Rana Florida is CEO of The Creative Class Group, founded by her husband world renowned urbanist Richard Florida. It is a global advisory firm composed of expert researchers, academics, and business strategists. Their proprietary data and research, gives companies and regions leading insights to achieve growth and prosperity.
The 21st century has seen the rise of many talented and inspiring women who have become pioneers in their respective fields. Women across the world have made significant advances in their professional careers, paving the way for a more equitable and diverse future. The year 2023 is set to be an exciting one for female professionals as more and more women strive for success. From entrepreneurs to leaders in the corporate sector, these women have inspired and empowered other women to reach for the stars. Here are 30 of the most inspiring and innovative women to look out for in 2023.
We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Rana Florida. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with her.
As Chief Executive Officer of the Creative Class Group, Rana Florida manages new business development, marketing, consulting, research and global operations serving such diverse clients as BMW, Converse, IBM, Cirque du Soleil, Audi, Zappos, and Starwood Hotels – to name just a few.
Shinola’s first female CEO in a male-dominated auto town, Shannon Washburn, whose earliest goal was to be a college basketball coach, is very much a believer in teams. “Moving into a management role,” she says, is “really about the people who are going to get the job done and being present and attentive to your team.”
Over the course of his long and accomplished career, Daniel L. Doctoroff has endured more than a few failures. But his ability to learn from his mistakes, take lessons from others, and push ahead has established him as one of the world’s leading CEOs. In his current role as chairman and CEO of Sidewalk Labs—Alphabet Inc.’s pioneering urban innovation company—his goal is to make cities that are more efficient, sustainable, and livable.
Hi Rana, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
From Bergdorf Goodman and Tiffany on Wall Street in New York to Louis Vuitton in Hong Kong and Printemps in Paris, design duo George Yabu and Glenn Pushelberg have truly paved their own way, placing their indelible stamp on private residences, luxury resorts, restaurants, retail stores, and offices around the globe.
As we begin to take our first tentative steps to re-open its economy, it is important that we begin now to plan for our kids’ eventual return to school — not just the K through 12 students, whose parents need to go back to work, but college students. Protecting the lives of each and every individual — students, faculty, support staff, and their loved ones at home — must remain our principle focus.
The lockdown will end before scientists develop a working vaccine. Here’s a four-point plan for how companies should adapt.
This global pandemic is not to blame for a trend that was already in place — it has only accelerated it. While government stimulus and small business loans, financing and subsidies may provide some small businesses with a measure of relief, many won’t have the cash flow, the savings, or the time to wait. Rents, suppliers, and staffs have to be paid.So how can not just retailers, but restaurants, bars, galleries, book stores, hair and nail salons, florists, and fitness centers move quickly to mitigate their losses and stay afloat over the next difficult months?
Canada prides itself on its reputation as an open, tolerant and caring place. Especially at our border, where the image of Justin Trudeau greeting refugees turned away from the United States was seen around the world. But, over the dozen years that we have lived in Toronto, we have regularly encountered problems when coming back home to Canada at Pearson Airport.
Back in 2002, my husband, Professor Richard Florida, published the international best-seller The Rise of the Creative Class, an analysis of the forces that are reshaping our economy, our geography, the work we do, and our whole way of life. In it, he argued that just as our economy shifted from an agricultural basis to an industrial one in the late eighteenth century, we were entering a new epoch in which the most significant driver of economic growth is human creativity.
We know that the type of traveller targeted by the LE collective is a unique breed: creative, rebellious and unpredictable. That’s why we’ve collaborated with the Creative Class® Group, a global think tank comprised of leading researchers, academics and strategists, to bring you exclusive research and insight that will enable you to understand their very modern mindset.
Human expression has fostered joy, community and understanding in societies across time and place, helping individuals to connect in meaningful ways. Arts and culture tap into this universal drive toward expression and enrich our lives immeasurably, whether by promoting a sense of wellbeing, sharing ideas, cultivating beauty or prompting self-reflection and imagination. Our cities and communities would be sterile without the arts and the creativity and emotion they impart. We feel that dance is an important part of ar ts and culture and a power ful form of human expression, one that enhances our quality of life and contributes to our individual and social growth.
