Oscar admires the Ducati
After a massively long and productive 2009 it is time to refresh... It is family time. As the kids are much older now, their first trip to Europe has been in the planning for more than a year. Italy for a month. It is wonderful to watch them delight at ice skating on the banks of the Tiber river in Rome, navigate the cobble stoned alleys, negotiate the purchase of bread each morning and learn about ancient cultures.
There is much of course that is universally the same... Interesting that in a matter of seconds we assess an establishment by the greeting and demeanour of the staff. New years eve and we had planned to listen to the concert at the colosseum, and watch the fire works. But it began to bucket down. We ducked into a tarverna (early by Roman standards – 7.00) and we were warmly welcomed by an enthusiastic waiter, ushering us in, out of the weather... He found us a cosy place in the corner, made sure that we had drinks and something to eat, as they rushed around preparing to open for the evening. A very well worn décor, (dilapidated really) but full of personality... And fun, rather than just dropping in we ended up staying for hours, chatting and laughing. The evening had been set by the way we were greeted.
What a contrast to the Ducati Caffe. My son loves all things with wheels and the fact that he could visit this concept store and have lunch there filled him with excitement. All slick and nice, but cold and lacking personality. The staff could not have cared, they were off hand to the point of rude, not interested in even giving us menu’s, let alone a drink or lunch. They seemed to be very haughty even with each other. The food was bad and took forever to come, we finally gave up on coffees and left. It was cold, void of personality and not what was expected of an iconic Italian brand.
It made me consider two things (can’t help myself even on holidays). The dangers of brand extensions, and also that people are the brand.
Ducati wont miss us, we are travellers so unlikely to be regular customers, but I suspect we are not alone in our experience, so one by one the Ducati brand image is impacted, and over a period of time the overall impression of the brand is changed. No amount of advertising will re-engage me in the brand promise. The promise was broken and once done is very difficult to repair. I’m not the target audience for the original product (motor bikes) so maybe it does not matter at all. But my son will remember that some how Ducati let him down...
A brand is a promise, held in the heart of our customers. It is a fragile relationship determined moment by moment by the people who represent it.
This is my ninth RedBalloon Christmas... And so far it has been the most exhilarating. The numbers are way up on last year. All the planning, preparation and investment means that things seem to be going smoothly. No chaos. The team has it all in hand. We are so much bigger now that there are people to do all the right things at all the right times.
Our retail locations, at Myer, Target, Dymocks and Westfield Bondi and Chatswood are making a new business for us in an off line world. The online retailer going into traditional retail. A very exciting development. To change gifting in Australia forever we need to be where people are purchasing gifts, hence the move to retail including gift cards in Australia Post, Big W, Woolworths and many others.
Every day we seem to be breaking new ‘world’ records... number of people spoken to, emails answered, experiences delivered, and numbers visiting the website. I see now the investment we have made in building enterprise level robustness into the site has more than paid off.
It is the investment in the team, however - that is delivering the most unbelievable Christmas. We did not let up on any of our programs during 2009, no matter the gloom and doom in the papers. We have many new people who are experiencing their first Christmas at RedBalloon - there is an air of excitement - of camaraderie, a shared sense of achievement.
And I just got the best Christmas gift that any employer could receive. Hewitt has accredited RedBalloon as one of only five Best Employers in Australia for 2009.
Thank you - Thank you - Thank you to all the RedBallooners, especially the Employee Experience Team, our customers, suppliers and amazing supporters. It really is an amazing experience.
Casey and Megan the Employee Experience Team - cooking a little breakfast for the team
I'm wishing I had a dollar for every time someone told me they had had a tough year this year. ‘So glad to see the back on 2009’. People are saying that they have worked harder than they have in years yet ‘Christmas bonuses are long since a thing of the past, and salary reviews for next year are not yet certain’.
So the question I have been putting to business owners and leaders is ‘how are you making your people feel loved this festive season? What are you doing to breath positivity into the new year? How are you saying thank you?’
Straight after Christmas comes new year... And many people will make a new years resolution to find an new job. We've seen research that says upward of 30% of people were waiting for the upturn before making a career change. The media is reporting signs of recovering and optimism is beginning to emerge. This is the time that some employees have been waiting for - the grass is beginning to look greener.
Resignations traditionally spike at the Christmas break anyway. This year is likely to be worse. It may well be too late. If people have already ‘mentally checked out’ it will be difficult to bring them back to the fold. So now is the time to get people thinking positively about the new year, to let them know that they will be appreciated. To really get to work on aligning people to the purpose of the business. This investment may take a while but it will repay itself well and truly in time for Christmas 2010.
So be proactive about the Christmas ‘disconnect’. Here’s a few things you could do:
And remember one last little piece of wisdom. SMILE, and have a laugh. It is okay to have fun in business, to be yourself, and people want to hang around a place where people are having fun (and achieving results)
As the leadership team goes so goes the rest of the organization.
So you have the power to put the ‘Merry’ back in Christmas, and then they will show up again for another year.
In the past eight years since founding RedBalloon, we’ve created several businesses along the way and they all have lead to other greater things.
One of the businesses that we invented was to solve a particular ‘problem’ that we had at RedBalloon - some 30% of our customers are self purchasers, another words they really like the activities we offer and want to do them themselves. Friday afternoons were frantic as people called our customer experience team wanting to know if they could book an activity for the weekend.
At the same time we were approached by two separate but large travel agency groups - saying that the wanted to include RedBalloon activities in their ground content offering - however a voucher system would not work for them - they wanted real time booking ability.
We saw this as a business opportunity to grow another business. So we invented GoDo.com.au - a real time booking engine for activities in Australia and New Zealand. We already had the relationship with the best activity suppliers in the country, and because of that relationship we built an intranet which enabled suppliers to publish their availability in real time. This had never been done before anywhere on the planet. The technology won awards for it’s innovation. It is an amazing aggregator and resource for Australian tourism.
