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Below is our recent interview with Rana Florida, co-founder and CEO of Creative Class Group:
Q: Could you provide our readers with a brief introduction to Creative Class Group?
A: We are a data-driven advisory services firm working with cities, regions and organizations around the world. The firm was founded on the theories of the Creative Class by my husband, Author, Urbanist and Professor, Richard Florida.
Q: Can you give us insights into your services?
A: We help organizations and regions grow and become more competitive by utilizing our data driven research and global trend insights. We work with mayors, city leaders, universities and economic development organizations around the world. We offer speeches, consulting and strategy, data, marketing and campaign help and much more.
Q: As a successful entrepreneur what are the biggest lessons you’ve learnt so far?
A: Success only comes after multiple failures, so don’t be afraid to fail. Facebook’s motto is “move fast and break things” meaning it’s okay to place lots of small bets to find the right path. Most of us in business are risk averse, but taking risks is the way to grow and move forward.
Recommended: Q: Who are your clients and what are some of the key challenges you are helping them solve?
A: We have worked with all sorts of organizations, for instance, we helped BMW create their ad campaign, The Ideas Class and helped Art Basel launch their Art Basel Cities Initiative in Buenos Aires. We helped Starwood Hotels, Le Meridien with their ‘Unlocking Art’ campaign. We advised Cirque du Soleil on which neighborhoods to pitch their tents and helped One Fine Stay with locational data.
Our team had a great time working with Converse to target the creative entrepreneurs for their Jack Purcell brand and Audi with their Urban Future Initiative. We were quite proud to help The Atlantic launch their online media property dedicated to cities, CityLab. We’re currently thrilled to be working with WeWork on their Global Future Cities Initiative and Florida International University with support from the James L. Knight Foundation on the Miami Urban Future Initiative.
We have a wide range of clients from Air Canada to Kraft to Microsoft. Our clients are global from London and Tokyo, New York and Los Angeles to Bentonville and El Paso. We’ve setup live video conferences from the Congolese Jungle and presented at 10 Downing Street. From the United Nations floor to the President of Colombia’s home, we are quite fortunate that our work transcends industries and regions, which keeps it exciting and interesting!
Q: How do you manage your team?
A: We hire great people and let them manage themselves. Our team works whenever they want from wherever they want. Our core team is our Director of Research, Steven Pedigo who is based in New York and Director of Events, Reham Alexander who is based in Detroit. I’ve never understood bosses who are more interested in the hours their employees are clocking at their desks versus the work they are producing. All we care about are the results and we don’t have employees, we hire colleagues and collaborators, people who can add value to the work.
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Q: What can we expect from Creative Class Group in the future?
A: We have the world’s best indicators for economic success. We hope to serve yet even more clients in real-estate and finance who can leverage our research and insights for sounder investment purposes.
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