Childrens Corner

It may sound like a cavalier attitude towards the priceless Virgin brand.
However, there are a number of safeguards built into the process that
allow Branson to be commercially promiscuous. It has been said that he is a bit of a control freak when it comes to joint ventures. The only partnerships with other companies that he is truly comfortable with are those where he has a controlling stake. When the Virgin name is used on
another company’s product, Branson retains the role of brand guardian.

“We are careful not to associate ourselves with products we cannot
be proud of,” he says. “And we have the right to withdraw the name at a week’s notice if we are not happy with the objectives of the other company.”

At the same time, in the majority of its partnerships, Virgin aims to negotiate a “super majority,” with a controlling stake far in excess of the equity it has invested.

“Branson has taken a smart route for a private company,” says one investment expert, “expanding through joint ventures, with outsiders putting up as much cash as possible, rather than getting in hock with banks.”

Taken From: Richard Branson 10 Secrets of the World’s Greatest Brand Builder

Say the following is a list of everything you have to do tomorrow. Study it for 4 minutes, then cover it and fill in your answers. Count 5 points for each correct answer.
1. publicity (meet a radio station rep)
2. Nelligan (call Mr. Nelligan)
3. accountants (meeting)
4. annual report (finalize copy)
5. printer (discuss prices)
6. car (rent for trip)
7. party (organize office party)
Read the rest of this entry »

Like Superman, Branson moves faster than a speeding bullet when an opportunity presents itself. There are invaluable lessons for the would-be entrepreneur of the future. An in-built supercharger can work wonders. The speed at which Branson expects to move, for example, is often breathtaking.

Virgin Atlantic Airways was literally airborne just fi ve months after Branson fi rst discussed the idea. Virgin Trading, the consumer goods company, was created just days before Virgin Cola was launched.

Virgin Direct, the fi nancial services arm, was up and running in fi ve months. “Most people would have taken two years at least,” says Rowan Gormley, founding CEO, and now chief executive of Virgin Wines. “Branson has fantastically good marketing instincts and he believes in them. He just says Yes or No. He doesn’t spend valuable time farting about trying to convince a bunch of middle managers it’s a good idea.”

Even when he is working on Necker Island he is a whirlwind of activity. A Fortune reporter who went out to interview Branson, recounted how Branson, who usually gets up at 5.30 in the morning, was hard at work by 7.00 in the morning having already crammed in several games of tennis, with some slightly less enthusiastic tennis partners.1

“He seems to work about 35 hours a day,” says one long- standing Virgin employee – and he expects his staff to do the same, often
placing impossible demands on their time and patience.

On many occasions Branson has used speed to outfl ank competitors. In one case, for example, he went to visit Ariola, the French arm of a German recording company that also handled record distribution for other companies including, at that time, Virgin. An executive let slip that Ariola planned to sign a talented singer called Julien Clerc. Branson rushed off to the bathroom and wrote down the name on his hand. As soon as the chance presented itself, he called one of the directors of Virgin’s own French operations and asked him about the singer. Clercwas very popular, he was told. Branson then tracked down the singer’s manager and signed Clerc to Virgin.2

Taken From: Richard Branson 10 Secrets of the World’s Greatest Brand Builder

Taken From: Richard Branson 10 Secrets of the World’s Greatest Brand Builder

“He just says Yes or No. He doesn’t spend valuable time farting about trying to convince a bunch of middle managers it’s a good idea.”
– Rowan Gormley, CEO, Virgin Direct

If there is one area where Richard Branson’s disdain for the “suits” of the corporate world is entirely justifi ed, it is in the speed of their reactions. Management gurus are agog at the notion of a large corporation that can move quickly. In most multinationals, bureaucracy heaped on bureaucracy has created an environment where management books such as Teaching the Elephant to Dance and When Giants Learn to Dance are bestsellers.

Even the “downsizing” of recent years has failed to get to the real problem. At the heart of most companies there is a fatty layer of ineffi cient senior management, who couldn’t make a decision if their lives depended on it. Yet, for three decades, Branson has shown his lumbering rivals the meaning of agility. Time and time again, Virgin has demonstrated how to exploit a window of opportunity.

To do so Branson relies on instinct as much as analysis. He has created exceptionally short decision-making chains. The normal committee stages are almost entirely absent.

Taken From: Richard Branson 10 Secrets of the World’s Greatest Brand Builder

Rather than expect people to follow blindly where he leads, Branson relies on his ability to get the best from individuals by creating a challenging environment. Like herding cats, it’s much harder to do but a lot more lively. The lessons for leaders are:

? Be a back seat leader. One of the characteristics of the Branson leadership style is knowing when to get out the way and let people get on with it.
? Act as a catalyst. Branson is the catalyst that transforms potential energy in a project or idea into kinetic energy that sends people scurrying in a thousand directions.
? Surround yourself with talented people. What Branson is good at is surrounding himself with very talented people and creating the right environment for them to fl ourish. This is no mean feat.
? Encourage chaos. Branson is the master of mayhem, orchestrating the chaos.
? Constantly scan the horizon for new opportunities. Branson’s great skill is the ability to stay in touch with Virgin’s customers and employees and use that knowledge to spy new business opportunities that are ripe for the Virgin formula.

