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Profile

“Branson

thinks big.

He dares to think

things that no

one else takes

seriously.”

We will kick off our look at larger-than-life lives with the man who epitomises the term: Richard Branson. The bad boy of self-made men is a colourful figure who seems to be just as at home on television and in magazines as he is in his office. If his face wasn’t recognisable around the world, the beach-boy hair, toothy grin and deep smile lines might give a person the impression of no one more distinctive than a middle-aged outdoorsy type. But, as we all know, there is a great deal more to his story than that.

Branson is a wildly successful entrepreneur with an incredible number of companies under the Virgin name. He is an unashamed self-promoter, being a rare entrepreneur who is as publicly visible as his recognisable red trademark; the Virgin company name. Richard Branson is also an old-fashioned adventurer, having set records and suffered many near-fatal mishaps by sea and air. Branson impresses one as a modern-day buccaneer, a man who screams through life at breakneck speed.

Branson thinks big. He dares to think things that no one else takes seriously, and he runs his business like a maverick pilot, flying by the seat of his pants. He has taken big risks his whole life and succeeded spectacularly.

Background

“He actually

attempted his

first business

venture at the

age of 9.”

Richard Charles Nicholas Branson was born on July 18th, 1950 in London. His father, Edward James Branson, was a barrister and his mother, Eve, was a flight attendant. Branson was the first born of four children. Early on, he attended Scaitcliffe School. From the first, Branson had a very difficult time in school, due to the fact that he was attempting to deal with the problem of dyslexia. He nearly failed out of Scaitcliffe.

Even at this tender age, however, he showed an aptitude for business. He actually attempted his first business venture at the age of 9. Branson attempted to sell Christmas trees, but this first foray into commerce failed. Another early effort to sell birds also failed.

When Branson was 13, he began attending Stowe School, in Buckinghamshire, England.

He continued with his academic struggle while boarding at Stowe. Struggle is, in fact, an understatement. He agonised over lessons, having to memorise word-for-word in order to recite in public. He was embarrassed over his abilities and had a terrible time with the standardised tests. His talents, while in school, were in sports. Branson excelled in sports, particularly in swimming. His affinity for water would play out later in his life. In the meantime, however, sports were the only bright spot in an otherwise grim educational experience. He could think outside the confines of academia, however.

He had identified a need. He noticed that, while young people were becoming increasingly aware and active, there was no consolidated “voice” for his generation. No one was really speaking to young people and no one was really speaking for them.

“I predict that

you will either

go to prison

or become a

millionaire.”

Branson was looking at the world around him, and he had a great talent for reading people, even if he could not read the written page without difficulty. He was seeing the changing attitudes around him in the youth movements of the late 60s.

Working with a friend, Branson put together Student when he was only 16 years old. He decided to put together a successful venture from the start by thinking big. This paper was aimed at the students of multiple schools, tying together a local population. He wanted to make it much bigger than a typical student paper by selling advertising to major corporations, and printing articles by famous people. The paper was produced out of his friend’s parents basement, and the first issue was distributed for free, a total of 50,000 copies. The paper was paid for by advertising.

Branson dropped out of school, due to his difficulty there, in order to put his efforts into his newspaper. The final word on Branson, as a student, was provided by his headmaster at the time, who said, “I predict that you will either go to prison or become a millionaire.” The headmaster’s prescience was uncanny—Richard Branson has since done both.

The newspaper was a success, because Branson aimed high. He did not let the fact that he was a young dropout stop him from approaching the biggest names he could. Branson says that, “I remember when I was asking Vanessa Redgrave or James Baldwin for an interview and the fact that they took the time to respond meant an enormous amount to me. It inspired me. So it’s extremely important to respond to people and to give them encouragement if you’re a leader.”

From the single venture of Branson’s paper, further establishments grew and spread, like ripples on a pond. In 1970, when Branson was 20 years old, Branson saw another opportunity.

The Retail Price Maintenance Agreement was abolished by the British government. This agreement kept records from being sold at discount prices, but this would be possible after the regulation was ended. However, record stores did not voluntarily discount their prices, and Branson took action.

He began a mail-order discount record company advertised through his own paper. His readership, as Branson well knew, was hungry for music and willing to pay. The record company took off and Branson expanded by adding to his staff and taking a space above a shoe store to distribute his records.

His new employees wanted to think of a company name that would reflect the new business and be more dynamic than “Student”. Names like “Slipped Disc” were considered and discarded before one associate suggested Virgin, because they were all untried and untested in business. And the first Virgin company was born.

The young Richard attempted a daredevil move in order to sell the discount vinyl and to avoid taxes. Record makers would sell “cut-out” discs that had been returned unsold from retailers, so-called due to the fact that these records would by marked by cutting off a corner, or cutting a notch or hole into the spine of the jacket. Branson travelled to the continent to purchase crates of these cut-outs. He would then return to London with the records in the back of his van to be sold at his bargain prices to retailers. This way Branson avoided paying a purchase tax and saved about £5,000.

After several trips, Branson attracted the attention of the Customs and Excise office. He was arrested and he spent a night in jail. The fines were steep, as Richard needed £15,000 immediately in order to be released and would need to eventually pay a total of £45,000 to keep the incident off of his criminal record.

Branson’s intrepid mother came to his rescue at this point, mortgaging her home to get Richard out of jail. Richard redoubled his efforts with Virgin to make the money to pay the fines. In a strange way, prison fuelled the growth of the future Virgin Megastores. Branson was arrested in 1971.

