#InquirerSeven Key Takeaways from Sir Richard Branson
Virgin Group founder Sir Richard Branson, right, with his daughter, Holly Branson, tour the grounds of the Los Angeles Amity Foundation with its vice president, Mark Faucette, middle, in Los Angeles on Nov. 12, 2012. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)
British billionaire and philanthropist Sir Richard Branson was back in Manila last week after two decades to speak before 800 people, composed of the country’s business elite. Here are seven key takeaways:
1. Solve a problem that frustrates you
What is that problem that annoys you and keeps you up at night? For Sir Richard Branson, it was last-minute flight cancellations that caused him to start Virgin Airlines. He attributes his foray into the airline business to an inconvenience he experienced flying with another airline. On his way home to the British Virgin Islands after three weeks of being away, Branson’s American Airlines flight from Puerto Rico was cancelled, leaving him stuck in the Caribbean territory for another day. Being away from his wife for three weeks, he couldn’t wait a moment more to get home so the then 28-year-old Branson hired a plane and went around the airport selling $29 tickets to all his fellow passengers who were bumped off. The day after, he called up Boeing to buy the Virgin Group’s first ever plane.
2. If you have an idea that you think will change the world, “screw it, just do it!”
Branson goes by the belief that having an idea that you think will change the world is enough reason to go out there and do it. Reminiscing about his early days as an entrepreneur, Branson recalls, “I was at school when the Vietnamese War was going on. I thought it was an unjust war and I wanted to start a magazine so that young people could campaign against the war.” This personal and professional motto has also led him to go head-to-head with the big leagues, like the British Airways and Coca-Cola. When Virgin started in the airline business, it didn’t have a lot of money and had only one second-hand Boeing 747, when their main competitor had 300. Their mission of creating an airline people will love, and the crazy antics that accompanied it, transformed Virgin into a single-plane business to one that could compete with the likes of British Airways.
Article continues after this advertisementThe eccentric businessman’s current radical endeavor is Virgin Galactic, a pioneer in space tourism, which he hopes can make commercial space travel safe and affordable.
Article continues after this advertisement3. Don’t be afraid to break the rules and stand out
Without a lot of capital, Branson needed to “use himself” and his crazy antics to make sure Virgin got on the front pages of the newspapers. In 1985, he set out on the Virgin Atlantic Challenger I to break the record for the fastest crossing of the North Atlantic. His attempt at the transatlantic record received widespread media coverage despite it sinking only a few miles from the target “with the Virgin brand sticking out of the waters.”
Two years after, Branson attempted to break another record to get Virgin on the map — to be the first to cross the Atlantic in a hot air balloon. To leverage on the media buzz they received from all his adventures, Branson reveals that Virgin would take out full page advertisements the next day, saying “Next time, Richard, take the plane.”
4. You learn to walk by falling over
For the business magnate with more than 400 businesses under his belt, there is no better way to learn than by trying and failing. For him, entrepreneurs like babies, who learn to walk by falling over. Citing one of his own experiences, Branson explains, “One of my main reasons for leaving school was to run [my] magazine and I had to get enough advertising to pay the magazine and the printing. I learned an enormous amount from it, much more than I would have done in school.”
5. Get out of business if you can’t deliver a quality product
If you’re looking for the secret sauce to Virgin Group’s multitude of successful businesses, it’s quality product. Branson cites the reason Virgin has lasted so long, despite British Airways’ efforts to drive it out of business, was because its quality was on a completely different level. “The businesses where we’ve been really successful were businesses where we created a quality product that is unmatche– unmatched by anybody else,” he says.
When Coke took on Virgin Cola, on the other hand, the results were different. Branson claims the Virgin brand was outselling both Coke and Pepsi in England, yet they were ultimately outmatched by the beverage giants because “[Virgin Cola] was not that much different than their drink.” He equates the experience to “taking on a bleeding competition with a blood bank,” with Virgin Cola disappearing from shelves worldwide.
6. Put employees first
Besides being an entrepreneur, Branson is also a humanitarian, which is evident in his leadership style of putting people first. He asserts, “the best-run companies are run by people who genuinely care for all the people who are working with them.” The Virgin Group abides by this mantra as they go out of their way to put the health, happiness and wellbeing of their employees above all.
Giving a few company policies as examples, he states, “When people want to go on holidays, they can, they take as long a holiday as they want. They can work at home if they want. They can work at home on Fridays and Mondays if they want… They don’t have to be treated like children and ask permission all the time.” These forward-thinking, employee-centered initiatives are respected, not exploited, by employees and, as a result, everyone, from the customers down to the shareholders, is happy.
7. Businesses can and should be a force for good
Branson, who is part of the Global Commission on Drug Policy, along with several former world leaders, including Kofi Annan, insists that a business can be more than “just a money-making machine.” With their reach, resources and impact, businesses can make people’s lives better and be a force for good by putting people and the planet at par with profit. He encourages all businesses to adopt a problem plaguing the world and to go out and solve that problem. “If we can get every business in the world to do that, most of the problems in the world will be solved,” he says.
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