NOTES
1 Mitchell, Alan, Leadership by Richard Branson, Amrop International,
1995.
2 Jackson, Tim, Virgin King, HarperCollins, London, 1994.
3 Mitchell, Alan, Leadership by Richard Branson, Amrop International,
1995.
4 Campbell, Andrew and Sadtler, David, “Corporate Breakups,”
Strategy & Business, Third Quarter 1998.
5 “Has he won the lottery?,” The Independent, December 17, 1995.
6 Mitchell, Alan, Leadership by Richard Branson, Amrop International, 1995.

Taken From: Richard Branson 10 Secrets of the World’s Greatest Brand Builder

In truth, the “vision thing” isn’t really Branson’s thing. What he is good
at is keeping his one good pirate’s eye pressed to the telescope and
constantly scanning the horizon for heavily laden treasure ships ripe for boarding. The other eye he uses to keep a watchful vigil on the here and now, and to ensure he knows what is going on with his constituency – the Virgin faithful.

One of the lessons to be learned from Branson is not to get too hung up on grandiose ideas and projects, but to move with the times. His great skill is the ability to stay in touch with Virgin’s customers and employees and use that knowledge to spy new business opportunities that are ripe for the Virgin formula. As for his philosophy and ideas of a better world, it is hard to separate them from his instinctive feel for what motivates and inspires people. In other words, don’t ask Branson for answers,
just follow where his instinct leads.

“The ‘hippy capitalist’ has become a business visionary whose
management style and philosophy offers some potentially crucial lessons for capitalism in the throes of change.”

Taken From: Richard Branson 10 Secrets of the World’s Greatest Brand Builder

Branson has been called a visionary, a sage, a guru even. “The ‘hippy capitalist’ has become a business visionary whose management style and philosophy offers some potentially crucial lessons for capitalism in the throes of change,” notes one commentator.6

“A child of the revolutionary 1960s, he’s forged a unique synthesis of the youth revolution’s values and the needs of a modern business … somehow his values and style allay our nagging doubts about the morality of modern capitalism’s ends and means.”

Utopian in the romantic sense he may be, but Branson is no social engineer. He has no blueprint. Even if he thought he knew the answer, Branson wouldn’t want to alienate people from the Virgin brand by explaining it.

Although he has an outrageous sense of humor, he is far too politically
correct to offend any particular social group. When asked questions
on controversial topics his typical response is to offer multiple choice
answers, indicating there are many dimensions to the issue, or to suggest that perhaps “there is no right or wrong answer.”

Taken From: Richard Branson 10 Secrets of the World’s Greatest Brand Builder

Like the director of a Marx Brothers fi lm, Branson is the master of mayhem, orchestrating the chaos. In his own opinion, he does so with commendable restraint, leaving the managers of the Virgin companies to make their own decisions and seldom interfering in operational matters.

“The bosses of each company have almost total authority to make their own decisions. If I do make a suggestion, quite often they tell me to fuck off,” he says.

But there is another view. The reason Virgin never worked as a public company, his critics say, is because Branson is a control freak who hates to be accountable to anyone. He is also, say the critics, an inveterate meddler, who undermines the authority ofhis managers by interfering in decisions that he has supposedly delegated.

Contrary to Branson’s own claims, says one disgruntled former employee, the Virgin top management “all sit there like nodding dogs, their heads nodding whichever way Branson’s does. None of his management dare go to the toilet without asking him fi rst.”

These and other accusations have been leveled at Branson, but it
is diffi cult to see how such pandemonium could be ruled over by such a panjandrum. Most dictators rely on rules to keep people in line. Branson’s empire is closer to chaos.

Taken From: Richard Branson 10 Secrets of the World’s Greatest Brand Builder

Branson’s other great leadership role is to preside over and encourage
the creative environment that gives Virgin its special buzz. “A mad house,” is how one visitor described the group’s premises. “There were people running about all over the place.”

Another described the scene at Albion Street, the site of Branson’s fi rst business venture, in 1969: “Phones were ringing; attractive women were coming and going. At the other end of the room, a young man with tousled light brown hair and a dazzling smile was talking very earnestly into the telephone.”

Yet another described the Virgin headquarters in Holland Park: “There are dirty plates stacked up in the kitchen above Richard Branson’s offi ce. There is a photocopier on the landing. All over the house where he oversees his 200 companies there are doors ajar, mugs left on tables, people wandering in and out … it is nothing like a modern corporate headquarters.”5

And in the centre of all the mayhem, there is always Richard Branson: usually working the telephone, charming, teasing, cajoling, shouting, or in some other way trying to get someone to do something to the benefi t of Virgin.

Taken From: Richard Branson 10 Secrets of the World’s Greatest Brand Builder

Over the years, Branson’s personal reputation has proved one of the most effective ways of recruiting staff. A great many of Virgin’s most able managers actually approached Branson, drawn by what they had seen and heard about the way he runs his business. One of his great contributions to the business is to act as a magnet for these people, and to recognize and reward them when they appear. He is a talent scout.

The same principle applies to business opportunities. These days Branson spends much of his time reviewing the many business proposals made to Virgin by other companies. Good prospects are those that involve institutionalized markets, fi t the Virgin brand (genuine and fun; contemporary and different; consumers’ champion; and fi rst class at business-class prices), will respond to the Virgin recipe, offering an enticing risk-to-reward ratio and are presented by a capable management team.

Where Virgin ventures have not been successful, it has been noted,4 it is often when he has had a good idea himself and gone out to look for a manager to run it. The best business proposals have come to him from managers who want to run the business themselves. He is better at spotting talent when it comes to him than he is at going out and fi nding it.

Taken From: Richard Branson 10 Secrets of the World’s Greatest Brand Builder