KIERON GOLDSBOROUGH Managing Director, Narrative Communications
Did you always envisage a career in the Media industry? No, I first wanted to be a fine artist as I loved painting. I pretty soon realised I wasn’t good enough to ‘make it’ so started taking a wider interest in design and that lead me into media. I did always want to have a job that would allow me to use creativity so being MD of Narrative is perfect. What has been your career path so far? My first job out of University was for Railways Pensions Management in Darlington, I was there for about three years and it really taught me a lot about the working world. I next moved to an agency in Teesside that was owned by Trinity Mirror. I worked there for a couple of years before joining Trinity Mirror as Studio Manager, starting in Teesside then working across the region. I took voluntary redundancy there and worked with Russell Borthwick at Press Ahead as Creative Director.
Two years into that I had an opportunity to buy the agency and became Managing Director in 2014. Since then I’ve worked with the team to develop the agency and evolve us into the Narrative we are today. What have been the biggest challenges you have faced so far? Without a shadow of a doubt the last 12 months have proved the most challenging, not only for me but for so many of us. The last year has been really hard on lots of businesses, I have learned a great deal about people and how they react to the challenges they face. Who do you most respect in your industry? That’s a good question and one I’m not sure about, there are lots of people who I think are doing a great job, not just in media but in most of the industries we work with. I respect anyone who has set up, or created something and given it their all. Succeed or fail, the fact that they took the risk in the first place is impressive. It’s easy to criticise others but until you’ve taken that step you don’t understand the highs and lows that come with it. Which fictional media character can you most relate to? Ha ha, OK in my head from a ‘creative’ point of view, I’d love to think I was a Don Draper! However, I don’t have as many sharp suits or drink whisky during the day (very often). I would love to have seen how he would have dealt with a pandemic! How have you adapted your business during the coronavirus crisis and supported clients? Our main focus during the first lockdown was to do whatever it took to support each other and keep each other safe – colleague or client. We worked hard to help the businesses we work with through their toughest challenges, and this in turn helped us through our toughest moments. We pivoted our energy in to different areas for new business and this has led to us working with organisations we might have missed working with in ‘normal’ times, which has been an upshot of this strange time. We enabled the team to work flexibly, of course, but also to work across the disciplines and transcend their normal roles so that we were truly working collaboratively and sharing out the workload. The change to working from home was an easy one for us in terms of the technology but harder for a creative agency like us to work alone and over Zoom. We’ve seen the benefits and the drawbacks of home working and I know that the future for us will be a mix of office and home. What is your greatest strength? One of Narrative’s brand values is courage, I think to own and run a business you need to be brave (or daft). The risks you have to take, and leaps you have to make, can be frightening but you have to take them and make them if you want to be successful. I have also tried to be courageous in the team that I have built around me, the old adage of not being afraid to employ people better than you is so true, without good people who have you back and are prepared to push you further a business can’t grow. What is your biggest weakness? Easily distracted, sorry what was the question? I think lots of creative people struggle to focus and ensure that the detail is done correctly, which is why it’s important to have those ‘completer-finishers’ around you! I love what I do and I’m so eager to learn and do more, sometimes I need to take a breath and remember to focus. Oh, and my terrible handwriting (sorry team!) What has been your proudest achievement?
It’s been the continued development and evolution of Narrative, I work with some amazing people and we have done some fantastic work. Sometimes we don’t take the time to appreciate what’s been achieved, I always try to take a step back with the team to appreciate the distance travelled. What are your remaining career aspirations? I want to continue to grow and evolve the business, things are really picking up pace and we’re working with some ambitious businesses, so exciting times ahead. Personally, I get so much out of being a board member at the Northern School of Art and I would like to continue to be part of fantastic organisations such as this to learn and to give back. The development of the next generation of creatives is very important to me. How do you see your industry evolving in the next 10 years?
My daughter Kitty is interested in what I do at work and we have talked about what she might do for job in the future I’ve explained to her that the job she may end up doing may not even exist yet – this absolutely blows my mind and she like all of us have such an exciting future. However, despite whatever development technology can bring to our industry, at the heart of it will always be creativity. Good ideas change the world, there will always be a place for creative people.
