Jack Cowen - Founder and Exec Chairman of Competitive Foods

Jack Cowen started his presentation at the EY Entrepreneurs workshop with a quote “An entrepreneur needs to be a cross between a microbiologist and an astronomer.” He believes that true entrepreneurs are special in that they can be both detailed and visionary.

He was a judge in the EY Global Entrepreneur of the year program in Monte Carlo for 2010. It was a delight to have him in the room sharing his insights – not just from his own amazing entrepreneurial journey – but also from the many business founders he has met along the way.

He made the following observation: Those businesses that own the technology or the system, ie they have a level of exclusivity gain great advantage. They have the magic of what people will pay for and it makes it difficult for competitors to invade that space. If a business cannot own the technology (or systems and processes) then it must own the brand.

Jack reflected following the EY event that in his opinion the six traits of great entrepreneurs are:

1. We have a fundamental curiosity – we want to explore things.
2. We are persistent beyond reason
3. We search for better ways to do things – we agitate for change
4. We are endlessly positive in every part of our lives
5. We are focused and able to run lean and mean
6. We have exemplary people skills – we understand leverage and that we cannot do it on our own.

Marg Hartley with her teenage daughters

That would certainly make headlines, wouldn’t it? I wonder the impact such an initiative would have.

On the weekend I was chatting with my friend Margie Hartley and she shared some insights into why there are not more women in senior roles in Australia. Marg facilitates women’s resilience programs and is a coach to executives. She wrote a blog recently about the disappearing pipeline for senior female executives.

As we were chatting I offered that making childcare – including qualified in-home childcare – tax deductible could be an advantage to keeping more women in the workforce. This idea was recently tabled at the Tax Forum by a group called Chief Executive Women, representing nearly 200 business leaders, including highflyers such as Gillian Broadbent, Ita Buttrose, and Janet Holmes a Court.

Of course, this does not take into account those women not attracted to the corporate ladder, but still requiring greater flexibility in childcare, for example nurses working shifts, where the usual 7am opening and 6pm close of a long daycare is no help.  Actually, nor is it much support to the corporate working- woman either, given the hours often ‘expected’ in that world (which is another blog in itself).

Another submission made to the Tax Forum by the National Foundation for Women, argues that childcare tax breaks are not the solution, as tax deductibility versus the current childcare rebate would leave some families weekly out of pocket on their childcare fees. Put simply, nurses do not have access to the tax breaks that higher earners in the corporate world can experience.

My friend Marg’s response upped the ante: “What if Australia had free, ie: publically-funded childcare? We have public primary and secondary schools – our economy is changing and public policy needs to change with it.” It’s an interesting idea: public preschools that feed into our publicly-funded primary system.

However this is not a simple issue for under school age children. Every working mother I know talks about the horror of handling school holidays and trying to find appropriate arrangements.   Plus coming back to the notion of working hours, services that run outside of school hours are also vital.

Speaking with another woman the other night at the Global Banking Alliance for Women summit – hosted by Gail Kelly – with Penny Wong presenting the 40% female representation on government boards initiative. Much of the conversation around our table at the event was about the ‘juggling’ game that parents play. One woman lamented “I work 4 days a week, I have two pre school children and childcare costs me $40k per year…in POST TAX DOLLARS – I have to earn $70k just to pay for childcare… you have really got to love what you do at work to make it worth working at all.”

That is the point!

Ultimately, as business leaders, we all need to be willing to embrace change and lead by example. Change the notion of what is an appropriate working week. Change leadership expectations and, as Margie writes in her blog: “have leaders demonstrate flexibility that is really flexibility. Not a five-day week squeezed into four days or the ability to work 14 hours a day through technology.”

Let me hear your thoughts on this one…

Our Customer Experience team - 'Being Real'

Another interesting question posed by the Australian – everyone is looking for the get quick rich scheme – and the reality is that there are none – unless you don’t mind a bit of hard work… here is my response to the question “How to make money online?”.

