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002 Building a purpose driven business with Clare Parsons
My guest on today's show is Clare Parsons Co-Founder of Lansons and Fellow CIPR.
In the podcast Clare speaks about her background, her journey into communications, setting up Lansons and being a values/purpose driven business. Some of the other topics covered in the podcast are:
Purpose and business in a Post COVID/BLM
How BLM has impacted her view of the world, the industry and generally lives
On creating a more inclusive industry, collaboration, learning from best practice
Role of PR practitioners in today’s world
The glass ceiling and on being UK’s Top 25 Best Places to work for women and voluntarily reporting on the gender pay gap
The Role of Ethics in PR and Lansons own journey as the winner of PRCA’s Very large agency Ethical champion on 2018, 2019, 2020
Steps to making the industry more inclusive
Women Leaders, the future of agencies and how they are going to adapt to the changing needs of clients, communities and employees
Subscribe to the show on any of your favourite platforms iTunes, Spotify, Google Podcasts.
Memorable quotes from the conversation with Clare Parsons
“I've had to spend quite a time reflecting on it myself. And I have to for lots of reasons. I am a, as we all are a product of our time. My feminism is based on the time of which it was emerging and the battles I was fighting. And I had to look at myself and realise that my notion of being colour blind wasn't enough. And being a business that was meritocratic, wasn't enough. And I think that has been a catalyst for so many things. So one is the course of self-reflection. I'm lucky enough also to work with some great people at Lansons, who are looking at this in detail and we're collectively looking at what our diversity policy is and if anyone looks on our website, we've declared what we're trying to do as a consequence source material is important.”
“But also, importantly corporate communications through COVID, has really shown that it was on the top of everyone's agenda. That actually boardrooms recognise the significance of their brand, their reputation, their purpose. A reputation is vital for them in these times. And that, again, our role in business had never been greater. And I think that there was a great communications person who always said you can't talk yourself out of something you've behaved yourself into. And, with COVID, this notion of how you behaved in this period, has shown a huge amount of virtue in some of those businesses, not all by any chance, but that we can make changes if we want to. And Corporate Communications is vital to do that. So I think it's an encouraging period now.”
“It was always part of our intention. At the very beginning, as I said, I wanted no glass ceiling because I’d experienced it. There's never been any holding back of anyone that has talent at Lansons. And there are role models throughout the organisation to show, you can do it in different ways as well. And that's also I think, really important that people can see themselves in the leadership and see different routes to that.”
“We seek those role models, with different voices, to be the clarion call for us. So that we can all learn from each other's stories and vision, and where they see the world. Strangely, Virginia Bottomley, it was her who said, when you recruit, or you look at the people that you are working with, you don't look in a mirror, you look out of the window. And I think that there's never been a more time now to look into society. They are the people we represent. And we have to understand everybody.”
Biography:
Clare Parsons, Co-Founder and Chair, Lansons a leading reputation management and PR business based in London and NYC. Over three decades running Lansons, formed in 1989, Clare has been actively involved both in the PR industry and the not-for-profit sector. Leading the agency’s international business, Clare is on the Global Board of PROI Worldwide. She was Global Chair (2018-2020 ). Clare is the first woman to hold this role in its 50year history.
Over several decades, Clare has served on the various charity boards, committees, and on trade bodies. Currently Clare is an Advisory Board member for everywoman, a trustee of arts charity HighTide, and patron of Juvenile Diabetes Research Charity (JDRF).
Clare was recognised with the Stephen Tallent Award by the CIPR for her contribution to the PR industry, where she is also a Fellow, The Holmes Report SABRE Award – Outstanding Individual Achievement which she won with her co-founder Tony Langham, and is a Real Business Magazine’s Top 100 Women UK Entrepreneurs alumni.
Social Media Handles
http://twitter.com/ClareParsons_
https://www.linkedin.com/in/parsonsclare?lipi=urn%3Ali%3Apage%3Ad_flagship3_profile_view_base_contact_details%3BoMus3f8ETtaXwfQhN%2FehCQ%3D%3D
About Lansons:
For 16 years running, ranked by Great Places to Work in the Top 50 of UK's Best Workplaces™ 2020 (Medium size business) as well as Top 25 UK's Best Workplaces™ for Women 2020.
Named PRCA's first ever 'Very Large Agency Ethical Champion', and featured ever since, awarded 2018 (highly commended), 2019 and 2020.
