Karen Blackett
Karen Blackett is a proven business leader and speaker with a track record in creating vibrant cultures, energising teams, and consistently delivering business growth and success.
She is currently UK President for WPP, the world’s largest marketing services group, and responsible for driving growth in WPP’s second largest market of 13,000 people.
Former GroupM UK CEO, Karen Blackett was selected to turnaround the business over 2.5 years at a critical time, during the COVID global pandemic and the subsequent impact of the killing of George Floyd.
In June 2014, Karen received an OBE in the Queen’s Birthday honours and topped the Power List, being the first businesswoman to come in at number 1. In November 2022, Karen received Power List’s Outstanding Contribution Award in recognition of her continued exceptional achievements. In June 2023, Karen was appointed a NED for Diageo (a FTSE Top 10 company), and was a former NED of The Cabinet Office. In October 2023, Karen was honoured by INvolve – The Inclusion People’s List and came in at #1 for the Top 100 Women Executives.
KAREN BLACKETT SPEAKING TOPICS
Influence & Leadership: Creating An Exceptional Culture – Great leaders and great cultures generate success. It has to be planned with military precision and comes from both the top and bottom of organisations. How do you create a culture where people can bring themselves to work? Where people don’t feel the need to cover who they really are to fit in with a perceived mainstream at work? Countless surveys and research studies show that a happy and diverse workforce leads to greater productivity, creativity and hence success. But how do you go about creating an Avengers Assemble in your organisation?
In this keynote the importance of having a personal brand is discussed. How do you define it, how to check what others think it is and how to communicate it? We will examine the traits of the some of the most successful leaders of business in the UK. Finally, we will examine how to create a talent pipeline, and importantly how to ensure retention, avoiding the costly “squeeze in the middle” that leads to churn.
Unlocking and Understanding the Consumer – The secret to competitive advantage is rooted in understanding people. However, consumers today are just different. Their daily lives are influenced by the changes occurring in technology. These changes are dynamic and constant. Consumer habits as a consequence are evolving all the time. We want things faster, more tailored and on our terms. As a business, how do you meet these consumer demands? How do you plan for a future which keeps changing?
In this talk, we will examine Modern Britain, their tastes and their value. We look at how the media landscape has evolved as a consequence of technology advancement and how this has influenced consumer behaviour. Finally we look at some of the ways in which businesses can harness these changes to stay ahead of the game, find new ways of working and future-proof their business.
World Class Leadership -bAre you a leader or a manager? What is the difference? How do you get others to follow and believe in your leadership? In this keynote, we examine the importance of having a personal brand, how to define it, check what others think it is and how to communicate it. We also examine the traits of some of the most successful leaders in business today, their style of leadership and the result this has had on their organisations.
Future-proofing your Business in the 21st Century – Celebrate difference. Look for it, champion it and nurture it. Modern Britain is now a brilliant fruit salad of people. If the consumer economy had a gender it would be female…..Diversity and inclusion are the buzzwords in business today, but this is not anything new, nor is it a tick box exercise to be owned by the H.R function. It is very simply about ensuring success and future proofing your business. Is this keynote we look at the importance of knowing who your audience is and their value, tips and tools on how to reflect that audience in your own organisation in terms of both recruitment and retention. Talent is everywhere, but opportunity is not. How can businesses create opportunity? Finally we look at how reframing the conversation around empathetic leadership could lead to greater change.