As a CEO, mother of two and frequent globetrotter, Rana Florida lives in the intersection of business, art, architecture, creativity and culture. But what of fashion, and where does it feature in her life? We needed to know, and so we met with the Creative Class Group CEO in the home she shares with her husband Richard, the international bestselling author, professor and urbanist. Their home is a perfect example of their design-led lifestyle, their vision executed by the ultra-creative firm Studio Pyramid and the interior designer Sasha Josipovicz.
Take ten million trees, 3.9 million people, 180 languages and dialects, the 7th largest stock exchange, the longest street in the world, and a renowned film festival. Throw in universal healthcare, the 8th largest LGBTQ2 pride parade, and the most rollicking Caribbean street festival anywhere, and you have Toronto. North America’s fourth largest city might also be its least understood and, with a broad mix of cultures, the hardest to classify. At times, the scene here can seem disparate, caught between affected grunge and unsettling flash, complete with a campy cadre of overdressed socialites. But then again, part of this metropolis’s beauty lies in its ability to make most anyone feel at home.
As Chief Executive Officer of the Creative Class Group, Rana Florida manages new business development, marketing, consulting, research and global operations serving such diverse clients as BMW, Converse, IBM, Cirque du Soleil, Audi, Zappos, and Starwood Hotels – to name just a few.
What is your morning routine?
I usually get woken up with a karate chop blow to the face; sometimes coming at me from both directions by 1 and 2-year-old feet. I will then untangle my hair from a puppy or cat wrapped around my head for warmth before tiptoeing like a ninja out of bed at 6 am. I will then check and respond to a crazy amount of work emails, both from clients and my team. I’m OCD, so will make sure every bed is made in perfect military fashion, the house in order, and dog, cats, babies all fed and dressed. I’m trying to take 15 minutes each morning to learn to meditate and clear my head before starting the workday.
Q: Rana, tell us more about your background. What were you doing before The Creative Class Group?
A: My parents – first generation immigrants from Jordan – drilled the importance of education into me and my siblings. They wanted us all to become doctors or lawyers. I was not drawn to either profession, so I went to business school without a clue as to what I would end up doing. I just knew that I wanted to land a high-level corporate job and I did just that, in Washington, DC. I was super excited by my six-figure salary and bonuses but was not happy. I was stuck commuting in traffic all day, I had crazy bosses and I had no control over my time and schedule.
Rana Florida is a CEO, Entrepreneur and best-selling business Author. As Chief Executive Officer of the Creative Class Group, Rana Florida manages new business development, marketing, consulting, research and global operations serving such diverse clients as BMW, Converse, IBM, Cirque du Soleil, Audi, Zappos, and Starwood Hotels – to name just a few. Rana has over two decades of experience in corporate strategy, communications and marketing, having executed marketing initiatives for the likes of Disney Live and Starbucks. She is well known as a writer on business and leadership, having written for Fast Company, Inc.com, and the Huffington Post. Rana Florida has also served as a guest business analyst on The Today Show and been featured in The New York Times, Vogue Magazine, The Wall Street Journal and more. Her one-on-one high profile interviews have covered notables – from President Bill Clinton and First Lady Michelle Obama to Andre Agassi, and many more. Rana Florida has also been h
The Miami metro — which spans Miami-Dade, Broward, and Palm Beach counties — aspires to become a hub for entrepreneurship and innovation, and it is making dramatic progress. According to research conducted by the Miami Urban Future Initiative, a joint effort of Florida International University’s College of Communication, Architecture and the Arts and the Creative Class Group, both venture capital investment and venture capital deals have increased more than threefold in the region since 2005.