This century is all about transparency and authenticity – people want to know that you are real. But having a great product that appeals to people and will get them talking is where real success lies. I have always asked myself the question – ‘who really gives a damn?’ We might think it is the best idea ever, but really we need to get over ourselves, a bit. Sometimes when people share with me their ‘fantastic’ business ideas – the first question I ask is ‘why?’ Why are you doing this? It might be your passion but are there other people who agree – more importantly are there millions of them?

Don’t be fooled into thinking RedBalloon was an overnight success – it was two months and 4 days after the site launched in 2001 before we made our first sale! In almost ten years we have taken that number to over 1.1million experiences sold. Hard work, dedication and expelling the word failure from your vocabulary is key.

One of the biggest difficulties in running an online company is trying to connect with a customer who you will never have a true face-to-face relationship with. We try to combat this by ensuring each and every opportunity we have to engage with a customer – whether that be by phone, email or the physical delivery of an experience – ends in a great memory. In the early days a woman called me saying she was just about to purchase online with us – but she wanted to know if we where ‘real’. I answered “well you are talking to the CEO”. She responded but how do I know that, you could just as easily be the janitor (the reality was that I was the janitor too – I wore most hats in those early years). In that moment I knew that I had to build trust for my fledgling online business – I had to let people know that there was real people behind the brand. Hence with every opportunity we attend trade shows, conferences and seminars. We get out from behind the website and eye ball our customers. I personally find myself speaking at many events – this is all part of the plan to make sure people can really know us… so we are real to people…. (and it is one of the reasons for being a blogger)

Step number one in making money online is to be real, be yourself and be accessible. (Most of the promotional photo’s you see on the RedBalloon website are either of team members or were taken by team members). The next step to making money is about having a clear sense of purpose – and let people know what you stand for.

In the case of RedBalloon, it was about identifying our key audiences by considering “who would want to buy experiences” and “what sort of people want to make a difference in the lives of others”? I quickly came to the conclusion that RedBalloon would appeal to both the corporate and consumer world. Mums and dads, brother and sisters as well as businesses who put budgets aside for rewarding and recognising the efforts of their employees.

Yes, we are a business, and a key objective for a business is to make a profit. We make no secret of that. But some recent research from Travis Carter and Thomas Gilovich* really cemented that we’re on the right track with what we are do here at RedBalloon – to change gifting in Australia and NZ forever with meaningful experiences, because we believe that the most important gift is the gift of shared experience. The research showed that it’s not wealth that causes happiness, but what and how money is used that contributes to our sense of well being. The more aligned a purchase is to ‘shared experience’, the greater the sense of happiness. This deepens relationships. Interesting that the research tells us that we adjust our memories over time to ‘edit’ the bits we did not like about the experience – and we only remember the good bits – whilst the luster of a material gift will continue to fade over time.

Another critical ingredient to being profitable is not to waste money. When I started the business at home I used second hand computers, shared resources and did almost everything myself (except cut code). Whilst it might not have been the most professional or best return on my time – it meant that every dollar earned was invested in growth – rather than administration – and that we made a nominal profit from day one which could be reinvested. (RedBalloon is completely self funded) My philosophy has not changed. You do need to spend money to grow (no-one has saved themselves into growth), but the reality is that most business growth comes through building unbreakable customer relationships. And to get unbreakable customer relationships you need people who are completely committed and passionate about what they do. So a dollar invested in your people is worth far more than splashing money around on expensive bill board advertising. Advertising has a place – but it is to remind people of the relationship that they have with your brand… not to create a relationship. It takes people to do that.

