What Virgin does…
I’m not good at theory. Almost everything I’ve learned, I’ve learned by doing. However, Muhammad’s opinions excite me. They confirm a lot of the gut feelings I’ve developed about business over the years. And topping my list of gut feelings is this: business has to give people enriching, rewarding lives, or it’s simply not worth doing.
I think of our Virgin brand as one of the premier ‘way of life’ brands in the world. Whether you’re in the United States, Australia and New Zealand, Japan, South Africa, India, Europe, Russia, South America or China, the Virgin brand means something. The Virgin brand is about enjoying life to the full. By offering customers excellent value for money in so many areas of their lives, we aim to make them happier.
Most businesses concentrate on one thing, and for the best of reasons: because their founders and leaders care about one thing, above all others, and they want to devote their lives to that thing. They’re not limited in their thinking. They’re focused. The conventional wisdom at business school is that you stick with what you know. Of the top twenty brands in the world, nineteen ply a well-defined trade. Coca-Cola specialises in soft drinks, Microsoft’s into computers, Nike makes sports shoes and gear. The exception in this list is Virgin – and the fact that we’re worth $5 billion and counting really gets up the noses of people who think they know ‘the rules of business’ (whatever they are). We’re the only one of the top twenty that has diversified into a range of business activities, including airlines, trains, holidays, mobile phones, media – including television, radio and cable – the Internet, financial services and healthcare.
Hopefully what I’ve written here is relevant to your business no matter what sector you are in.
Watch Richard Branson’s New York video diary
Following Richard’s previous video diary of his day in London promoting his new book Business Stripped Bare, this next ‘day in the life’ film follows Richard on a recent whirlwind day around New York including TV interviews and a book signing session at Virgin Megastore in Times Square…
Social responsibility - just business
In Business Stripped Bare, I have written a chapter which tells you about Virgin’s recent adventures in the territory where business and politics meet, and asked a few questions about where the forces of entrepreneurism might be headed in the next ten to a hundred years. I don’t think for an instant that big businesses would make good governments. I know for sure and from personal experience that governments don’t make great businesses! But somehow we need to close the circle. We need government and business to work together for the benefit of everyone. At the moment, in some parts of the world, there is no stability, no infrastructure, no ‘business as usual’, and bribery is the usual way of doing business or getting things done. It’s not good enough, and we can do better.
I believe that today’s businesses – regardless of their size – must be prepared to do good in societies around the globe. I am cautiously optimistic that we can make the world a far better, safer and more equitable place – but business and enterprise must sit at the heart of this process.
Digg This Story
An innocent entrepreneur
I’m full of admiration for people who build and start businesses on their own. Whilst we built a good business here at innocent, I’ve done it with my two best friends and we’re doing it together. I think we make a fantastic team and I certainly couldn’t have done this on my own. I don’t know if the other guys could have but I think we compliment each other really well. Together we have all the skills needed to be entrepreneurs but we don’t have them individually. So I think it’s really interesting when Richard and others start a business on their own where quite simply they are the man! I hold people like that in hugely high esteem.
So what do you need to be an entrepreneur? You need a huge amount of tenacity in order to get things off the ground. Whatever you’re trying to do there are always a million things going wrong, people saying no, people saying it’s impossible. To have resilience and that tenacity is absolutely critical.
When the three of us were putting innocent together there might have been two of us feeling absolutely down in the dumps and one of us saying ‘this is going to work because of x,y and z’. We manage to play off of each other and when two are down, one is up and vice versa. If you’re doing it on your own that’s all going on in your own head. Pretty damn tough I think.
Secondly, you’ve got to be able to get people to do stuff for you. You’ve got to be hugely persuasive because you’re often starting out with very limited resources, even nothing, and creating something out if it. It means getting other people to do stuff for you, not necessarily for monetary reasons, but because they believe in where you’re going, they want to be involved and they’re excited.
Thirdly, people say it’s all about risk taking but I don’t think that’s necessarily true. If you’re taking risks for the hell of it you might come unstuck. If you’re playing everything ultra-safe you won’t ever get anywhere. There may be a few people for whom it is all about risk but I think that the majority of entrepreneurs would say: ‘You know what – this is risky but I reckon this is how I’m going to cover the downside’. So I‘m not subscribing to the romantic notion about taking risks in order to succeed as I suspect that you’d get unstuck pretty quickly.
Meet Lazarus Seema
As described in the previous post about the Branson School of Entrepreneurship, Richard and Virgin Unite are supporting the next generation of entrepreneurs in South Africa. Watch the video here to meet Lazarus Seema - one of the first students to graduate from the school and launch the business of his dreams, Milestone Communications. This marketing, communications and event management company is based in Johannesburg with an additional office in the Vaal, South Africa.
