Well there is no such thing as a free lunch…however according to Gallup Organisation in one of their many studies. If people are engaged with their employer (in other words know what they are doing, why they are doing it and others notice the difference they make) 78% will openly recommend the company’s products or services. For disengaged people only 13% will recommend their company’s product. Did I mention already that according to Gallup that Australians are the second least…
Monthly Archives: June 2006
When advertising just does not work
I love to say at my speaking engagements “There is no integrity in advertising.” I know how to really get marketers and advertising people off side. My point is though that it is the people within an organisation that are the greatest ‘marketing tool’ that you have. Your people, suppliers and distributors and customers are your greatest media. If you pay for advertising to tell people that you’re the greatest brand on the planet and then when they contact your…
Listening for Gold
Eric Rush was one of the keynote speakers at an Entrepreneur?s conference that I attended last week in Auckland. As an Australian girl, originally from Melbourne, brought up on AFL, a rugby Sevens – then All Black player was not someone that I had ever come across. What a fantastic message he had. Inside a very entertaining personal story I was left with two things. ?It is not the technical skill, knowledge or ability that makes the real difference in…
It’s a choice
He who can thinks he can, and he who can’t thinks he can’t. This is an inexorable, indisputable law. Henry Ford (1863-1947)
So how was it for you?
I have never feared customer feedback! In fact I welcome it and encourage it. Everyone has GOLD it is really listening hard for it that makes the difference. (Some people do try to hide their’s, others give it away freely) I remember once a woman called at RedBalloon wanting to speak to the ?complaints? department. I said ?Oh we?ve never had a complaint before, but we have had lot?s of people providing us with a valuable contribution so that we…
My Day at the zoo!
I woke up to one of Auckland?s ‘disgusting’ winter days. Not only was there torrential rain and huge winds, there was no power! The whole city was in a black out I had booked in for my Cheetah experience for 11.00, given the weather I wanted to confirm that all was ok. I tried to call using my mobile but the grid was over loaded, because most of the land lines just didn’t work. I had looked forward to this…
This is why I’m passionate about pleasure.
I spoke to a client recently (I love to pick up the phones). He said “I want to speak to somebody responsible” in a gruff voice – I thought “Oh I guess that would be me”, he continued.. ”I was given one of YOUR experiences as a retirement gift from my company and quite frankly I was not happy. I found myself driving to the experience and I was uncomfortable, in fact so uncomfortable that I decided to turn the…
I was recently asked about work life balance..
The funny thing is that as I’ve said I never would have invented this business if I had not become a Mum. So my children and husband are everything to me. The challenge now of course is that RedBalloon is a bigger business with a team of more than 30. And I am travelling regularly. I met Julian Tertini recently (one of the founders of Freedom Furniture and now Fantastic Furniture) and he was asked a similar question. He said…
Fun at work is very important!
The football frenzie is about to arrive and this provides a fantastic opportunity to ‘share the experience’ at work. Maybe even run an office tipping competition. I assure you I will be totally up to date with all the results and you will be able to get the real time results regularily from here.
Imagine running a business based on fun - that's what I decided to try when I left a very serious corporate career in marketing to set up RedBalloon...
What does it mean to be an entrepreneur?
I had the fantastic opportunity to be selected for the Entrepreneur’s Advanced Business Program at MIT in Boston. The program began last week. Early on we discussed how do we define entrepreneurialism. There was some interesting ideas: One was ‘monetised creativity’. Stephen Spinelli’s definition A way of thinking and acting that is opportunity obsessed, holistic in approach and leadership balanced. For the purpose of value creation and capture. It was agreed that “Thought without action is useless – Action without…