So to make money online is very much about knowing what you stand for and sharing the story – having a fabulous team who share a deep commitment to a sense of purpose. The purpose simply cannot be ‘to make money’ – making money is to business what breathing is to life – it is essential, but I didn’t wake up this morning just to breath. I remember years ago when I worked in a professional services firm and the partner said something to the effect of “work harder make me more money and one day you could be here too”. Very uninspiring. If you are in business just to make money then the road is likely to be far harder, than being in business to do something to make the world a better place.
In summary

1. Be real
2. Sense of purpose
3. Invest in people

* Carter, Travis J and Gilovich, Thomas, Enjoyment of experiences and possessions

Peter Schwarts - Futurist

In no particular order I present quotes from the event which either made me reflect, ponder, question or dream. (I have only added links for the people who were speakers at the event – the other quotes were part of either the work book or presentations)

1. “Every morning is the beginning of a brand new day. You have been given this new day to use it as you want. You can waste it, or use it for good. What you choose is important, because you are exchanging a day of your life for it! When tomorrow comes, this day will be gone forever. In its place is something that you have left behind. Let it be worth it!

2. “If there is a hole in the boat – it does not matter if you have the cabin on it.” Mr Kofi Annan

3. “Again some questions to answer. The first answer that comes to mind will be interesting; the second that comes to mind will be very smart. The third answer that comes to mind might well be the truth. Find your third answer.”

4. “The problem is not how to get new thoughts into your head – but how to get the old one’s out.”

5. “To dare is to lose one’s footing momentarily. To not dare is to lose oneself.”

6. “We live in a time of profound turbulence” Peter Schwartz – Futurist and world wide web user #70

7. “By 2030 70% of the worlds population will live in cities and the most likely source of conflict in the future is over water.” Peter Schwartz – childhood friend to Steven Spielberg and adviser to movies such as the Minority Report.

8. “Prosperity – Peace – Sustainability must go hand in hand – it is not one at the expense of another – we only have one planet.”

9. When asked, “What should we teach our children?” Kofi Annan answered “Give them the right set of values, and start early. Character is everything. It is extremely important. Teach your children to be true to themselves.”

10. “It is necessary to the happiness of a man that he be mentally faithful to himself.” Kofi Annan.

11. When asked about what it was like to sit and negotiate with dictators he responded “when the man sitting across from you is a murderer, a person who kills people and the only tool I had was persuasion – you do it because you know that you will leave a better human being – and maybe have made a difference.”

12. In 1974 as an experimental atomic physicist at the University of Oxford, Joshua Silver asked himself the question “Why are there 3 billion people on the planet who need glasses and they can’t get them?” So began his life journey to develop cheap, self-adjusting glasses that could be manufactured for a dollar and distributed through existing world health organizations. So far he has 40,000 self-adjusting glasses in the field being tested – but they still cost around $19 to produce. Here is a man who is asking the big question. (see TED talk inserted below)

13. “At the end, entrepreneurship is not about wearing expensive suits and earning a lot of money. It is all about being true to yourself, to your values in life. Your dreams.” Richard Branson

14. “ To be an entrepreneur is the degree to which you can handle uncertainty.” Peter Sage.15. “The problems of the world cannot possibly be solved by skeptics or cynics whose horizons are limited by the obvious realities. We need women and men who can dream of things that never were.” JFK

16. “Our legacy is to teach our children to move their value set from individual/greed to collective/generosity. There is only one people, there is only one planet”

17. “Who dares to get lost discovers new roads.”

18. “There is a difference between knowing the path and walking the path.” Morpheus – The Matrix movie

19. “Even the wisest mind has something yet to learn.” George Santayana

20. “Possibilities do not add up they multiply.”

21. “We don’t do this because it is easy we do this because it is hard.” JFK

22. Entrepreneurs don’t wait – they shape their own world – the bigger the challenge the greater the opportunity.

23. “To dream anything that you want to dream, that’s the beauty of the human mind. To do anything that you want to do, that is the strength of the entrepreneurial spirit.”

24. “Surround yourself with people who are only going to lift you higher.” Oprah Winfrey.

25. “I learned the power of conviction, the potential of community, and the imperative of action.” Chris Turner springwise.com

I took this photo in Amsterdam - Take a moment to enter our photo competition.

