Conversation with Farzana Baduel of Curzon PR
Farzana Baduel is the founder and CEO of Curzon PR, a public relations and marketing communications consultancy founded in 2009 in London. She is a passionate advocate of strategic communications as an instrument to build bridges and build global narratives. Baduel previously served as Vice Chair of Business Relations for the UK Conservative Party.
Background
My parents are from Kashmir, from the Pakistan side, where everyone is fighting at the moment (laughs). I was born and brought up in London. I have always felt that London is such an international city. To me, it is one place in the world that is truly diverse, more so than New York. The very fabric of London is diverse. As a consequence of my growing up in such a city, I ended up marrying an Italian Catholic, while my sister got married to an East African Indian from Gujarat!
Our world is very international. My daughter goes to a school where every child has a parent from another country. And it is not like in the US where a lot of people are White American and some Latin American. Here, it is a whole mixture, with people from Russia, Uzbekistan, India, Zambia…it’s truly global.
I never really had the self-confidence to go into an arena that my community might not quite approve of (I think it’s a matter of the kind of exposure you’ve had). So when I chose my subjects, I chose to do tax in my late teens and early 20s because I didn’t know, and hadn’t been exposed to the wider world of creative industries. There were only two or three industries that I could go into, because that was the worldview of the community that I was brought up in.
A lot of Asians here are brought up to be doctors, lawyers, and accountants (I think this is a British–Asian subculture). While I was a very creative kid, I was also a good Asian girl, and so I started my professional life with a tax company. But then I stumbled into politics, and became the Vice-Chairman for the Conservative Party Business Forum. That’s where I learnt so much about public relations, and realised that this was my calling.
For me, public relations is at the intersection of public life, the media, marketing, and psychology. Individually, I find all these areas so exciting. It’s a fascinating exploration! So when I discovered a discipline at the nexus of all of these, it was a clear call to action.
Initially I started working in consumer luxury but didn’t connect with it, because I felt it lacked depth. Then I started working with a lot of governments, because of my political background. I worked to promote their trades, and in cultural diplomacy projects. In the last ten years I have worked with the governments of Ukraine, Russia, Azerbaijan, South Korea, Japan, China, Bahrain, Israel, Spain, Canada, West Africa, Somalia and Bosnia.
I think that 99.9% of my clients were global because a) I have a very global, international mindset and b) I live in a city like London. Also, that’s what I seek out; I seek out the ‘other’. Some people are afraid to do this, and prefer to be in their tribes, but I am really drawn to different cultures. If someone or something is different from me, it attracts me very much.
Coming back to my work, my engagements with all these governments was absolutely fascinating. Because I worked for competing countries like Israel and Iran, India and Pakistan, Russia and Ukraine, it gave me a sort of very macro, global perspective. What happens with this is that you end up not siding with one or the other, but become a cultural chameleon with high levels of empathy and understanding for multiple perspectives. That’s the beauty of having a global mindset and working in intersectionalities – you rise above tribalism and you see all of us as a family, with so much in common. You rise above hate and move towards love and light. That’s kind of what the work taught me. I’m so very grateful that I was born in a city like London, where you walk up a street and hear half a dozen languages in ten seconds.
I also started working in corporate organisations. A lot of the work I now do is in Russia, CIS, the Middle East, and South Asia – a lot of my work in fact comes from Delhi! After London, most of my friends are from Delhi. What also happens is that a lot of people from Delhi come to London, and many of the Delhiites are very interconnected. So for a good fifteen years, I had very close friends from Delhi, and then I started meeting their friends who came for the summers. Then I started working for some of them and ended up going to Delhi three-four times a year.
For me, funnily enough, Delhi always feels like home. I think this is probably because it has such a lot of Punjabi culture, and although my family is from Kashmir, we’ve had a lot of intermarriages with the Punjabis. After London, Delhi is the place where I have the most number of friends, and after that it is New York.
At Delhi I did some fantastic work with Good Earth. They are, first and foremost, storytellers, and so creative. What touched me about Anita and Simran is how genuine their love is for craftspeople, and how they would pay more than the average salary because they had such a long-term view about preserving craft in India. They said that if they don’t pay more than the average, then the craftspeople will make sure that their children don’t come into this field, and would rather have them work for more pay as cab drivers!
I thought that they are very visionary; they genuinely care, and also want to fix a broken tradition. In the colonial era, for instance, there was much less respect for indigenous crafts, which I think was quite damaging for the national psyche. What I like about Good Earth is that they are creating a platform for Indian craft; their mission is so much more than just selling ceramics and fabrics. They have a very philosophical approach to crafts and have placed storytelling at the centre of their everyday lives. Meeting them was phenomenally inspiring!
I also worked with this fabulous Delhi lady called Priyanka Gill. We collaborated on the strategy for PopXO, an online media platform. It took off so well that she ended up leaving London! She brought in millions of pounds in investment from Chinese and South Korean investors, and she is taking it to the next level now with e-commerce and so forth.
