Penny Spencer named Top Female Entrepreneur

Industry trailblazer, all-around wonderful human, and founder of the Spencer Group of Companies, Penny Spencer has been recognised by SmartCompany on International Women’s Day.

“I’m thrilled about making SmartCompany’s list again”, says Penny Spencer.

“It recognises some absolutely brilliant people on this significant day. Some are household names, others are probably better known in boardrooms and the business pages.

“But one thing is common to each of them, I’m sure: As females, they’ve all had to ‘press for progress’ through their careers”, continues Spencer.

The 2018 list recognises 30 outstanding women who are right at the top of their games in a range of industries including retail, recruitment, telecommunications, technology, mining, food, fashion, fitness, property, cosmetics, stationery, digital services and travel.

“I marvel at the skills and tenacity of the wonderful, capable women in my own businesses every day.

“And on International Women’s Day, I acknowledge their contributions to every part of the Spencer success story”, says Spencer.

The 2018 list was topped by Gina Rinehart, Katie Page (Harvey Norman), and Vicky Teoh (TPG), and includes high-profile entrepreneurs Janine Allis, Michelle Bridges and Naomi Simson.

Travel industry figures Charlotte Vidor (TOGA Group) and Sue Hollis (TravelEdge) also made the list.

Travel Weekly recently sat down with Spencer to chat about how online clutter is driving up sales for agents.

During the interview, Spencer said: “What we see, really, is people coming back.”

“It’s evident that, for many, the novelty of doing-it-yourself has worn off,” she added.

“Not just because it’s becoming increasingly difficult to wade through the clutter (I mean, these days, where do you start? An OTA? An aggregator? Supplier websites directly? ‘Deal’ websites? TripAdvisor?) and the seems-to-good-to-be-true pricing, but because it only takes one flight misconnection, one visa stuff-up, one scam or one hotel reservation gone awry (and no-one to call to sort it out for you) for it not to be fun anymore.”

Click here to read the full interview.

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International Womens Day penny spencer SmartCompany spencer group