There’s no business like show business, and that at least partly explains how Fiona Blades grew up in a small village in the north of England wanting to be a ballerina, studied Drama and Literature at University, then went on to establish MESH Experience in 2006, a global consumer insight agency with offices in London, New York, São Paulo and Singapore.

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MESH specialises in understanding people’s experiences – with brands, within categories and across their behaviours, working with global icons including Unilever, GM and LG.

Many people look at the products and services they use and think “I could do that better,” but few ever do. Fiona was bold enough to take an outsider’ perspective and develop a new approach to help businesses better use critical data to improve brand experiences online, offline and the real world.

We discuss where MESH grew from, Fiona’s perspective on brands, culture, data, insight and driving change when decision makers may have their blinkers on.

This is a fascinating discussion including the role of tech and data in understanding the lives of people, as well as the vital role of people thinking and reflecting to solve business and other complex problems.

You can find Fiona via www.meshexperience.com or LinkedIn

Real People is a podcast hosted by Jason Dunstone, the founder and managing director of Square Holes, 25 years conducting research and interviews with average and not so average people, as well as interviews with key leaders such as innovators, politicians, scientists and experts. He has have been lucky to meet such wonderful and intelligent people, and have such fascinating discussions, but these are often largely deciphered down to research findings, insightful quotes, statistics et cetera for reports. Real People opens up such conversations for people like you

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