What skills distinguish entrepreneurs from other business people?
I have often had people ask me “how long were you going to give RedBalloon to succeed before you threw in the towel?” Honestly, that thought never crossed my mind.
I never for moment thought that this business would not succeed. I never thought of us as a small business in the beginning – we were a big business in a small, agile body. It was hard work, dedication, persistence, having a great team with me, and probably most importantly being completely single-minded. And now, 10 years on, we’ve delivered more than 1 million experiences to our customers.
How have your recent awards affected your running of RedBalloon?
Being acknowledged by people outside the business is extremely humbling. It also validates all those people that believed in RedBalloon and what we do: our suppliers, customers, clients, distributors – and of course the team. It is recognition for the people who believed in us – who tried something different and supported us on our journey. Such awards give us the confidence to continue on the quest for innovation.
What do you believe is the key to employee engagement?
Unfortunately there isn’t just one secret key ingredient to creating the perfect recipe for engagement. In our company, every leader and colleague is accountable for engagement. I have learned that not only is happiness infectious, so is engagement. People like being productive and hanging out with other people who are productive too.
Engagement requires many things: clarity, communication, trust, priorities, direction, action, alignment, progression, relationships, passion, commitment and persistence. The engaged stay for what they give; the disengaged stay for what they get.
Being real with people, authentic and transparent is essential for an engaged team. We are all just people – and business is a people game. I founded this business believing in people, and as soon as possible RedBalloon employed professionals to deliver on the detail of the commitment. All the ideas in the world do not make success; it is the execution of the plan that delivers the outcome.
Where do you see yourself 10 years from now?
Given that I’m not sure what I will be doing next week, a decade seems hard to imagine … but you can be assured I’ll be as passionate as I am today about people having flexibility and support to be the best they can in the workplace – that I will continue to agitate for a greater representation of women in leadership positions and that I will have shown that it is okay to have fun in business while being a commercial success.
The one thing I can say is the next decade will be very busy!