I have had a couple of weeks out of the office – I had a week in Perth – with three speaking engagements before heading to Amsterdam  (via a weekend in Paris with a long time girlfriend.) for the Entrepreneurs Organization conference. I found the event completely inspiring, insightful and educational – I will share in future blogs.

This week:

Arrive back to Sydney and have breakfast with Verne Harnish (he is in town delivering the Rockafeller Habits Program I highly recommend it for anyone looking for growth strategies.) I have a webinar for SmartCompany and I will be in Melbourne for a speaking engagement and then Friday it is school holidays – so I will slip off for five days of family time. I’m really looking forward to the celebratory breakfasts and dinners this week for the 17 people at RedBalloon who have been promoted to new roles….

A few quotes from the speakers in Amsterdam

“Dare to strike out and find new grounds” John Keating – Dead Poets Society

“You are not what you say – you are what you do” Severn Suzuki (grand daughter of David Suzuki she spoke at the RIO Earth Summit in 1992 at the age of 12)

“If you want to be seen as good – it is simple – just be good.” Severn Suzuki

“It is not about creating a company – it is about creating a movement.” Severn Suzuki

“No great things have ever been achieved by playing small.”

 

“I’m still confused but at a higher level.” Einstein

“The realm of what is possible lies within each of us. – The world is waiting.”

“Life is not a novel to be read but to be written.”

“If you can’t laugh at yourself you might be missing the best joke of all”

“Be passionate, love, dream big, be spontaneous, celebrate, go home and change the world” – EO Amsterdam

The originals, Beth Kyle, Mark Dureden, Kirsten Munachen, Kathy Mason - where the values stories came from

As we approach our 10 years anniversary I realize that not everyone knows the origins of the way we do things. Megan, the RedBalloon employee experience manager, asked me to document where our values came from.

Our values are such an integral part of life at RedBalloon – and they have been a part of us for nine of the ten years. (I dedicated a whole chapter to them in ‘I want she’s having’) Kirsten Munachen, business development manager at the time and I attended Verne Harnish’s first Rockafeller Habits seminar in Sydney. Both of us were incredulous and inspired to discover what amazing resources were available to RedBalloon in its start up phase – we were not alone – others had travelled this path before. We could learn from other great businesses.

Verne’s key message was about vision, values and alignment (though he might not have used that language). It was Kirsten and I who at that workshop identified our sense of purpose.

Jim Collins in his book ‘Good to Great’ implored that great organizations have a set of values – they truly embrace. It does not matter what those values are – but that the organization has them, and lives by them is important.

A great way to discover an orgnizations values is to explore the folklore of the business. It is the people, and their actions that create the stories that make a business what it is.

As Kirsten and I sat around the table… we had a good laugh as we talked about what made RedBalloon RedBalloon. What was a true RedBallooner?

We wrote down a whole lot of stories and then we grouped them together in similar topics… we didn’t want too many – and we wanted them to be memorable. So this is what we came up with in 2003… and they continue to serve us very well.

Do what you say you’re going to do. (Integrity)

Kirsten and I both talked about our frustration of working in large businesses and how often it was our managers who did not follow through. We (and most of the other RedBallooners at the time) had done the personal development course Landmark Forum and we all had learned about how integrity and the strength of one’s word is very powerful. We did not want to be just another organization that ‘tried’ to fulfill on what it promised. Simply we were going to put our word to it… and get it done. Kirsten gave the example of working with Fuji Xerox as our first corporate client – and they asked us to build a special system for them as an incentive program. We did not have the capability at the time. I put my word to it – and said ‘we don’t have it now but we will by July’ and though I didn’t know how I was going to make it happen – we delivered – and Fuji Xerox went on to be a great and ongoing corporate customer.

Generosity of our time and knowledge.