Awarded EMEA Corporate Consultancy of the Year at the PRovoke SABRE Awards 2020
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By Sudha Singh
5
22 ratings
My guest on today's show is Clare Parsons Co-Founder of Lansons and Fellow CIPR.
In the podcast Clare speaks about her background, her journey into communications, setting up Lansons and being a values/purpose driven business. Some of the other topics covered in the podcast are:
Purpose and business in a Post COVID/BLM
How BLM has impacted her view of the world, the industry and generally lives
On creating a more inclusive industry, collaboration, learning from best practice
Role of PR practitioners in today’s world
The glass ceiling and on being UK’s Top 25 Best Places to work for women and voluntarily reporting on the gender pay gap
The Role of Ethics in PR and Lansons own journey as the winner of PRCA’s Very large agency Ethical champion on 2018, 2019, 2020
Steps to making the industry more inclusive
Women Leaders, the future of agencies and how they are going to adapt to the changing needs of clients, communities and employees
Subscribe to the show on any of your favourite platforms iTunes, Spotify, Google Podcasts.
Memorable quotes from the conversation with Clare Parsons
“I've had to spend quite a time reflecting on it myself. And I have to for lots of reasons. I am a, as we all are a product of our time. My feminism is based on the time of which it was emerging and the battles I was fighting. And I had to look at myself and realise that my notion of being colour blind wasn't enough. And being a business that was meritocratic, wasn't enough. And I think that has been a catalyst for so many things. So one is the course of self-reflection. I'm lucky enough also to work with some great people at Lansons, who are looking at this in detail and we're collectively looking at what our diversity policy is and if anyone looks on our website, we've declared what we're trying to do as a consequence source material is important.”
“But also, importantly corporate communications through COVID, has really shown that it was on the top of everyone's agenda. That actually boardrooms recognise the significance of their brand, their reputation, their purpose. A reputation is vital for them in these times. And that, again, our role in business had never been greater. And I think that there was a great communications person who always said you can't talk yourself out of something you've behaved yourself into. And, with COVID, this notion of how you behaved in this period, has shown a huge amount of virtue in some of those businesses, not all by any chance, but that we can make changes if we want to. And Corporate Communications is vital to do that. So I think it's an encouraging period now.”
“It was always part of our intention. At the very beginning, as I said, I wanted no glass ceiling because I’d experienced it. There's never been any holding back of anyone that has talent at Lansons. And there are role models throughout the organisation to show, you can do it in different ways as well. And that's also I think, really important that people can see themselves in the leadership and see different routes to that.”
“We seek those role models, with different voices, to be the clarion call for us. So that we can all learn from each other's stories and vision, and where they see the world. Strangely, Virginia Bottomley, it was her who said, when you recruit, or you look at the people that you are working with, you don't look in a mirror, you look out of the window. And I think that there's never been a more time now to look into society. They are the people we represent. And we have to understand everybody.”
Biography:
Clare Parsons, Co-Founder and Chair, Lansons a leading reputation management and PR business based in London and NYC. Over three decades running Lansons, formed in 1989, Clare has been actively involved both in the PR industry and the not-for-profit sector. Leading the agency’s international business, Clare is on the Global Board of PROI Worldwide. She was Global Chair (2018-2020 ). Clare is the first woman to hold this role in its 50year history.
Over several decades, Clare has served on the various charity boards, committees, and on trade bodies. Currently Clare is an Advisory Board member for everywoman, a trustee of arts charity HighTide, and patron of Juvenile Diabetes Research Charity (JDRF).
Clare was recognised with the Stephen Tallent Award by the CIPR for her contribution to the PR industry, where she is also a Fellow, The Holmes Report SABRE Award – Outstanding Individual Achievement which she won with her co-founder Tony Langham, and is a Real Business Magazine’s Top 100 Women UK Entrepreneurs alumni.
Social Media Handles
http://twitter.com/ClareParsons_
https://www.linkedin.com/in/parsonsclare?lipi=urn%3Ali%3Apage%3Ad_flagship3_profile_view_base_contact_details%3BoMus3f8ETtaXwfQhN%2FehCQ%3D%3D
About Lansons:
For 16 years running, ranked by Great Places to Work in the Top 50 of UK's Best Workplaces™ 2020 (Medium size business) as well as Top 25 UK's Best Workplaces™ for Women 2020.
Named PRCA's first ever 'Very Large Agency Ethical Champion', and featured ever since, awarded 2018 (highly commended), 2019 and 2020.
Awarded EMEA Corporate Consultancy of the Year at the PRovoke SABRE Awards 2020