Do Not Adjust Your Focus Episode 12: Lynne Franks on the evolution of PR, diversity, creativity and the struggle to empower women in business and society
After a Covid hiatus, DNAYF is back! In Episode 12 of Do Not Adjust Your Focus, the podcast from strategic and creative advisory firm Blurred, Blurred CEO Nik Govier talks to PR icon and spokeswoman on women's issues Lynne Franks OBE.
Lynne founded a public relations consultancy in the early 1970s and is an advocate, communications strategist, writer and spokeswoman on women's issues, sustainability[2] and consumer lifestyles.
Throughout Lynne’s long and successful career, she has influenced awareness of many societal shifts and trends both in the UK and internationally.
She positioned the UK as a world fashion leader by initiating London Fashion Week and the British Fashion Awards.
Her wide breadth of influence in the business world includes developing McDonald’s UK women’s leadership network; working with Tesco on engaging their women’s customers through media partnerships; launching high fashion home shopping with NEXT and motivating the public towards responsible consumerism when advocating John Elkington’s trailblazing Green Consumer Week.
Lynne also initiated a wide diversity of awareness campaigns for social causes including the creation of Fashion Cares, taken over by Mac Cosmetics to become the world’s biggest fundraiser for HIV/Aids; working with Amnesty International on global awareness of human rights through music and collaborating with Bob Geldof and Harvey Goldsmith on the production of Fashion Aid at the Albert Hall.
She was a major UK advocate on the global situation regarding sexual violence to women and girls, working with her friend Eve Ensler to bring attention to women being used as weapons of war in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
She chaired Viva, the UK’s first women’s radio station after selling her eponymous PR agency in the early 90’s and put on What Women Want, the major festival at the South Bank in ’95, stimulating dialogue on the situation of women in the UK and beyond.
Lynne then attended the UN’s 4th largest women’s conference, held in summer ’95 in Beijing, where she worked as a radio journalist sending home the voices and issues of women worldwide.
While living in California, she founded and ran the new marketing agency GlobalFusion, representing many consumer brands and retailers across the US from her offices in LA and San Francisco.
Her books and workshops, including The SEED Handbook, published worldwide in 2000, pioneered a more feminine approach to business, combined with personal empowerment, inspiring thousands of women to join a movement of sustainable economic independence. Since establishing the SEED (Sustainable Enterprise and Empowerment Dynamics) women’s empowerment platform and body of learning materials, she has championed women’s leadership from post-war Bosnia, to rural South African villages and for women in prisons to women in the corporate boardroom.
Lynne continues her journey, consulting, writing and speaking on societal shifts, women’s empowerment and a more sustainable, peaceful world for all.
You can listen to this and previous episodes here, and subscribe on Apple, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.
Timestamps
02:18 – A background to Lynne Franks PR and Lynne’s inspiration
07:10 – Encouraging opportunities and breaking down barriers
13:20 – The decision to sell Lynne Franks PR
14:40 – The Seed Handbook
17:10 – The Power of Seven learning programme
23:35 – Female empowerment
31:00 – Community engagement
32:25 – The importance of diversity of thought
34:10 – Feminism is not about being anti-men
35:25 – Cross-generational mentoring
39:15 – The impact of Covid-19 on young people and hope
42:08 – Big businesses are an important vehicle for change