Then there is this corporate family, DLF, who are property developers in India. That was, again, a fascinating experience. They work in infrastructure, fire engines, multilane highways, and so on. They come across as not just selling bricks and mortars but actually building a nation. In London, you have developers who buy one little building, whereas in India, you get to work with developers who literally build cities from scratch! And I find it really exciting to work with people who are creating transformations at that level!
Another thing that I find very interesting in India is that they make it mandatory for corporates to donate a certain percentage to CSR, ensuring that it’s not just about profits, but about the planet, people, and profits. I think this happens only in India because I haven’t heard of any other country that has made it mandatory.
Cultural diplomacy projects
To give you an example, say the Russian Government were having an issue with the negative press Russia was getting in the West-dominated media because of their foreign policy. They felt that this was unfair. It was creating stereotypes about Russians. They wanted the world to acknowledge and remember their rich contribution to culture, and not perceive them as mafias who attack everyone! So we did a whole programme in London and New York -- a series of events with literature, book weeks and soul food -- wherein classical Russian writers such as Dostoevsky and contemporary greats were celebrated. The second thing we did was the largest cultural week outside of Russia – a seven-day programme in London, with each day focussing on a particular aspect of Russian culture -- such as visual arts, crafts, Easter eggs, music, poetry, literature…
And in Russia, we also did the strategy for an arts and culture magazine that set us as cultural city guides in Russia. Also for Russia we did a culture think tank with very interesting intersectioning – like pottery meets visual arts, or visual arts meets philosophy, and so on. We worked with the Bolshoi Ballet, international opera, and such areas. For Ukraine, we did their biennale, the art fair and cultural city tours. In Israel, we worked on the Jewish soldiers of WW II. So in each country we did a lot of work with governments and institutions. The work descriptions vary. Every country has a different cultural approach. For instance, in South Korea, we used digital art in our work for Samsung.
South Asian identity
I think that outside of London, in other parts of the UK, it’s a different world. In London, a lot of South Asians – Indians, Pakistanis, Bangladeshis, Sri Lankans – we mix together quite well. In places outside of London, they belong in separate groups and even get into fights with each other. For example, there are places up north that are highly segregated. For some reason, in London we are different; we all get along, we intermarry, we are friends, we do business together. I think what also happens in London is that, different South Asians are settled here. Some came from middle class backgrounds -- such as myself -- and some from very rural backgrounds --where their parents were actually brought over to work in factories. Therefore, the South Asians who came from middle class backgrounds had very different experiences from those who came from working class backgrounds. The latter generally went up north, because that is where all the factories are. And that’s why we all developed in different ways. I think there are a lot of socioeconomic factors that have affected different people in different trajectories.
I perceived a lot of racism when I was growing up. It was horrific. But again, growing up in London was different from, say, a young Pakistani girl being brought up in a village where she is the only brown person in school. I think what perhaps changed over time was the demography. Today, the diversity is so large that no one feels discriminated against in a city like London. But if you move to a village in some shire up north, and you are the only brown person, you will have a totally different feeling.
The majority of the work that I do comes from outside the UK, and by seeing me, listening to me, and looking at me, they can immediately tell that I understand different cultures, that I am a product of two different cultures. And that makes them feel that I’ll have a greater capacity for understanding their contexts. For instance, there are often these foreign brands coming to the UK. I am at a much better position to understand them and be a sympathetic bridge, helping them to position themselves here. When I look at my friends who work in other PR firms, no one seems to have the level of international clients that I have.
On Material Culture
I: I think that it is an individual thing. For me, the one thing I carry a lot, which I don’t have today, are shawls. I go nuts over shawls. I carry one pretty much every day! I wear them with jeans and with my office dresses. When I fly, I carry giant shawls that literally cover my entire body. I am obsessed about shawls. So I think shawls are my thing. And I love paisley, which I think came from the image of a mango, and is a very Kashmiri motif. There is this Italian brand called Etro which uses the paisley motif. An Italian brand using a Kashmiri motif – that is so relatable for me.
On Cultural Appropriation
I think that ultimately everything is appropriated. Everything. Even the American Indians who claim that America is theirs had displaced a tribe before they settled. No one has a right to anything, really.
But yeah, you should have some sensitivity, obviously. For instance, some items have deep religious significance and if someone uses them in a very offhand way, then it is disrespectful of the religious sensibilities of others. I am not a religious person, but I believe that one must respect other people’s sensitivities. That’s being kind.
Also, if you are making a product that’s very expensive, and you have culturally taken it from somewhere, it is just good manners to acknowledge, donate, or support them in some way. Acknowledgement is important, even if we are, say, inspired by something and choose to work with it. Words of acknowledgement are basic; recognition in the form of outreach programmes or something similar will not only be a good thing to do, but will also help the brand become more purposeful and more likely to do better in the future.