What'cha Drinkin'? with Caroline Frankum
Editor's note: Automated speech-to-text transcription, edited lightly for clarity.
Stewart Tippler:
Hi, and welcome to another edition of What’cha Drinkin’? I have got the fortune of speaking to the very wonderful Caroline Frankum who is the global CEO for the Profiles Division. A warm welcome to Caroline Frankham. And first of all, what you drinking?
Caroline Frankum:
Thanks, Stewart. What I'm drinking is a nice cool glass of wine. And you're right, it is really hot and my glasses are slipping down my nose cause it's so hot and I'm normally, I try not to drink in the week and be a bit healthier but today I've treated myself. So, thank you for giving me the permission to treat myself with a nice glass of wine and just before seven o'clock in the U.K.
Stewart Tippler:
Excellent. Well a shock for those people who know me. I haven't been behaving myself during lockdown. I've been drinking gin and tonics pretty much every day. This evening I am drinking a gin, which is called Hoxton. So really refreshing on a daylight today. So, cheers.
Caroline Frankum:
Cheers.
Stewart Tippler:
Okay. So Caroline CEO of Kantar, what from your point of view is the importance of data and how should we be using and improving it?
Caroline Frankum:
Well, it's a great question. So, at Kantar our mission is to understand people and inspire growth. And the starting point for that is knowledge and data. What I love about data is it doesn't have an opinion. It gives you a good basis to build off, strategy, innovation, creativity. It's the people that interpret the data, that bring the important opinions. And as market researchers, we actually are quite privileged because we have an opportunity to influence society and culture in what we do. And so, for us, having robust good data evidence as a starting point is really important for us as an industry, but also particularly in Kantar with our mission.
Stewart Tippler:
Now you've been very much a champion of this, but how as an industry can we improve when it comes to being inclusive and diverse?
Caroline Frankum:
So, we can do a lot and we do work with market research. I work with them on understanding how we're doing in terms of being inclusive and diverse as an industry in market research. And in the U.K. specifically we are still very white male driven. That's a fact. There is a lack of diversity both in terms of gender and also in terms of ethnic minority representation. We've made good progress we are moving forward, but we all know that we can't get seduced by progress and it needs to be a never ending journey of improvement. So again, it goes back to what we were talking about just now. It's like we also need to attract the exciting high-potential individuals that are leaving university or leaving college or switching jobs into our industry because that to be really helpful in terms of how we advise brands on how they connect with consumers.
For us at Kantar, it's understand people inspire growth. We actually need to be reflective of those consumers too. So, we're a global brand, we're a global agency. We have 30,000 employees across every market in the world. It's really important for us that we reflect the consumer base and the client base that we are supporting. So, in Kantar we've done a lot over the last three years. We've had a deliberate focus, more deliberate focus on I and D over the last three years in my division that I'm responsible for. When I took over the global CEO role, I doubled our female representation on our board and tripled the ethnic minority representation. And you know what? Not because it felt, not because I felt it was the right thing to do, it was the right thing to do, but because it was also imperative for our growth. And when you have, so I can talk with authenticity around what I've seen, when you have a more diverse group of people around the table, you have fresh perspectives, you have more creative ideas, you have different conversations and actually that really inspired me. So yeah, we've definitely got a lot of work to continue doing and there's definitely progress that needs to be made in our industry and definitely within Kantar too but I don't think we should not be proud of the progress that we're making because we are making it.
Honestly, I feel our industry has moved forward over the last three years. Not to mention Black Lives Matter because that's very poignant right now. And the last couple of weeks for me has been a real educational journey for me. A really important one because we were talking at Kantar about how do we have more black leaders in Kantar? That's something that we are working on and it's going to be a long-term journey, but that doesn't mean we can't take short-term important actions to listen more, educate ourselves more, have safe sharing sessions, which is what we've been doing, and really hear people's stories and understand how we can support them. The other thing that I'm very, very passionate about is, we can only do this together. It can't be men vs. women, black vs. white. It has to be all of us together because, and standing shoulders to shoulder together because that really is what will drive the change. And like I said, I've seen it with my own eyes in what we've done within Kantar so far.
Stewart Tippler:
Caroline, I mean you're doing a fantastic job, so keep up the good work. So, this is the fun part of the interview and this is where I get to draw out a question from the Quirk’s box. Today we have quickfire questions. So basically, I'm going to give you two options. You just shout out whichever one. So, we've got five questions here. So first one, drink related. We're doing What’cha Drinkin’? Drink champagne or wine?
Caroline Frankum:
Champagne.
Stewart Tippler:
Champagne. On wine, white, red or rose?
Caroline Frankum:
Ooh, that's a tough one. I'll say white, but I do like rose.
Stewart Tippler:
OK, sports. Football or rugby.
Caroline Frankum:
Oh, again, wow. Challenging. So, I grew up in a rugby household. My dad was a fanatic rugby player and fan but I now live with my husband's son in a very football-driven household. So, I kind of have split my allegiances there. But I'll say football because I live with Nolan and Charlie on a day-to-day basis and would never be forgiven if I didn't say football. Yeah.
Stewart Tippler:
OK. Holiday beach or ski?
Caroline Frankum:
Oh, beach all day long. But that's changed in my younger years. I was a very passionate snowboarder and there was a group of 10 of us that used to go all over the place. We used to save up and go as a group every year. But as I've got older, I'd much rather lay in the sun with a cocktail.
Stewart Tippler:
Yeah, I'm definitely a beach person. Transport car or motorbike?
Caroline Frankum:
Car?
Stewart Tippler:
Car. Safe. Safe.
Caroline Frankum:
Yeah. Well, again, thinking of my dad who's no longer with us, but he had a motorbike. He was a real fan of motorbikes and I used to go on the back but he did terrify me because he was a bit of a speed freak. So yeah, car definitely for safety, car safety.
Stewart Tippler:
Yeah. Ok. Caroline, that winds up this interview for this evening. Thank you so much for joining us on Quirk’s What’cha Drinkin’?
Caroline Frankum:
Thank you for having me. It's been a real pleasure and I hope you continue to enjoy your Eugene and your cricket.
Stewart Tippler:
I know, exactly. Yeah. Well, fingers crossed, we're allowed to play some cricket over the next few months. Still waiting for the government approval on that, although obviously restrictions are coming down. But thank you very much for joining us and cheers. Stay safe, keep up the great work.
Caroline Frankum:
You too, Stewart, lovely to see you. Take care.