in building an economic engine.

There was lively debate on effective ways for welsh companies to collaborate and how to develop welsh language content for the future with analogies being drawn from how other minority language producers have successfully tackled the challenge.

Thank you to everyone who came along and joined it!

 

 

 

 

 

Creative Leader September 2010 Edition

We have just published the latest edition of Creative Leader our Newsletter. Included you will find details on:-

• Skillset's Management and Leadership Bursaries Scheme - launched August 2010
• Westminster Creative Industries Programme now offering £1,000's in subsidies to Westminster based creative companies
• Ten tips to finding the Magic Ingredient to empower your Strategy - Staff Engagement
• Support for Welsh Creatives with the launch of Creative Business Leader Programme in Cardiff starting December 2010
• Latest news - Sketching a bright future for the UK's animation industry

To check it out click here

Sketching a bright future for the UK’s animation industry

September 1, 2010

Creative business growth specialist and Welsh animation company team up to build a creative powerhouse

Kirkbright a consultancy helping creative businesses to grow is teaming up with Dinamo an exciting Welsh animation company to create Cardiff’s answer to Aardman.
 
The Dinamo team will work with Kirkbright to develop an ambitious commercial strategy to guide the business through the next three to five years.  The hope is Dinamo can do for Cardiff what Aardman Animation - the world-famous creators of Wallace and Gromit - has done for their home city of Bristol.

After several years of fast growth Dinamo employ over 70 people. To give further room to expand the business recently moved location into a refurbished industrial unit in Pontypridd, just outside Cardiff in south Wales. As part of the investment the business built an onsite, state-of-the-art Stop Frame Animation production facility currently being used to produce a new BBC CBeebies series called “Rastamouse”.

The management team (Founders Owen Stickler and Aron Evans and Commercial Director Hywell Williams) first experienced Kirkbright’s creative business growth methodology on the Creative Business Leader Programme in January of this year.  Creative Business Leader (Wales) is a 6-day integrated management development programme for the leaders of creative businesses delivered in partnership with Skillset Cymru supported and funded by S4C and TAC and endorsed by the Skillset Cymru National Board.

Dinamo Founder Owen Stickler said: “Winning a place on the Creative Business Leader Programme earlier this year was a transformative experience for us. Working with Kirkbright and the other participants from TV and digital companies woke us up to what a big opportunity we have to build a business which is creative and financially self-sufficient. It also showed us we had lots of work to do to make it happen! We are now determined to make our vision a reality: to create, facilitate and collaborate on the production of great entertainment.”

Kirkbright’s Greg Orme said: “We come across many creative businesses through our management development programmes. Dinamo have a great track record, brilliant creativity, and crucially the ambition to build a great business which both wins awards and creates financial value. We are please to support their ambition with our experience and expertise in creative business”.
 

Paris in Springtime - with BBDO!

May 11 2010

BBDO, the biggest advertising agency in the UK, have invited Kirkbright to assist in developing and delivering a leadership programme for 25 of their top Creative Directors from across Europe at the Châteauform’ Neuville-Bosc just outside Paris. 

BBDO is consistently named the world's most creative agency network and were named Network of the Year at Cannes and in the Gunn Report. 

Director of BBDO U, Alison Chadwick, said: “Kirkbright were an obvious choice to help with our 'Leading Creative Talent' programme, because of their specialism in helping develop creative business leaders. I’ve known Greg since we met at the IPA a few years ago and our approaches and ideas on how to best develop creative management talent go together really well.” 

Kirkbright Founder Greg Orme said: “We can’t wait – that development threshold when top creative directors turn from relying on their own talent to forming teams of talent around them can be a tough moment for anyone. We have put a lot of thought into how to help people through that stage as we have developed our own 6-day programme for Rising Stars in converging creative media industries - the Creative Business Talent Programme. 

