Monthly Archives: June 2009

A bit of emotion brings values to life.

By naomisimson | Published: June 26, 2009
It's not just what you do - but it is who you are that counts. Values have always been such an integral part of what we do at RedBalloon. But they are nowhere listed on a wall in our offices. Yet we speak of them every day. I was chatting with one of my colleagues [...]
Posted in Lessons Learned | 1 Comment

Employee engagement in the time of pay freezes.

By naomisimson | Published: June 25, 2009
You can't pick up a paper or business publication without reading about job losses and pay freezes… British Airways has asked it's employees to go without pay for a month… Telstra has frozen it's top execs' pay.  51% of privately held businesses have frozen salaries. 44% of Telco's have pay freezes and 33% of IT [...]
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Standing out by being yourself

By naomisimson | Published: June 24, 2009
I wrote a blog back in 2006 about 'The Story of Johnny the Bagger'. A simple tale about being ourselves when we are with our customers - and how easy it can be to add value to them. It is great to be reminded that it is the simple things that can make the biggest [...]
Posted in Lessons Learned | 1 Comment

The best job in Australia..interested?

By naomisimson | Published: June 18, 2009
People often ask me whether as Chief Experience Officer I get to try all the experiences. It is not actually physically possible because we have more than 2500 experiences now listed… and we publish up to 50 new every month. That would be more than one a day. There is one role that does get [...]
Posted in Input Please | 1 Comment

The end is nigh? and other happy thoughts

By naomisimson | Published: June 17, 2009
I ponder how best to say 'thanks for playing' as the financial year draws to a close. Leadership teams are frantically putting the finishing touches on the strategic plan for the year to come, employees and managers are getting ready for performance reviews, the sales and marketing bods are giving one last big push to [...]
Posted in Reward & Recognition | Leave a comment

Four top future trends

By naomisimson | Published: June 16, 2009
Just listening to Richard Watson of nowandnext.com  – the Futurologist who wrote Future Files. First of all I like a bloke who will make up words to suit the occasion (see some of them below). Secondly who will poke fun about his own profession and thirdly who, when asked what is the future of industrial [...]
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It’s time to plan for an exciting year.

By naomisimson | Published: June 15, 2009
It's planning and review season at RedBalloon - everything seems to happen at this time of year. And this year it will be tougher to produce the operational plan when we still don't know how the economy will impact us. I'd like to think that the planning process is more than a bunch of 'guesstimates'. [...]
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Are we being un-Australian about the GFC?

By naomisimson | Published: June 12, 2009
Every couple of months RedBalloon sends a survey to it's customers on how employees are feeling about a particular workplace issue. We've dubbed it the Pleasure Survey. This time we wanted to put aside all the doom and gloom in the news and ask workers of all ages their view of the GFC Well our [...]
Posted in Interesting Numbers | Leave a comment

Why do women need their own awards anyway.

By naomisimson | Published: June 11, 2009
Last year I was (and the RedBalloon team) honored being named winner National Telstra Business Womens Awards - Innovation - at the event I committed to be a great ambassador for the awards 'and do them proud'. (speech below). So now it is time to nominate those women who you see who are up to [...]
Posted in Articles | 1 Comment

Which traits get you ‘ahead’ in business

By naomisimson | Published: June 10, 2009
The interview for Marie Claire asked such a variety of questions..the answers might be of interest. What one trait has helped you most in business? Knowing what I stand for, my values and those of the people around me…. People can copy what you do but they cannot copy who you are or the relationships [...]
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