Putting on the Lipstick

Thanks Minh, Alex, Joy and Philippa for giving my blog a face lift. Nice that my blog is now in line with all the other RedBalloon sites. We can’t have the CEO with the oldest looking blog…

I have now been blogging for close to five years. I find that it is a great place to put things that I learn.

The other thing that is very exciting is that RedBalloon is nine years old this week. It is nine years since the first website went live and I sat in the front room at home waiting for the first customer – of course that took 2 months and 4 days to actually happen. Wow, what I ride. I’ll keep sharing what I learned on this amazing journey…

We are recruiting many roles – and we publish them on the Amazing Careers page on the RedBalloon site…. but we wanted to give people a bit more of an idea of what it is really like.

Well done team… even you Dexter Dog head of security with your twist at the end.

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.

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Thank you.

I used the term ‘Stepford wives’  in my recent blog “Why women are paid less”– in my mind I saw this term as meaning ‘perfect woman’, think ‘Grace Kelly’ as in the movie. It was brought to my attention this morning that if you do a Google search on the term, that is not in fact the definition that comes up.

I had no intention of causing offence – as some said ‘self promoting at the expense of others’. I don’t know this group of women well at all – I had used dramatics to create contrast. An exaggeration of an idea to illustrate my point. It does not in anyway reflect on those individuals themselves. But I can see how the misunderstanding and offense has occurred and for that I take full responsibility and apologise.

The simple message of my blog was that I would like to live in a world where woman(and men) have the power of choice – and that each may choose their contribution and pursue it single mindedly. It is not for any person or organization to discriminate against them because of that choice.

I have re-edited the blog to leave my opinion because I think it is an interesting debate to have.

Thanks for bringing this to my attention – without it I would not know – what is the saying, I often “fire ready aim.” Forgive me. I have learned my lesson.

I’d like to think that the planning process is more than a bunch of ‘guesstimates’. I’ve always been one to ‘take my destiny on myself’ – I have never considered hope a strategy.  Here is a piece that I did for Verne Harnish on planning.

This year more than ever will be about knowing what you are the worlds best at and doing more of it.

Having always believed that I am a lucky person. When I was about seven I won a whole jar of jelly beans because I guessed the right number in the jar. When I joined the cross country team in high school on the first run I found a $10 note. If I enter a competition then I always think I’m going to win…(I don’t always) funnily I never buy a lottery ticket.

I’ve always thought that I am lucky… but I do think that positivity attracts luck. Of course I was going to ‘get’ the job in NYC straight out of University – because I believed in my heart that I was lucky.

To not think of yourself as lucky does not mean that you won’t be successful it just means that you will have to work a lot harder at it. But persistence too plays a big role in success