Kiki McDonough: Business lessons from 40 years as a royal jeweller
Royal jeweller Kiki McDonough has made a name for herself in fine jewellery over the last 40 years. She shares her business lessons, and a few other musings, in today’s Notebook
This year marks my 40th in business. I vividly remember my first day back in 1985, sitting down with a blank sheet of paper and a pencil and wondering what on earth I was going to design.
That period was a hugely exciting one, with Margaret Thatcher encouraging entrepreneurs to take risks and go for it – it felt like there was nothing that couldn’t be achieved.
Over the following decades, I’ve built Kiki McDonough into a jewellery brand of international renown with a loyal and engaged customer base, for which I’m so grateful.
This year, we will mark the occasion with three new collections, a full retrospective at the Saatchi Gallery and a new book about my life building a brand. I’m very proud that one of my first pieces is now in the modern jewellery collection at the V&A.
It has been the most wonderful, challenging ride and I’m looking forward to celebrating. It’s also a moment to reflect on lessons from four decades in business. I’m often asked what I’m most proud of. That would definitely be doing it all on my own – with no directors, investors or, apart from very early on, loans from the bank. I appreciate some businesspeople may want or need those things, but for me it was important to retain control so the business and my products always articulated my vision. In 1985, not many women were setting up on their own but I was determined to do it.
When I started, very few women bought jewellery for themselves – it was something bought for them by fathers, husbands or partners. I wanted to encourage women to spend their own money on their own pieces, something many happily now do.
You also need to be prepared for ups and downs: I’ve done two recessions and a pandemic. To succeed, I’ve found you need a bit of luck, some talent and most of all discipline. However tempted I’ve been, not once in 40 years have I shut up shop and left a sign on the door saying: ‘Back in five minutes.’
Standing up for the countryside
I live in London and have never lived in the country, but like to think I appreciate its importance to society. Does this government? I’m not sure. Look at the tractors on Whitehall in recent months, protesting about the plan to impose inheritance tax on larger family farms. Then there are the planning reforms which seem to be a serious threat to the green belt. The countryside isn’t just there for picnics, it provides our food, it’s vital for biodiversity and it gives us all somewhere to go to breathe and just have some space to think and relax.
Dry Jan? No thank you
Why do people do dry January? I think most of us need a glass or two to get us through the dreary weather and darkness which descends at 4pm. Why don’t we do dry March instead, which seems to me a much more appealing prospect, not least as it’s some way away?
Ballet and business
Lauren Cuthbertson is a principal dancer at the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden and the epitome of elegance and poise. I’m delighted to be working with her on a new advertising campaign. I have known her for a long time and love watching her dance. Next month, she’s playing Tatiana for the first time in Onegin. How wonderful that she is still making debuts like this 20 years into her career.
A recommendation
Just before Christmas, Matthew Fort and I went to Jason Atherton’s new restaurant in Pavilion Road called The Three Darlings. It’s named after his three daughters, which I thought was rather lovely. The food was just delicious: I had ravioli with roasted leeks and it was fabulous. I highly recommend paying it a visit. Jason has opened three restaurants in the last two months, so I doubt he got much of a rest over the holiday period. But hats off to him.
Kiki McDonough is the founder and creative director of Kiki McDonough