Philadelphia has long been one of my favorite cities. Having grown up in New Jersey and gone to college at Rutgers, I’ve been visiting, and tracking, the city since the mid-1970s. I saw it in perhaps its most hard-pressed days and cheered on the stunning revival of its downtown area over the past decade or so. I’ve been visiting even more now, as the inaugural Philadelphia Fellow sponsored by Drexel University, Thomas Jefferson University, and the University City Science Center, where I have been working with local stakeholders and academics to benchmark where the city stands on key metrics and to develop strategies for the future.
Meet The Creative Class Group – A Data-Driven Advisory Services Firm Working With Cities, Regions And Organizations Around The World
The couple opened the doors to their Rosedale home to answer all our pressing questions about design, architecture … And how they juggle it all.
The FIU | Miami Urban Future Initiative hosted its inaugural event recently at Venture Café Miami. Joining Richard Florida in the conversation on Miami’s urban future were Tom Hudson (Vice President of News and Special Correspondent for The Sunshine Economy on WLRN) and Michael A. Finney (President and CEO of the Miami Dade Beacon Council).
Interview with Rana Florida. As CEO of the Creative Class Group, Rana is one half of the visionary global advisory firm that has transformed how we define and encourage prosperous and healthy cities and communities.
While America closes its borders, its northern neighbor is poaching some of the best tech talent in the world.
n July 2017, in response to a formal request from the North Rosedale Residents’ Association, the city of Toronto placed two new stop signs at the intersections of Glen Road and Roxborough Drive and Glen Road and Binscarth Road. A month after the signs were installed, the residents’ association requested that they be taken down.
Today, more than six million Canadians — 40 per cent of Canada’s workers — toil in low-paying routine service jobs, preparing and serving our food, waiting on us in stores and retail shops, doing office work, and providing a wide range of personal and health care service, from cutting our hair and giving us massages, to taking care of our kids and aging parents.
Miami has been on a roll. It is attracting people at a rapid clip, it is a center of arts, culture and design, and its entrepreneurial ecosystem is growing. Today the region is at a critical inflection point. How can it grow further? How can it deepen its startup ecology? How can it ensure that its growth is inclusive, and that all Miamians can share in a new era of more inclusive prosperity?
To know PR maven Ann Layton is to love her, so when she asks for your support on something, you reply with a resounding yes!
Trump’s “Muslim Ban” (Executive Order “Protecting the Nation from Foreign Terrorist Entry into the United States”) has set in motion will be an unqualified disaster for American business and the economy. In his first press conference after the election, Trump modestly declared that he would be “the greatest job producer God has ever created.” Between the trade war that he is igniting with Mexico and China and his immigrant ban, he is setting the stage for an economic catastrophe that will make what happened in 2008 look like a hiccup.
Holiday season or not, snippets of the devastation in Syria flash across our TVs. It’s way too complicated to wrap our minds around and far too tragic to watch, so some of us continue to shop and make plans for our celebrations and try to ignore them.
President Obama, in your final days, the world needs your voice more than ever. If not for the sake of your own legacy, then for the sake of children who learn from their leaders, you must speak up. It’s time you urge the electoral college to exercise their rights.
Both U.S. presidential candidates were flawed. Rightly or wrongly, Hillary seemed like an entitled elitist to one set of voters; Trump like an intolerant, corrupt, prevaricating bigot. Some might say we got what we deserved.But here’s why those of us who didn’t vote for Trump are still sick over it.
Long lines for service send customers a message that a company doesn’t care.Don’t companies see the fallout of such bad business practices? Many customers end up cancelling their service or switching companies due to a lengthy wait. Yet more customers say their frustrations have caused them to take action of some sort.
Author of Free-Range Kids, Lenore Skenazy thinks that many helicopter parents are less scared about what might happen to their kids if they leave them unsupervised than they are about the shaming and harassment that they might be letting themselves in for.
Rana Florida interview with Jörn Weisbrodt, the artistic director of Toronto’s Luminato Festival.