We then took this technology and embedded it into the major tourism sites in Australia: Lastminute, Virgin Blue, Stayz to name just a few GoDo gives activity suppliers an online voice way beyond what they could do individually. We did not try to build a brand for GoDo - it was about the cleverness of the technology to aggregate supply and demand.
There is a brilliant opportunity for this technology to operate in markets other than Australia and New Zealand. It is amazingly flexible and exciting platform. But I knew, as did my business partner that there was an organization who would take this business to the next level. I am so committed and excited by RedBalloon and what it is doing - GoDo has much bigger potential. It should have the opportunity to capitalise on its full potential. And new ownership will allow it to realize this opportunity. I wanted to do it all, but alas I was not the best person to continue to grow GoDo at the pace it could. There is a fabulous committed team that have made GoDo amazing, they too are looking for career and growth opportunities.
But when you build something, work with the team - believe in what you’re doing, to find the best next place for a business and it’s technology can be a challenge. We needed to find someone who had the vision and resources to truly capitalise on what has already been created.
So today Wotif.com announced to it’s stakeholders the acquisition of GoDo. It is such an obvious fit. Both businesses are focused on tourism and travel, both businesses are entrepreneurial and innovative - there is a wonderful cultural fit. And I know that the business goes to a place where it will truly thrive, beyond what we could ever do for it.
I’m sure as an entrepreneur I still have many more businesses that I will start... the ones that I have started in the last eight years since founding RedBalloon have all come from listening to customers, seeing an opportunity and going for it.
One thing that I know has put us on this amazing projectory of growth has been the single minded purpose we have - supported by an amazing team. We are all aligned to the business of giving amazing gifts.
Wotif.com Holdings Limited (Wotif Group) today announced it had entered into an agreement to acquire all the issued shares in Go Do Pty Ltd (GoDo) from RedBalloon Pty Ltd (RedBalloon)
Established in 2006 as part of the RedBalloon Group, GoDo provides a real time online booking service for "things to do" in Australia and New Zealand. GoDo sells these activities direct via its website (godo.com.au) and via a network of affiliate sites and third party distributors.
With more than 1,000 suppliers providing 2,000 plus bookable activities, GoDo is a leading operator in the activities market place. Products are extremely diverse ranging from theme park passes, day spas, cooking classes, skydiving, hot air ballooning and V8 racing, to name but a few.
RedBalloon CEO Naomi Simson said “We are pleased that the GoDo business has been acquired by Wotif Group, a world class entrepreneurial organization operating in the travel space. There is a great cultural fit between the businesses and offers great synergies for both parties.
Given that Christmas is fast approaching.. most businesses have organized what they are giving their people now, but sometimes I shake my head in disbelief as people share with me how thoughtless or simply dumb some employers are about giving a gift. People have worked harder this year than they have in years – and for most there will be no Christmas bonus. So a well thought out gift will make the difference.
Recently we surveyed 3000 employees about the “best” and “worst” gifts they had ever received and why.
Here’s what NOT to do:
Effort versus reward imbalance and offensive to employees
Tacky
Not so much the reward but the way it is delivered
Standardised clutter
No recognition/ reward at all feel like another number or disregarded
Please take a moment to think about what employees (and family and friends) really want... And authentic gift that shows true appreciation will make the new years employee engagement so much easier.
What is the worst gift you ever received from your boss (or best if you want to tell someone how great they are)
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It all depends on how you view the world... at least we know where getting somewhere when the conversation becomes mainstream.
Love it.
From a very serious corporate career in marketing to creating a business based on fun RedBalloon, this is my journey. In this blog I share what it takes to be an entrepreneur and what I have learned - warts and all. I am also the author of I want what she is having which chronicles the first five years of building of a fast growing business.
Very proud to be awarded National Telstra Business Womens Award for 2008 in the Nokia Innovation Catogory
Better out than in.
I was chatting with a friend this morning who said that he had three of his team resign in the last week. He asked ‘That’s not good is it?’
On the surface we look at the cost of replacing them and all the history and experience that they depart with, and of course we say - ‘you’re right, this is not good’.
The first question I asked was ‘are they avoidable or unavoidable leavers?’ ‘What do you mean by that?’ he queried. This might be common terminology for HR professional - but most business owners (including myself until I was enlightened by the RedBalloon employee experience manager about a year ago) will be unfamiliar with the concept.
Unavoidable Leavers: are those who are leaving because the circumstances of their departure are determined for reasons external to the organization. For example we had a designer who wanted to go to South America and build an orphanage and travel the world. There is nothing the business could do to support him in following his passion. He was a great contributor, highly engaged, produced great work.... but RedBalloon was not where his next life experience was going to come from.
Avoidable Leavers: are primarily when the organization has let that person down, either recruiting the wrong person for the role, or not having the next career step for them. They might be engaged whilst employed, they may not. If they are not engaged, then the organization has let them down in some way. Right person, right role, right values and management.
I questioned my friend further about why he had three employee leaving at once. I asked him to describe the circumstances of their resignation. Numbers can be deceptive without understanding.
I hear people talk about ‘churn’ rates, or retention rates - judging the effectiveness of a management team based on this. As far as I’m concerned the much more interesting conversation is about engagement. Did they play full out while they were employed.
Resignations provide an opportunity to review roles, adjust them, recruit new people with fresh enthusiasm and other life experiences into the organization.
I’m very clear that as an employer RedBalloon is part of our peoples journey, it is not the destination. There are a lot of things that people want to do in life, our challenge is to make sure that they love what they do while they’re with us, and that when they do leave, they go with great stories to share about this chapter of their story.