Obviously we are in the gifting business so it would make sense that ‘generosity’ is one of our values. Both of us had been frustrated with automated telephone services of large organization (for many years we resisted voicemail because I insisted we answer phones). Beth Kyle answered phones as part of her role (not so formal as our customer experience team now)… and one day she had a very upset customer on the phone because her partner was in Kalgoorlie and she did not know how to get him his gift (this was before we had email vouchers)… Beth contacted her brother who from time to time had to go to Kalgoorlie from Perth for business…. And she convinced him to drive the voucher out to the customer… unbelievably generous and legendary customer service. Folklore was created.

Leadership

We had both seen bottlenecks in corporate life when projects stalled because no one would make a decision – or worse management by committee. We wanted everyone to feel like an ‘owner’ and that they could get things done. One of our colleagues at the time Mark Deurden, ColdFusion developer exemplified leadership. We could come back from a client or potential partner meeting and say ‘Can we have..?’ he would always answer “Of course – it will just take time and money”. He had an unbelievable ‘can do’ attitude. Sometimes he had no idea how he was going to build what we had invented… but he went off and discovered it. And always took responsibility for the out come.

Sense of Humor and fun

I had worked in some pretty serious places – I had also worked at Apple. At Apple we worked hard and played hard. And I always went home thinking my day had been worthwhile. I wanted to work at a place that I wanted to work in. It might sound selfish – but if I was going to choose to be away from my children then it had better be worthwhile. We laughed a lot in the early days… I think we still do. We never took ourselves to seriously. If ever I got a bit dramatic about something – Kirsten would remind me “Did anyone die? –Then it is all okay…”

Being a little dog with a big dog attitude.

This was about being risk takers, flexible and courageous – ‘Having more front than Myer’. This came from picking up the phone and talking to anyone. Kirsten would pick up the phone with such an air of authority when talking to potential corporate clients – and the majority of the time she got the appointment.– she was like a terrier dog – once she got hold of an idea – she wouldn’t let go (she was ‘not so tall’ feisty and determined. Most of all it was the contractors and Kathy Mason who endlessly and relentlessly pursued potential suppliers. We often felt we had to ‘beg’ to do business with them. Dexter never seemed worried about our relative smallness… he treated everyone as an equal – and so did we.

Those days were so very different, yet I am so proud that the essence of who we are remains.

What one event in your past has shaped your present?

I have learned just as much from poor managers as I have from great ones. The reality is that there is gold in every experience we just need to have the clarity of mind and commitment to listen for it. I worked at Ansett during deregulation and the pilots dispute in the late 80s – it was tough times in aviation – but when I watched how senior leaders treated subordinates I was truly abhorred. I could not understand how a General Manager could walk through an airport without even looking at anyone in the eye. Business, after all is about building great relationships. People want to believe that they are part of something bigger than themselves – they need leaders that they can believe in. It was a wonderful lesson early in my career – even though it made me angry and disillusioned at the time – I committed to myself “when I’m running the show it will be different.”

Part of the RedBalloon journey - Version 4

If I knew then what I know now, I’d…

It might have been handy to know a little about the Internet, web development and hosting before I launched a website in 2001. I just went into it completely blindly – believing those technical people both outsourced and later employees – each individual telling me ‘what was right’ for RedBalloon. And I naively believed them. It took many years before I was able to establish a group of ‘IT mentors’ that I could bounce ideas off – to validate what I was being told. It has been a painful and expensive journey to build an enterprise level website, and the team to deliver it.

No pain no gain they say – and now we have had a stable, productive and committed team for some years. The difference is immense.

The five lessons are:

1. At the start, convince the troops you’re a company of destiny, even if that seems crazy.
2. Build a cult-like culture that people either buy into, or run away from.
3. Bet the company once in a while.
4. Make people talk about you.
5. Hand off to a successor who is better than you.