A joint project between FIU and my team at the Creative Class Group, and the first product of the FIU-Miami Creative City Initiative, Miami’s Great Inflection: Toward Shared Prosperity as a Creative and Inclusive Global City, was presented at the Greater Miami Chamber of Commerce’s 2016 Goals Conference on June 16.
When it came to shortlisting applications for LE Miami, THE REBELS, to decide what the creative class really want we drafted in help from
the real thing: meet our 2016 judges and bona fide members of the
creative class – who better to identify those rebellious brands at the
cutting edge of contemporary travel?
A former investment banker, the chairman of the board of directors of Friends of the High Line, a trustee of the New York Public Library, the editor of the acclaimed book City Parks: Public Places, Private Thoughts, and a contributing editor to Vogue, Catie Marron has just added a new book to her very crowded list of accomplishments: City Squares: Eighteen Writers on the Spirit and Significance of Squares Around the World.
The risks of being an entrepreneur are all too real. From cash flow issues and product differentiation to scaling the business—8 out of 10 start-ups fail within 18 months. I asked a group of new entrepreneurs the same questions about their challenges and lessons learned, and here’s what they shared.
Hillary Clinton wasn’t just defeated by Bernie Sanders yesterday — she was defeated by women. Sanders received 53 percent of the female vote overall to Clinton’s 46 percent, according to ABC News’ exit polling. 69 percent of Democratic women voters under 45 backed Sanders and 82 percent of Democratic women voters under 30 did.
Thousands of people descended on Miami during the first week of December, 2015, to experience Art Basel Miami. On Thursday, December 3, hundreds attended a packed discussion on creativity and city building at the FIU Miami Beach Urban Studios. The global forum, CREATE: Miami, was hosted by Florida International University and Visiting Scholar and urbanist Richard Florida, and it brought together a veritable constellation of luminaries in art, architecture, design, fashion, and music.
With the backdrop of Art Basel, Florida International University and the Creative Class Group will host an exclusive forum with international cultural icons about how to keep artists and creators in the heart of our cities, on Thursday, December 3rd from 3:00 to 5:00 p.m. at the Miami Beach Urban Studios.
On December 2-former Miami mayor Manny Diaz, Richard and Rana Florida will host a fundraiser for Governor O’Malley’s presidential campaign.
Rana Florida on supporting women in the workforce and what the current crop of presidential candidates have to say about the crisis of women in the workforce–and the productivity gap that their low participation is causing.
Collative Spotlight interview with best selling author and entrepreneur Rana Florida.
In her recent book Upgrade, Florida tackles the future of our careers and how individuals can utilize their experience and expertise, leading them to a fulfilled, confident and involved future.
This week we are bringing you something different, and that is a book review. Here at Collative Pro, reading is something that we do every day and we want to share some reviews on the books we read. Hopefully they can be as helpful to you as they have been to us. So lets kick off with the first book review – Upgrade: Taking Your Work and Life from Ordinary to Extraordinary By Rana Florida.
At the DX Intersection event, The Design Exchange celebrates an individual or partnership that exemplifies creativity, outstanding talent, and innovative vision. Rana Florida interviews this year’s DXI awardees interior designers, George Yabu and Glenn Pushelberg
Recently asked how to differentiate good from great, Rana Florida in learning from the greats, identifies her top ten ways to go from good to great.
Best pratices from business executives.
In her new book, Upgrade, Rana Florida aims to provide readers with the tools to achieve success in work and life. It gathers best practices from CEOs and other business executives, as well as entrepreneurs, innovative thinkers and creative leaders. This excerpt is from the chapter titled The Power of We.
The bigger an industry grows, the more need for disruption it seems. Fast and nimble, flexible and innovative, don’t work in bureaucracies that are bogged down with rigid processes and procedures, and where the customer always seems to come last. I can think of any number of industries that are ripe for disruption. Here are five of the softest and juiciest targets.
