This week on the PRmoment Podcast, in the latest of our life stories series, I’m interviewing Sharon Bange, managing partner at Kindred.
Kindred has a fee income of circa £5m, a turnover of approx £9m and employs circa 50 people.
It is an interesting story because the business almost went bust in 2010 (for reasons discussed in the podcast) but it has since recovered.
Sharon has been with the business since 2003 and is now a managing partner.
[00:00:48] How Sharon ended up in PR although her first choice of career was to become a social worker.
[00:02:53] How Kindred has come back from the brink of administration.
[00:03:21 ] Why, when David Cameron's Conservative Government came to power in 2010, it had immediate negative implications for Kindred because 90% of its client base was public sector government work.
[00:03:41] Hear how the morning after the 2010 election, the phones at Kindred kept ringing – and it was government departments ending their contracts.
[00:04:43] How by the summer of 2010 (the election was in May) Kindred as a business was "completely decimated" and "all of the clients that the business was built around couldn't spend with us anymore."
[00:05:57] How Nick Mustoe and the Kindred management team took over the business in what was, in effect, a management buyout.
[00:07:35] Why associate directors and above got equity in the new Kindred.
[00:07:51] Why having a shared-ownership structure played an important part in rebuilding the business
[00:08:54] Where do you start – when 90% of a businesses work disappears overnight?
[00:10:23] How did the team at Kindred manage to win enough work quickly enough to keep the business going?
[00:11:57] Ten years ago, Kindred bolted its public relations business together with an advertising and creative agency – Sharon looks back at the lessons learnt in hindsight.
[00:13:23] How people at Kindred often work across disciplines, functions and sectors.
[00:15:18] Why Sharon has spent her whole 15-year career at Kindred.
[00:15:45] Why, for Sharon, the culture at Kindred means it is a special place for her.
[00:16:42] How Sharon regards herself as risk averse but likes a challenge!
[00:17:29] Sharon talks us through her personal values and why they are important to her. Hint: she doesn't like bullshitters!
[00:20:15] How it has worked for the business having two managing partners – Sinead Gray and Sharon.
[00:20:48] Why lots of people at Kindred do not work full time
[00:24:25] Why earned media and paid media do different things in influencer marketing.