Digg This Story
Richard Branson’s video diary
Ever wondered what a day in the life of Richard Branson was like? Well the Virgin Group chairman recorded a video diary over one eventful day while visiting London to promote his new book Business Stripped Bare.
The Branson School of Entrepreneurship
Following up on recent posts about what it takes to be an entrepreneur, I think it’s interesting to also consider how entrepreneurs can have a positive impact on wider society, especially in places like South Africa where they are identifying gaps, providing critical new services and creating jobs. In fact, it’s been reported* that the country’s economic growth is actually under threat because of a shortage of new entrepreneurs.
In light of this, Virgin Unite has partnered with CIDA, South Africa’s first virtually free university, to launch the Branson School of Entrepreneurship in Johannesburg. This programme identifies and nurtures budding entrepreneurs, and equips them with the skills and start-up funding to launch successful businesses of their own. The students receive intensive mentoring and are also given exposure to successful local and international entrepreneurs.
With the right support and encouragement, these young entrepreneurs can make a huge difference not only to their immediate families and communities, but ultimately the whole of South Africa.
* A report by the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor in 2007
Digg This Story
What does it take to be a Virgin entrepreneur?
Firstly, as CEO for the Virgin Group, I don’t think I am an entrepeneur – I’m a manager. A particularly successful entrepreneur has to have enthusiasm, passion, be extremely energetic and slightly irrational!
People will always tell you your idea won’t work. To be successful long term and across a lot of different businesses you need to recognise when you need a manager. When your business gets too big to handle – you have to know when to let go.
We get lots of entrepreneurs sending us business propositions here at Virgin and we judge them against our Virgin brand criteria:
- value for money
- good quality
- innovation
- brilliant customer service
- competitively challenging
- fun
We then ask - is it a profitable and sustainable offer? It has to meet a customer need and deliver great customer service, and then be able to sustain that position over the long-term.
It has to be different and have a clear unique selling point.
The proposition has to have international appeal so that it can be taken more widely into other markets. As Virgin is so big, it’s vital that it is scalable and signifcant.
Once your business is up and running you should strive to always be open, honest, straightforward and you should stay practical to deal with.
People are at the heart of the organisaton and are fundamental to your success. Respect for the individual is therefore key. At Virgin we really encourage a tolerant and diverse organisation and I think this really motivates people to do their best work.
Add your name to the Every Human Has Rights pledge
Following up on Richard’s recent post about Entrepreneurs and leadership, I think one of the most exciting initiatives supported by Richard and Virgin Unite under this banner has been The Elders. This esteemed group of global leaders, headed by Nelson Mandela, Graça Machel and Desmond Tutu, are contributing their wisdom, independent leadership and integrity to tackle some of the world’s toughest problems.
Today marks the 60th anniversary of the signing of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. To celebrate and support the goals of the Universal Declaration, the Elders have launched the Every Human Has Rights campaign in partnership with a number of international organizations. Please check out the video and add your name to a pledge in support of the Universal Declaration at www.everyhumanhasrights.org. You can also read profiles of activists around the world who are working to realise human rights in their communities.
Digg This Story
Entrepreneurs and leadership
In 2004 I did a programme called The Rebel Billionaire for Fox Television, where I was nice to people and then had to whittle them down to a winner. In one episode, I told a participant we were going to be the first to go over the Victoria Falls in a barrel. Annie Taylor was the first person to conquer the Niagara Falls in Canada, riding the 170-foot drop in an airtight wooden barrel in October 1901. Since then many other daredevils have copied her achievement. But the Victoria Falls in Africa – at 360 feet – is more than twice as high, and much more dangerous, with jagged rocks at the bottom. I asked one of the contestants, Sam Heshmati, if he was ready for the challenge of going over the falls with me, in a barrel I said had been specially created by NASA.
Were we going to do this thing? Bravely, Sam nodded. We got into the barrel. A large crane lowered us into the fast-flowing river, a few metres away from the drop. A two-minute countdown began. It seemed an eternity, Five. Four. Three. Two . . .
A split second before we were due to plummet, I shouted: ‘Stop! Hold on just one moment, I want to show you something.’
So we got out. And I showed young Sam the bottom of the falls. I pointed at the rocks below.
‘Sam,’ I admonished him, ‘you were ten seconds from certain death. You shouldn’t blindly accept a leader’s advice. You’ve got to question leaders on occasions.’
