I’ve watched with interest the controversy in recent weeks regarding Mark Zuckerberg’s continued wearing of ‘hoodies’ during the lead up to the IPO of Facebook. The question was raised – is what he chose to wear disrespectful to financial institutions? I choose to wear red in my capacity as Founding Director of RedBalloon – some would say that it has become my ‘trade mark’. (Quite frankly it makes it really easy to shop for work clothes – it is simply…
Tag Archives: Entrepreneurial Journey
Customer Intimacy
Sometimes all the intention in the world – still means that a customer does not have a good interaction. The question I pose is can we please all the people all the time? I was saddened by an email I received directly from a customer this week – accusing RedBalloon of not listening….. I reviewed all his correspondence, we had clearly acknowledged each of his concerns and offered suggestions, hence I could see that the RedBalloon team member had listened….
Coming up this week 7 May 2012
Last week I learned a lot – things about mobile and eCommerce. I finished reading Abundance by Diamandis and Kotler… which I found completely inspiring. We had our company meeting which was hosted by the marketing team – and they chose a ‘Thank you’ theme… letting each team know how we all contribute to our marketing effort. (It gave me a chance to talk about the upcoming book.) I did a presentation to RAMs and met the CEO, Melos Sulicich…
Coming up this week 16 April 2012
I have really appreciated the flexibility that I have in my life when it comes to school holidays over the last two weeks. My daughter came to the office for a few days to assist me transfer all the business cards I have collected to LinkedIn invitations. During the two weeks I was able to mix and match – working at odd times to ensure I had time to be with my fast growing teenagers. It did make me lament…
Great Leaders Listen Loudly
I was recently with a group of start up businesses; this small group of founders was excitedly debating the best way to promote their businesses using social media. Each was bemoaning that they were not getting much traction on their twitter and Facebook page… and one was asking me if it was ‘worthwhile’ to start a blog. Here’s the thing: Only blog, tweet and FaceBook if you have something worth saying that might be of interest and value to someone…
Eight Ingredients at the Mentoring retreat
I thought about it at great length – consulted extensively with my colleagues – then asked on this blog if there would be an interest for some of those who contact me regarding their business growth strategies – would it be a good idea to get some like minded people got together for a weekend of discussion and sharing? Now the entrepreneurs mentoring retreat is almost finalized and I’m getting very excited to have it all come together. The pre-reading…
Coming up this week 26 March 2012
Interesting little transition last week in the life on Naomi Simson – I was asked on three separate occasions to contribute to something – because I write this blog. I found that fascinating. I was introduced on Channel Nine’s Mornings program as ‘one of Australia’s leading business bloggers’ – I was asked to be a guest tweeter for ABCs Lateline on Tuesday – and I was asked to attend the BB Retail Capital conference (of Adairs, Bras and things, Diva…
Coming up this week 19 Mar 2012
Last week I didn’t know whether I was coming or going – I got to meet a total of 1300 people in three speaking engagements in three different regions; Hamilton Island, Sunshine Coast and Sydney. I had a full day in Sydney learning about negotiation skills – as well as writing the final chapter of the next book and the program for the mentoring weekend in April… I big thank you to my colleague Philippa, for keeping me focused on…
Back to basics for Mr Harvey.
I’m not one to throw stones at other people’s business leadership – but something has been churning around in my belly all week since I read that Gerry Harvey has reduced his online forecasts. As I began to write this post I received a good overview from Business Spectator on it’s thoughts on the large retailers and the online space. The thing that I find concerning about Mr Harvey’s approach to online – is simply his inconsistency. I would be…
If I knew then what I knew now – 1
I have been asked to write a series for the Fairfax papers – these columns appear regularly in The Age, Sydney Morning Herald and Courier Mail… The editor asked me to write something that was insightful but educational.. and he inferred entertaining too. As I thought about it I realised that the lessons learned – or things that ‘I wish I knew’ would probably the most useful… so I have republished them here – because not everyone has a subscription…
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...