Megan, Jemma and Naomi... launching 'Grow' at RedBalloon

Imagine if you did not know that the five lessons were from IBM – could you swap in Google or Apple’s name instead and come up with the same five lessons? I guess that was the question that Jim Collins tackled in his books ‘Good to Great’ and ‘Built to Last’.

As we put the final touches to the plan for the next year: it is a timely reminder of what is important, and where we spend our energy.

As of FY12 I have rescinded my CEO title and handed it to my colleague of eight years Jemma Fastnedge. So I know that I have definitely delivered on point number five. I will of course remain as Founder and Director at RedBalloon. As we move into the next decade – on our journey towards our centenary.

There was a strong music theme to the day. Four Play String Quartet were mesmerizing as they electrified the sounds from their stringed instruments.. I was lost in the environment they created. The event was really well produced – with ideas coming thick and fast from the stage:

• An inventor who challenged his own carbon footprint and determined in western society it is almost impossible to get to 2000kw per day (as is the average in China)
• A music teacher who urged us to nurture creativity in the young imploring us that that is what it is to be human
• An historian who shared the voice of the early colony of Sydney – a woman’s perspective
• A puppeteer who uses his hand via his iPad as his doll
• A doctor who urged us that the greatest threat to our most precious resource is obesity
• A scientist who models DNA so we can see how it reproduces and works
• A creative team sharing how they collaborate to produce movies

And many other great ideas

The day was a festival of ideas, colour, art and music. It was very well produced and sprinkled with a few Ted videos from other events. The two speakers from the audience who had 3 minutes to share an idea were passionate, articulate and inspired. One spoke of injustice the other on honoring death as a beautiful thing. She said ‘the last thing we will do in life is die – best make it a good experience’

Below are some of my tweets from the event.  I enjoyed it, was inspired and so pleased I made the effort to drag my bag of bones there. Well done PwC for being a sponsor…’What would you like to Grow’…

I sat next to Carden Calder for much of the day – here is a link to her blog which is insightful on which ideas are more likely to spread and why.

Tweets from @Naomi Simson

• If you do what you always did you will get what you’ve already got
• The world is a diverse place but there are some elements that connect us
• Narrative is melody and melody is story telling
• The closest collaborations often occur when the collaborators have skills that are diametrically opposed…
• Whatever works works… Be with it
• The story tellers job is to question. We need more questioning
• @carden roller coasters and zip lines the MOST Fuel efficient transport. Cool.
• Death has a bad wrap. It’s represented as violent dark and evil. Yet the last thing we will do in life is die… That is a given.
• @carden Loving Kerrie Noonan’s perspective on dying – that we r out of touch w the everyday business of dying
• @ carden most of us will not be surprised by death. Talk to your family about what you want. Talk about it. It won’t kill you!
• Think of waste as a resource… Looking at a pic of a mountain of rubber tyres from Veena Sahajwalla
• You can’t have a great colony without women. You can’t grow a great nation without women from historian Grace Karskens
• Health is our most precious public resource. Katharine Samaras
• Children need to make their own music

Thanks organizers and PwC for including me…

I'm wearing the pedometer for the Global Corporate Challenge on the Great Wall.

Last week was full of surprises and discovery. I felt very privileged to attend a business event in Beijing – which included doing a goal setting program at the Great Wall. One appreciates a sense of purpose when sitting on the largest man made structure in the world. The Chinese clearly had a shared sense of purpose (the fear and loathing of the Mongols) to build such a structure – thousands of years ago – with only manual labor.

After five days in Beijing – I got straight off the plane to attend TedX Sydney at Carriageworks… (more on that in following blogs).

This week I will deliver the last of the series of presentations at the Goldwell sales conference – in the Hunter Valley… Host a dinner with 12 female CEOs, attend a planning session for the executive committee of YPO, speak at the Central Coast BEC lunch in NSW – and I will finish the week in Mount Gambier presenting on ‘From success to significance’ at the Regional Influential Women in Business awards.

I am looking forward to a week off in mid June to recharge my batteries.