Over 300 people turned out at the College for Creative Studies to participate in CREATE: Detroit, the inaugural ideas fest on place making and cities, led by world-renowned urbanist and professor Richard Florida and sponsored by Rock Ventures.
What lessons can we learn from Detroit’s and other cities’ struggles to remake themselves? That is the question that will be at the heart of CREATE: Detroit, the first of what will become an annual ideas fest. Hosted by the renowned urbanist Richard Florida and the Creative Class Group in partnership with Rock Ventures, Shinola, M1/DTW, and Planterra, the program will bring together city builders, city leaders, place makers and urbanists from across North America to share their insights and best practices for building and rebuilding more creative and inclusive cities.
At the first annual Create: Detroit, by the Creative Class Group and sponsored by Rock Ventures, he will moderate panels with city-leaders, city-builders, place-makers, urbanists, and urban journalists from across North America, who will share what they’ve learned from their own ventures and observations in Miami, San Francisco, Toronto, New York, Las Vegas, and of course Detroit.
LE Miami, The Rebels 2015 brought to you by Travel+Leisure and the Miami Beach Edition. This year’s shortlist will be drawn up by a group of creative class influencers, brought together by chairwoman, Rana Florida.
The CEO and founder of The Creative Class Group, Rana and Richard Florida, on the ongoing evolution of the creative consumer; rebellious leadership; and the future of travel.
Rana Florida profile. This globe-trotting innovator has many titles – CEO, Author, Editor, Cultural Curator – but one clear message: embrace risk and you will succeed.
Future presidents and CEOs are more alike than you’d think. Use these leadership secrets from contenders for the biggest startup of all, America.
Rana Florida believes that world peace can be achieved through two simple things; education and opportunity.
So much energy and space goes to waste after quitting time. 10 unconventional ideas for putting your office’s off hours to use.
Skip the gift cards. What your employees really want from you is to stress less.
The world’s most innovative and creative organizations should be dreaming up new ways to establish a better work-life balance for all their employees. Instead of holding out a carrot on a stick for would-be mothers, they should be establishing best practices to keep them engaged, productive, and excited about work while they raise their families.
About 500,000 new U.S. companies are launched every month with over 11 million entrepreneurs. But how many are successful under the age of 10? Well, you’ve heard the saying “It’s never too late.” but for this trio of kidpreneurs, “It’s never too early!”
During your Caribbean Cruise, you may dream of living in paradise, of packing it all up and escaping to the islands. While that’s a great fantasy, the reality of trying to make a living makes it less attractive. But there’s always Miami. No, really, Miami. It’s a great place to live. Just ask Richard and Rana Florida, the power couple behind the Creative Class Group.
Most people think a Great Idea — a breakthrough discovery, a killer app — will make them wealthy beyond their dreams. But successful entrepreneurs know that Great Ideas are a dime a dozen. True success lies in the execution. Given the choice between a great idea and a limited execution team or a mediocre idea and a brilliant execution team, most great business leaders would choose the latter.
HGTV.ca hostess extraordinaire Rana Florida shows you how to pull off a Halloween party practically overnight.
The end of October is a beautiful time of year, when the air is crisp and the foliage is at its spectacular peak. I can’t think of a better time to gather with friends around a roaring fire.
The notion of failing forward is key to success. From every failure lessons are learned, things are tweaked and fine-tuned.
While other celebrities have been content to shill for products, offering themselves as endorsers, Lady Gaga is taking the reins and stamping her indelible mark on said products.
Working mothers (and fathers) are making significant contributions to the U.S. economy and the companies that employ them, but they are doing so without the support that they need. Flex-time and other pro-family policies are not simply a “nice” thing that businesses can do for their employees. They make business sense too, as they reduce employee turnover.
Fashion and politics may be strange bedfellows, but they definitely go together. Rana Florida interviews Shauna Levy, the President of the Design Exchange and Frank Toskan, co-founder of MAC Cosmetics and talks about the Design Exchange annual party.
As summer slipped away this week, the air is crisp and the leaves are falling, it’s the perfect time of year to entertain at home with friends over some hearty and delicious comfort foods.
