What'cha Drinkin'? with Theo Francis and Sia Najumi
Editor's note: Automated speech-to-text transcription, edited lightly for clarity.
Stewart Tippler:
Hi, and a well, a warm welcome first of all, to another What’cha Drinkin’? Today I am very fortunate to be joined by two wonderful people. We have Sia Najumi, who is the market research account director for One Global Solutions and we have Theo Francis who is the founder and director of Guinea Pig Fieldwork. Between them, they are both co-founders of Colour of Research, which launched back in March in 2020. So, without further ado, what are you drinking guys?
Theo Francis:
Hey Sia, what are you drinking first?
Sia Najumi:
I'm drinking green matcha because I haven't eaten anything all day. So, I'm sticking to a sensible drink.
Stewart Tippler:
Very sensible and very healthy Sia. That's what I'd like to see. I've got a feeling Theo might not be drinking green tea. What you got?
Theo Francis:
I also haven't eaten all day, but I'm not as sensible as, so I'm drinking some nice California red. This is Barefoot of blackberry and current and vanilla.
Stewart Tippler:
Love it. Well I, I've got steak tonight so I think I might be drinking a little bit red later. But at the moment I am drinking some local gin for those who people who know me I am very much a GNT person. So Ditchling Gin, literally it's only about five or six miles down the road from me. It's a great Gin. So, without further ado, welcome and let's have a fun What’cha Drinkin’?
Sia Najumi:
Cheers.
Stewart Tippler:
Cheers, cheers. So, first question, and this is to both of you obviously. Colour of Research, I hear that Quirk’s played a small role in the Colour of Research coming together. Tell us how it all began and what you wanted to achieve by creating this group.
Theo Francis:
Yeah I guess Quirk’s did play a small role. Quirk’s was the place where Bob pulled me to the side and said, hey, I saw this group that you invited me to on LinkedIn. This is amazing. Let's take over the world. Let's do something and build something really serious. And it sort of spurred on the vision of putting together a team. Basically, the way it all came about was very organic. We'd all been having similar experiences and similar discussions with other colleagues in the industry about the lack of representation. We'd go to events, we'd go to conferences, we'd go to award ceremonies, look around, not see anyone and who looks like us and say, that's odd, what's going on here? So really it was just a union of minds thinking that this is something that's important that needs to happen and deciding that we were going to build it for ourselves. So, as you say, had Bob and I not been at Quirk’s and had he not bumped into me whilst going around all of the different stands. It may not have happened or played out the way it did.
Stewart Tippler:
Yeah. So, this is Bob. This took place at Quirk’s London. Who else came together? Who were the key people with obviously yourself and Sia, but who else?
Theo Francis:
Bob Qureshi of I view, Graham Idehen of Lucid, Charlene Adamah of Bilendi, Tatenda Musesengwa of Youth Sight Natalie Samuel of Ipsos, Melissa Gonzalez of Differentology. And have I missed anyone else out? It's just us as the rest, isn't it?
Sia Najumi:
That was it.
Stewart Tippler:
So that's a great board that you've got going there and obviously a dream team, lots of experience in the industry across all different sectors as well. So that's really important. So obviously I mentioned at the beginning Colour of Research started up in March current of Quirk’s London. What have you been able to achieve in the eight months of lockdown that we've experienced? What have you seen or what's been a success for you guys?
Sia Najumi:
So, I think I would say the first and the biggest success that we've established is opening the doors for people to have the discussion more openly and with each other. When we were going to events and stuff, people talk about it, people from ethnic backgrounds acknowledge that there isn't that representation but we don't have organizations, we don't have leadership, people in leadership talking about it. So, I think firstly what we established is a way of talking about it, letting people know that we're an association and we want to make this conversation happen. I think that's the first success I would say. But I think you can touch up on the other initiatives that we've established.
Theo Francis:
No, I think you've hit the nail on the head there though, in terms of the most important thing that we've done so far is actually raising the volume of this conversation because it's an issue that's been going on for, I won't say decades as I say hundreds of years, but it's taken till 2020 for anything to really be put in place to try and address it.
In terms of tangible things that we've put in place, so the mentorship program, that was our initial initiative. The idea behind that being, we do have some success stories in the industry. People like Bob Qureshi for example, have blown up and become a massive success, but they've had to do that on their own without the guidance of people who have been in those shoes and can help support them when they're facing certain issues that are race related issues. What can we put in place to try and make it easier for the next generation so that we can pass the torch on in an easier way?
And right now, we've got, I believe at present is 20 partnerships. So, 20 mentees with 20 mentors in the U.K. right now. So that's quite a big achievement, but obviously we want to move that forward. We're hoping for next year to double, triple, quadruple that number. Masterclass is an area of the website where allies can lend their support. As I said, the mentorship program is for us, by us, is each one. It's about that shared experience. However, for our allies who actually want to also contribute to the upskilling of these mentees, we've got a separate section for them to record as I say, a masterclass. And we had Lynn Rosak do a public speaking masterclass which was awesome. Mind blowing the amount it just took my breath away. The amount of different tactics and different strategies that you can use to really maximize what it is that you're trying to say and say it in a meaningful way. That was beautiful.
