Member Interview with Rana Brightman

We are delighted to bring you a Member Interview with Rana Brightman, CEO and Chief Strategy Officer, Ladyship 

What’s your golden rule?

Not being another Yes Man. Clients come to Ladyship for clarity and challenge, not polite agreement. My job is to say the thing that needs to be said, with rigour, empathy and zero spin.

Who has been your biggest influence?

I don’t think there’s one person that’s been my biggest influence but rather my own lived experience. Along the way I can cite my mother, my husband and most recently my business partner but what’s influenced me most has been working between cultures and markets. It has taught me to question orthodoxies, value clarity over convention, and build brands that are as human as they are commercial.

What is your most hated business expression?

“What else can we be doing?” It usually signals a bias towards more rather than better, more channels, more activity, more noise, without being honest about priorities, budget or appetite for risk. I believe in backing fewer things properly: being clear about what matters, investing in it with conviction, and having the courage to go bolder rather than busier.

What’s the smartest business idea you’ve ever had?

Backing myself to build Ladyship. After years inside global networks and independents, I wanted to work differently, closer to the work, more honest with clients, and braver in the decisions we stand behind. Creating a consultancy built on clarity, craft and conviction has been the most deliberate choice of my career.

Which leader do you admire most and why?

I don’t tend to idolise individual leaders, or see leadership through a single lens. I respect leaders, women and men, who combine clarity with care, make hard calls without ego, and understand that culture and performance aren’t opposites. When leadership shows up this way, it builds trust and momentum, regardless of title or gender.

What is on your mind the most right now as a marketing leader?

How we lead and create responsibly in a world changing faster than our frameworks. Whether it’s AI or broader cultural shifts, the challenge isn’t adoption, it’s intention. How we use our influence to create work that’s meaningful, trustworthy, and genuinely useful, rather than simply keeping pace.

Why is being part of The Marketing Society important for your career?

As an independent founder, my “corridor conversations” now come from the community I choose. The Marketing Society is one of the few spaces where senior marketers can be honest about what’s working (and what isn’t), share scars as well as success, and challenge each other to lead real change in the industry.

Why does marketing matter to you?

Marketing is where business ambition, human behaviour and creativity meet. Done well, it moves people towards better choices, for themselves, for brands and for society, not just the next quarterly target.

Tell us something that’s not on your CV

I’ve been a Garage MC on pirate radio, Chairwoman of Hackney Wick FC, and I hold a 1st Dan black belt in Taekwondo, and alongside all of that, I’m a mum. Different chapters, same muscle: finding my voice, holding my ground, and knowing when to lead and when to listen.