Entertaining doesn’t have to be timely, expensive or fancy. Here are 10 tips to keep it simple yet sophisticated this season. And watch Creative Entertaining: Dinner at the Farm for more suggestions.
Bands and startups have a lot in common. Sleepless nights, fueled on caffeine and adrenaline, they both have a lot at stake and chances are they’ve sacrificed a lot to get to where they are. Success in a hyper competitive marketplace relies on a number of strategic factors. Here are 15 simple tips to ensure your startup is a number one hit.
Rana wants to upgrade you. As CEO of The Creative Class Group and author of the best-seller “Upgrade, Taking Your Work and Life from Ordinary to Extraordinary“, Rana Florida knows how to pump originality into the every day. She’s upgraded business development, marketing and global operations for the likes of BMW, Converse and Johnson & Johnson. Today she shares 8 things that make her smarter, from jet-setting iPhone apps to her favorite wireless gadgets.
As CEO of the consulting firm Creative Class Group and author, Rana Florida thinks outside the business attire box.
Starting with just $150,000 in venture capital and a $50,000 line of credit, Warby Parker has emerged as a fashion giant, selling over a million pairs of designer eyeglasses. More than that, it’s made the world a better place, donating an equal number of eyeglasses to needy people in the developing world while maintaining a net zero carbon footprint — and earning a substantial profit for its investors. I sat down with co-founders Neil Blumenthal and David Gilboa in their New York headquarters and talked to them about start-ups, risk-taking, collaboration, creativity, and entrepreneurialism.
If you are afraid to ask for a raise, you are not alone. Most people, no matter how self-confident they are, feel quite anxious about this issue. But good work should be rewarded and most companies know that great talent is hard to come by and turn over costs are expensive. If you’re doing an outstanding job, your bosses will do what it takes to keep you. All that you need is a plan. Here’s one you can carry out in ten easy steps.
The Creative Class video series celebrates innovative creators across disciplines. This week features Bob Ezrin, one of the most commercially successful producers of all time. He’s worked with many of the world’s most important contemporary artists including: Pink Floyd, Alice Cooper, U2, Peter Gabriel, Deep Purple, KISS, Jay-Z, Julian Lennon, Nine Inch Nails, Taylor Swift, K’naan, will.i.am, Elton John, Lou Reed, Rod Stewart and many others.
We all need to change our mindset and get up off our behinds. Whether your office is in a suburban industrial park, an urban skyscraper, or in your own home, it’s slowly but surely killing you. Be sure to schedule your next meeting as a walking one.
August is the most popular month for summer vacations, and if you are lucky, you have some friends who will invite you to visit them at their beach house, their mountain cabin, or their lakeside get-away. Before you accept their invitation, please make sure you’ve mastered these simple rules for house-guest etiquette, especially if you want to increase your chances of being invited again next year.
In just three short years Paddle8 an innovative marketplace infusing technology and art has held hundreds auctions with over $100MM in bidding activity and raising over $25MM for charities. This Creative Class video features CEO and Cofounder Aditya Julka about what it takes to launch a successful startup.
Working a shorter week would likely make most people feel happier and even more productive, experts say. But research suggests it may also help boost employment rates.
In 2013 a number of books were published regarding the latest thinking in career strategies. Annabelle Reitman selected a variety of resources that can be helpful whether you are considering a career move/shift, in the midst of a career transition, or thinking of retirement.
This Creative Class show features Peter Marino, an internationally acclaimed architect working in commercial, cultural and residential architecture helping to redefine the modern luxury world.
The world’s oldest and most prestigious tennis tournament, Wimbledon kicked off this week gathering the world’s all stars. While 15,000 spectators will gather in Center Court at the All England Club almost 400 million people around the world are expected to tune from home. So whether you’re cheering for last year’s reigning British champ or this year’s French Open winner, what better time to don your tennis whites and host a viewing party for friends and family?
