Ashley Miles Launches Franklyn West, Reimagining the Future of Consulting in a Post-Covid Era

Founding Clients include BORN and Business Ambassadors include Daymond John, Fran Hauser, Sandra Campos, Liz Kaplow, Jean-Christophe Chopin, Lydia Fenet, Dee Poku, among other proven business execs

Ashley Miles, former Global Chief Business Officer at Arianna Huffington’s Thrive Global and Chief Client Officer, Head of Advertising, North America at Refinery29, and current President of New York Women in Communications, is launching Franklyn West, a business growth collective, in order to bridge the gap for the next generation of leaders to reshape how we work and offer access to top talent across a myriad of industries and skill sets to make business impact.

“Many of today’s leading companies struggle with the digital innovation, agility and transformation required to compete in a rapidly evolving business landscape, which has been expedited by one of the most chaotic years in history,” said Miles, Founder and CEO of Franklyn West. “Business leaders are craving a new model that offers immediate, direct access to leading experts across several key business categories, as well as new kinds of business planning tools and services that shrink the planning cycle and make room for more experimentation and growth. It’s clear that the old consulting models are broken – I built Franklyn West to serve the needs of the next generation.”

Leading a business was statistically difficult pre-Covid, with 45% of new businesses failing in the first five years of existence and over 70% failing within a decade. Since the onset of Covid-19, there has been a multitude of high-profile CEO departures as well as a record number of business closures, all while business leaders are expected to match the relentless pace of transformation and growth. Ms. Miles has been at the forefront of building and scaling future-focused companies for over fifteen years and she immediately recognized a need from leaders craving fresh, practical perspective and guidance. Simultaneously, businesses often struggle to find diverse, experienced industry talent to match company growth areas in a timely manner, which is a key growth blocker for many companies.

Franklyn West, a business growth collective, is committed to transformation and sustainable growth for businesses and leaders. Franklyn West’s approach reimagines the classic processes of business planning and recruiting, with fresh growth planning tools and to-the-point resources for leaders. This includes a Pivotal Power Agenda diagnosis and workshop which shrinks the 4-6 month business planning process into 4 weeks; a Growthforce implementation, which assembles leaders cross-departmentally for experimentation purposes and helps drive decision making and Responsive Recruiting, which matches world-class Business Ambassadors in Residence to a company’s key areas of opportunity for 1, 2, 4+ week externships.

Franklyn West’s roster of talent was recruited based on their ability to make an impact with imagination, agility and unparalleled industry experience. Miles has sourced a stellar list of business leaders who are actively operating in their arenas, including: Daymond John, CEO of FUBU and The Shark Group, Fran Hauser, Startup Investor, Advisor and Best Selling Author, Sandra Campos, former CEO of Diane Von Furstenberg, Jean-Christophe Chopin, previous Founder of E*trade Europe and Verisign Europe and CEO of BORN, Lydia Fenet, Best Selling Author and Christie’s Auctioneer, Liz Kaplow, CEO and Founder of Kaplow Communications, Randi Liodice, President and Chief Strategy Officer of Kaplow Communications, Dee Poku, Founder and CEO, The WIE Suite, among others. Ambassadors in Residence will be matched with companies based on how their unique skill sets connect to a company’s business priorities and can accelerate results.

“Ashley can do for business planning and execution what Eric Reis did for product development with his LEAN startup method: she is shortening the business planning cycle and making it more agile. She is also bringing in diverse and fresh perspectives by tapping into her extensive network of business and leadership experts to make a greater impact, of which I am honored to be a part,” Fran Hauser, Startup Investor and Best-Selling Author.

“As someone who has watched Ashley make magic happen at every stop in her career, I expect that she is about to do the same with the launch of Franklyn West and the new model it represents. In this period of total disruption, growth is going to have to come from new, creative approaches… and this is a creative redefinition of consulting,” Marisa Thalberg, Executive Vice President, Chief Brand and Marketing Officer at Lowe’s Companies, Inc.

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