Kimi Gilbert is a Managing Partner at Future Factory, a leading business development consultancy helping creative agencies grow.
As a founding member, Kimi has 13 years of experience working across a range of disciplines and supporting agencies big and small.
With her passion for education and learning, Kimi has delivered training to hundreds of agencies through the Design Business Association, the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising and the Advertising Producers Association. Her pro bono work includes mentoring through London & Partners and Virgin StartUp.
Born in South Korea and raised in the States, Kimi studied in Germany and taught in Austria as the recipient of a prestigious Fulbright scholarship before finally making the UK her home in 2008. She has an MA in Human Rights from UCL and, as a proud Asian woman and member of the LGBTQIA+ community, she is a fierce advocate for achieving greater diversity within the creative industries.
Tell us a bit about yourself, your background and your current role:
I was born in South Korea, grew up in the States and have been living in Europe for the last 20 years (pretty much all of my adult life). My family’s still in the States but the UK is my home and I can’t imagine living anywhere else. Currently, I’m Managing Partner at Future Factory, an 80-person business development consultancy that helps creative agencies grow. My focus is primarily on London, although we have offices in Manchester and Glasgow as well. It’s an especially exciting time in my career and for the business as last year we were acquired by Ingenuity.
Did you ever sit down and plan your career?
Never, which is ironic considering what a meticulous planner I am in other areas of my life. I have a BA in History and German, as well as an MA in Human Rights. After finishing my master’s degree at UCL, I started working part-time at a new business consultancy called Inside. Dan Sudron and Alex Sibille (the founders of Future Factory) were joint Managing Directors. When an Account Manager role opened up, I applied and got the job. When they left to set up Future Factory, I went with them and I’ve never looked back.
Have you faced any challenges along the way?
Growing a business is hard and we’ve had our ups and downs over the last 13 years, just like any other company. Reaching each new stage of growth felt a little bit like starting all over again (the needs of a 10-person business are very different to the needs of a 30-person business). The pandemic was especially tough for a company like ours, where collaboration with colleagues and clients is so key to our way of working. Culture has always been hugely important to us and it was tricky maintaining this when we were working from home.
What has been your biggest achievement to date?
In no way can I take complete credit for this as it really was a team effort, the result of a lot of hard work by a lot of people, but getting acquired last year is something I’m incredibly proud of. It’s something most businesses dream of and we’ve actually achieved it. It’s funny thinking back to the early days of Future Factory when the two founders and I were working out of a living room in Lewisham. We’ve come such a long way and I’m excited to see what we can do now that we’re part of a bigger group.
What one thing do you believe has been a major factor in you achieving success?
Working with amazing people. I’ve been incredibly lucky throughout my career to have learnt from some of the best in the business. This applies to my colleagues at Future Factory (the two founders, the other partners and the wider team), the brilliant team at Ingenuity and our clients. I’m a big believer in learning being a lifelong endeavour – I don’t ever want to stop. Being exposed to different kinds of people with different viewpoints to my own has been the best way to keep growing as a person and as a leader.
How do you feel about mentoring? Have you mentored anyone or are you someone’s mentee?
I’m a huge fan of mentoring and see it as a way to give back to an industry I love. I’ve been a mentor through London & Partners (the city of London’s promotional agency) and Virgin StartUp. Working with and guiding the founders of young, creative businesses has been beyond rewarding. A lot of the challenges they’re facing are familiar to me as we experienced many of the same ones in the early days of Future Factory. I myself have never been someone’s mentee, that said I certainly have benefitted from other people in the industry taking me under their wing over the years.
If you could change one thing to accelerate the pace of change for Gender Equality, what would it be?
There’s no such thing as a quick fix but my priority would be getting more women into power ASAP. Female politicians can push to bring about changes that benefit all women in society, as well as serving as powerful role models to young women and the wider community. I’m a firm believer that it’s hard to aspire to be something if you don’t ever see someone who looks like you already doing it. Therein lies the power of female politicians – it’s their ability to inspire, simply by existing.
If you could give one piece of advice to your younger self what would it be?
Don’t be so hard on yourself. I’m a recovering perfectionist so I’d do well to heed this advice even now that I’m nearly 40. It’s easy for us to kick ourselves for making mistakes but if we didn’t make mistakes, how could we learn from them and improve as a person? Looking back, a lot of my “mistakes” have been opportunities for me to grow (although of course, I didn’t see it this way at the time). I wish I’d spent more time viewing mistakes as positives, instead of beating myself up over them.
What is your next challenge and what are you hoping to achieve in the future?
Year one of the acquisition flew by. Now that we’re one year in, we have big plans for taking the business to the next level. 2024 will be an exciting year for us, both in terms of evolving the services we offer and evolving what we stand for. I think the key will be getting the balance right between remembering what makes us who we are as a business / why we’re good at what we do, whilst at the same time being open to new ideas and fresh ways of working.
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