“It should be great fun working with the guys from BBDO – they are one of the UK’s most creative and exiting organisations. And apparently the cheese at the chateau is to die for – what’s not to like!”

Kirkbright celebrates Welsh success

May 10 2010

Kirkbright's inaugural Creative Business Leader Programme delivered in Wales has been a big success with great feedback from participant creative leaders. 

The six-day integrated management development programme for the leaders of creative businesses was delivered in Cardiff during February, March and April of this year. 

Evaluation shows 100% of participants would recommend the programme to others. The impact on the businesses has been so positive we're now launching the programme in London in September of this year.

The businesses that took part were Antenna, Atticus Digital, Dinamo Productions, ITV Wales, Machine Productions, Rondo Media, Tantrwm, Telesgop (Telesgop Founder Elin Rhys pictured below) and Vision Thing. 

Creative Business Leader is a series of hands-on workshops to equip entrepreneurial leaders with insight and tools to deliver immediate and long-term value in the vital areas of vision, commercial strategy, inspiring and leading people, leveraging profit from intellectual property and navigating the growth of a creative business in today’s converging environment.

Kirkbright's Creative Business Leader Programme in Wales was delivered in partnership with Skillset Cymru supported and funded by by the Welsh language broadcaster S4C and Welsh Independent Producers trade association, TAC, and endorsed by the Skillset Cymru National Board .

    

Breaking Barriers

May 7 2010

Creative business leaders from inside and outside Wales gathered at Kirkbright's Breaking Barriers event last month to debate the issue of commercial collaboration. 

At One Caspian Point in Cardiff Bay our interactive panel event focussed on discovering opportunities for Welsh Creative Businesses to collaborate with other businesses to tap into new markets, win international projects, attract talent, reduce project costs and boost the profile of the Welsh Creative Sector.

 Inspiration

Inspiration for the event has sprung from passionate discussions during the ongoing Creative Business Leader Programme, which Kirkbright are delivering in partnership with Skillset Cymru, supported and funded by S4C and TAC and endorsed by the Skillset Cymru National Board.

The panel included International Consultant Ian Jones, the Founder and Creative Director of Green Bay Media John Geraint, Development Consultant and Producer from Initialize Films, Ian Davies, and Vision Thing's Mark John. 

Thanks for coming guys!

Creative Leader March Edition

We've just published the third edition of our newsletter - The Creative Leader - to support and inspire the owners and managers of creative businesses and to keep you up to date on what we're doing. To check it out click here

Kirkbright is expanding

December 15 2009

New UK Programme Director to spearhead the growth of our management training business in 2010

We've hired a Programme Director to oversee the further growth of our management development training business in the UK. Carol Bloor will be building on our highly-successful first year in which we've  launched the:

• Accidental Managers Programme in Manchester funded by Northwest Vision and Media in partnership with Skillset and supported by the North West Regional Development Agency
• Creative Business Leader Programme in Cardiff in partnership with Skillset Cymru supported and endorsed by S4C and TAC

Carol said: "When Kirkbright MD Greg Orme talked to me about this position I was immediately excited about working with such a great company. What really hit me was the unique value Kirkbright brings to its creative business clients through both courses, mentoring and consulting as well as the high quality of the Kirkbright Associate network.

"It’s a testament to the Kirkbright team that the business has grown so quickly in the worst downturn in living memory."

Carol was poached from her job as National Marketing Manager for RSM Bentley Jennison, a progressive national accountancy firm with a turnover of £90m.

Kirkbright MD and Founder Greg Orme said: "We can't believe our luck. Carol is an amazingly focussed and driven talent with the perfect skill set to build on Kirkbright’s success story so far. We are confident she will supercharge the growth of our portfolio of training programmes supporting the development of leaders and managers in creative businesses. "   

Creative Leader October Edition

November 5 2009

We've just published the second edition of our newsletter - The Creative Leader - to support and inspire the owners and managers of creative businesses and to keep you up to date on what we're doing. To check it out click here.