Ms Gillard, would you say no to a minimum 5.1% rise in annual GDP? As our first female prime minister, Julia Gillard, is in a unique position to champion affirmative action. Following comments this week by Australia’s Governor General, urging change – saying quotas could shift the ‘old boys club’. Ms Bryce said: ”I think there’s a very clear recognition and understanding that the progress of women in business at the very highest decision-making levels is too slow.” Ms Bryce,…
Applauding diversity not fearing it A young woman I know (30 – age is a relative thing) works within the financial markets. She works long hours, with little recognition or even contact with her manager. At annual review time her manager was very tough. He even went as far as to say: ‘the way you approach work is just different to the others.’ Interestingly, all her peers are men. Of course she approaches work differently – she is a woman….
It makes financial sense. After a week of soaking up the TED 2011 conversation in the US – I’m back at the office all fired up for International Women’s Day wondering why there are not more women on boards. Previously I’ve written about the concept of legislation to have 50 per cent of board roles filled by women by 2020 and also the gender imbalance when it comes to equal pay. Of course, affirmative action has its detractors. A legitimate…
I mentioned last week in the post ‘Can we Have it all’ that we are all given the same 24 hours… however how we use them makes the difference of our perception of time… (sometimes time races – other times it drags.) How would you feel if 21 hours was the new norm for the working week? This is an idea being proposed by the New Economic Forum (NEF) that – if money didn’t matter, if status didn’t matter –…
I just had lunch with a colleague – Kate, a casual celebration of her third year with RedBalloon. A bit of a reminisce and comparing notes on what we think has changed the most since 2008 both within and outside the business. She posed the question as we walked back… ‘Do you still think you are learning a lot?’ Interesting; that is what I am most excited about – learning. By nature I am curious (one of my strengths in…
Things often happen in threes, and today I have had three curly questions; one from a consumer customer, one a corporate customer and one a supply customer. Is exemplary customer service about having ‘Happy Customers’ at all cost? Does a business need to do everything it possibly can to keep customers ‘happy’ – or is it a case of ‘you cannot please all the people all the time’? I’m tremendously proud of RedBalloon’s growth, and the sheer quantity of customers…
Education is at the source of growth (not just for the individual but also for economies) and, in Australia, the majority of our university graduates are women. We’re number one on the planet in terms of educating women in tertiary institutions – yet the participation rate of those women in leadership roles is dire. So we’re spending the money on education but we’re not getting the return out of our highly educated people. I’ve written before about the economic argument…
They both make really bad gifts…and Australian’s wasted $1 billion on stuff like that last Christmas. Unwanted gifts reached an estimated $1billion in Australia last year. As Kris Cringle buddies are assigned to family members and work colleagues in the upcoming weeks, please remember that what you think is a good gifts can go badly. The research tells us that gifts ranged from the mundane to the outright awkward including: hankies, tandoori spice rub for chicken given to a vegetarian,…
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...
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Being Stingy is so last century.
Why do some people think it is okay to be stingy in saying ‘thank you’. I have been in three situations recently that have given me an insight I had been oblivious too. When we happily operate in our own world we are often blind to other peoples view of the world. I thought people knew how important it is to be grateful for another person’s generosity and that to authentically thank them was the gift they give in return….