I have just finished speaking at a conference to an audience of 1000 business owners. Each of them had started their business… done the hard yards… created something from nothing. But the question I asked myself (in my head) as I was shared my story… ‘Why?’ What makes one person get on with it, whilst others talk about it? You know that my personal motto is ‘If it’s meant to be it is up to me’. I left the audience…
Monthly Archives: August 2008
Purple jelly beans and other corporate gift blunders
I wrote a few weeks ago that 65% of Australians last Christmas received a gift that they did not want (or like) the value of these gifts was estimated to be worth $985m. I’d like to know how many of these were given by companies? I have heard some tragic corporate gifting stories recently. I often speak about Happy People = Happy Profits. Well one way to keep people happy is give them a gift they will love. This week…
Stress costs less than disengagement.
A Medibank Private study has found that people who are ‘stressed’ at work are costing the economy $15billion a year in lost productivity. Stress is defined as people who have demands placed on them that they either don’t have the capacity to do (work overload) or the skill to do the job. Australian’s who are stressed will take on average 3.2 days off a year, costing businesses billions. The point is though it is often not seen. Perhaps it is…
What you say in private – is now very public.
Businesses have little control over what people say about them… individuals say what they want, when they want to – fair or unfair. An email can be broadcast to millions almost instantly. Now an upset customer is not limited to only the few people they have physical contact with – they can tell thousands. It is not just email, but blogging and social networking create instant media. Social networking is now the biggest media on the planet. Not only that…
Is your purpose ‘cult like’?
I have had quite a number of people forwarding me copies of their painted picture documents as they develop the vision for their businesses. It is a very personal document as an entrepreneur to put your thoughts down on paper; to allow your self to be vulnerable and dream without fear of failure. It is delightful for me to see into other peoples worlds. As I read one today I thought I wonder how this founder feels about the document…
What’s your favorite colour?
If you’ve met me in person you know that I have rather an extensive wardrobe of red outfits. I do love red (but believe it or not it is not my favorite colour). I am lucky that red is now in fashion. And especially in winter it really brightens things up. Red is a power colour according to researchers (which one’s I don’t know) it is memorable and has cut through – that is why so many companies have a…
What a waste….
Good Weekend had some interesting numbers in its Number Crunch feature : Estimated proportion of Australians who received an unwanted Christmas gift in 2007 : 65 %; amount spent on them : $985 million compiled by John Croucher, Professor of statistics, Macquarie University So if you’ve heard me speak, read this blog regularly or read my book you will already know my single purpose is to ‘change gifting in Australia forever’. Have you ever seen a better argument for why!……
RedBallooners celebrate
Each trimester (quarter with an extra month) we create a theme. Last trimester our theme was BlackDiamond. If we got the game (business result) we announced that we would take the whole team skiing. This is the RedBallooners at Thredbo. What a fantastic weekend. Such an experience, some had never seen snow before, others had been instructors in previous lives. This is one experience we will all remember.
Doing things differently
I think one of the reasons for our recent Hewitt employee engagement score of 97% is because we do things differently. We have an employee experience manager rather than a HR manager. One area that we have fantastic engagement is with the team that answers the phone every day…. Day in day out. This team is the personification of the brand. The customer service team at RedBalloon is not the average call centre. This is our Pleasure Relations Team- simply…
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...
If you ever feel stopped?
What is stopping you right now. Maybe nothing. If you are a person who is focused, positive, driven and has a clear sense of purpose then read no further… get back to it. If you ever find yourself wondering why other people seem to have all the luck, other people seem to be successful and other people seem to be driven by a purpose then perhaps this is for you. Do you know what drives you.. your purpose. I am…