We've put in place a Fresh Faces initiative that's still in progress, but we're in talks with a few different recruitment partners who specialize in ethnic minority recruitment so that we can then offer that as a service to bring in more people into the industry as well as talking at different universities and schools. We did our first round table two weeks ago which was amazing as well. We had some industry thought leaders in there talking about unpicking recruitment practices and what we can do as an industry to make the industry more attractive to ethnic talent.
One of the biggest things that's funny is everyone's always asking, where do you find talent? Where can we find talent? The real insight from that was it's not about where you find the talent, it's about how you are presenting yourself as a company. How are you showing up when this talent is looking for work when they look at your company? So, they seize a place that they actually want to go. Now there's a big change in perspective there. That's just a few, I can really go on. We're up to about 12 different initiatives right now that are all ticking over and right now we’re looking at expanding the team. Because the eight of us, we're doing good, but it's growing and growing, so we need some more hands on deck.
Sia Najumi:
Definitely need more people. But I would just like to say that with all these initiatives, it wouldn't have been possible without our allies. We have a lot of support and there's a lot of organizations every day reaching out saying we want to help, how can we help? And so, without our allies too, we wouldn't have been able to do all of this that we've achieved.
Stewart Tippler:
And it's only eight months. The that's the scary thing. You've done so much, you've done so much. And I think the next question is, what have you got in store? What have you got planned for 2021? What's the kind of key objectives and goals that you've got to take this initiative forward and to move it forward? The overall plan?
Theo Francis:
Well, okay, so obviously the mentorship program I mentioned earlier, we want to double, triple quadruple that. We want every person who's working in the market research industry, who's from an ethnic background to have someone who they can turn to for support by the end of next year. We really want to have traction on all of these initiatives so that we can start branching out to different countries. The U.S. is I think the place in the world that probably needs something like this the most. So that would be our next point of call. But we said from the very beginning that we didn't want to start branching out until we've got our own house in order first. And so yeah, the next year is about not just expansion, but also refining everything that we're doing, seeing what's working, making sure that we we're doing it. Seeing what's not working and maybe eliminating that, getting the working model in the U.K. so that we can then branch out and help our cousins overseas.
Stewart Tippler:
Obviously, hopefully Quirk’s will be able to help deliver some audience from a U.S. perspective because that's where Quirk’s is based and a large percentage of our audience is. So, I'm sure there's people who are going to be watching this who are going to be interested from that perspective. How can companies and individuals get involved and support, obviously the Colour of Research program, what can they be doing?
Sia Najumi:
So, we have a website, we have a ColourOfResearch.org. You'll find all those initiatives on there and there's a contact page where you can get in touch. We also have forms for allies who want to get involved for mentors and mentees. Then we also have our socials on LinkedIn where we have over a thousand followers now since we've started. We also have a page. So, we're really active on all of those. And we try to get out, we try and get content every day and we're building a resource page as well on our website. So, we have videos, we have articles we have everything covering diversity and inclusion. So, if organizations want to read more about us or just how to approach DEI in general there's a lot of content on that. So yeah, follow us.
Theo Francis:
Please. Let me just add to that as well though, because in terms of how companies can work with us as well, one of the key initiatives for us is the strategic partnerships that we're building up. So basically, research agencies who want to probono some work to actually put some data behind the arguments. So, reaching out to people in the industry. The MRS just did a really, really great piece recently. I don’t know if you saw it, it's on diversity and inclusion overall. Because some really interesting findings came out of that. But from looking at that, what we want to do is dive even deeper into each of these points that were brought up and further than that, continue to do more and more research that we can see why this situation is the way it is and what can we actually do to change it.
So, partnerships with companies, sponsorships and then on the individual level as well, as I mentioned, we're trying to grow as soon as possible. We got so many different roles that we need support with. So, if individuals want to come in on a volunteer basis, evenings and weekends, help us take on some of this, please do get in touch and any masters out there, any specialists or some specialist skills that you can come and contribute to the upskilling of the mentees as well. Get in touch with us', record a masterclass and that's a real tangible way that people can contribute.
Stewart Tippler:
Brilliant, Theo. See also, I've noticed the attire as well. What you guys wearing? We all got Christmas jumpers on, Sia’s got a polar bear, loving it. What you got there, Theo? Eat, drink and be Merry, oh well.
Theo Francis:
Three things I know how to do.
Stewart Tippler:
Yeah, exactly. Guys, thank you so much. Obviously, you're doing such a great job at the moment with Colour of Research. Long, long may we hope it continue. Thank you so much for your time and effort to date. Have a fantastic Christmas when it comes around. Can't wait to see you in person. Hopefully we'll be at some stage in 2021. But thanks very much for your doing and best of luck.
Theo Francis:
Appreciate the evening.
Stewart Tippler:
Take care.