He opened his first record shop in Oxford Street in 1972, two years after beginning the mail-order business. The shops made money through retail concerns, and also exported records. Branson says in his autobiography that “avoiding prison was the most persuasive incentive I’ve ever had. Since there was limited growth left in the mail-order business, we concentrated on expanding the record shops. The next two years were a crash course in how to manage cash. From being a completely relaxed company running on petty cash from the biscuit tin and a series of unpaid IOU notes, we became obsessively focused. We used every penny of the cash generated from the shops towards opening up another shop, which in turn was another pound towards paying off my Customs and Excise debt. Eventually I was able to pay everything and relieve Mum of the bail she had put up.”

Branson went on to open many other companies that form the Virgin Group. He purchased the nightclub Heaven in 1979. This was a gay nightclub near Charing Cross in London. In 1980, Virgin Records went international.

Branson continued to expand his influence in the entertainment industry with Virgin Vision, which later became Virgin Communications, which is a distribution company that sends films to television and radio broadcasting.

“Branson

owns over

300 separate

companies

under the

Virgin aegis.”

On the personal front, Branson has been married twice. He married Kristen Tomassi in 1972, at the age of 22. They were divorced four years later.

He has been married to his second wife, Joan, since 1977. In 1979, Branson suffered the biggest tragedy of his life. The couple’s first daughter, Clare Sarah, was born three months prematurely, and died a few days later.

Another year and a half later, their daughter Holly was born. She is now a doctor. The couple also have a son, Sam.

Today, Branson owns over 300 separate companies under the Virgin aegis. The net worth of his empire can only be estimated but, at last count, by some calculations, was worth PS2.6 billion.

That figure is far below some calculations, partly due to the recent economic downturn. It is also due in part to the fact that such figures are always in flux and estimates vary. In any case, the fortune is huge.

Wealth Accumulation

Branson actually credits his dyslexia for some of his business success, as much as it also caused his educational failures. Since he could not read and study business reports any more than he could school papers, he cultivated an intuitive sense of people and of business. His creative approach has put an indelible stamp on his corporate style.

Whatever his intuition told him, the record company, although struggling, was ultimately successful.

When musician Mike Oldfield met Branson, he was unsigned, and apparently unsignable. Branson, however, with his characteristic disregard for risk, simply decided to form a record label in order to publish this release.

With the money from his mail-order business, Branson built a studio in Oxfordshire. It was here that he oversaw the recording of his first vinyl album. Mike Oldfield recorded Tubular Bells and Branson began distribution of this album in 1973.

Thus was born Virgin Records. Oldfield’s Tubular Bells rose to the top of the charts and the top of the best-selling records. This, of course, was just the beginning of Virgin Records.

Virgin rose to success by signing controversial and cutting-edge bands. They signed the Sex Pistols and later signed groups from Genesis to Culture Club.

Richard Branson was in touch with his generation and had already begun a strategy of operating a business successfully as an underdog. This is now as much a hallmark of his business model as his high-profile image.

With Virgin Records, Branson’s early success was assured, and his image as an extraordinary entrepreneur was already solidified. Richard Branson had made a name for himself by the time he was 20 years old. His meteoric rise, and his fame, has not flagged since. He has spent more of his life in the spotlight than out of it.

In 1984, Virgin took another turn, unexpected and, in the opinion of many, doomed to fail. Not that such opinions have ever stopped Branson. Virgin Atlantic Airways was launched out of a simple (or simple-sounding) wish to live to the fullest and to overcome big challenges.

“…never again

to put himself

in the power

of bankers.”

Branson’s foray from the entertainment world into the realm of transportation might seem nonsensical from the outside, but to Branson it made sense. He is a man who quite simply makes things happen.

“My interest in life comes from setting myself huge, apparently unachievable challenges and trying to rise above them…. I felt that I had to attempt it.”

Attempt it he did, and the rest is history. Virgin Atlantic was the nucleus of an empire. Branson expanded his transportation companies to include airlines worldwide. He eventually sold Virgin Records to keep the planes flying, much as it pained him.

This story illustrates the way in which Branson will do whatever it takes to succeed. Virgin Records had been the cornerstone of his empire and the original smash success. But, when it was struggling, Branson made the difficult decision to let it go.

Actually, Branson was pushed into this decision by bank managers to whom he was indebted for the airline. He claims that this taught him never again to put himself in the power of bankers.

The result of the painful personal and corporate decision was a one billion-dollar US deal with THORN EMI. After the 1992 sale, it is said that Branson cried over the loss of his label. He was not to stay out of the music business for long, however. He loves the business. He founded the Virgin Radio station the next year.

By 1996, V2, Branson’s next label, was founded. He was back in his beloved music industry.

The continued success of Virgin Atlantic allowed Branson to further expand the Virgin trademark. He went into telecommunications, and expanded to hundreds of companies. These range from a brand of vodka to a stem cell bank.

Most of Branson’s ventures are concentrated in the entertainment, transportation and communication industries. After launching his airline in 1983, Virgin expanded into an early satellite music station with Virgin Vision’s “Music Box”. Virgin Records expanded to the United States in 1984. By 1987, the Virgin Group, with some partners, founded British Satellite Broadcasting with five satellite channels in the United Kingdom.

Other production companies, games companies and travel companies were launched throughout the 1980s. During the 1990s, Virgin continued to expand with new entertainment companies. He also expanded his travel ventures with Virgin Trains. This decade also saw Branson’s expansion into telecommunications, financial services, beverages like vodka and soft drinks, a rugby team, a cosmetics company, and a bridal store. He also launched Virgin. Net in 1996.

During the 2000s, Virgin went into the energy business, as a result of Branson’s interest in alternative fuels. He expanded into a health bank, other media and cars. He is interested in running trains and cars with energy-efficient fuels, and runs a Formula One race car on this principle.

What started as a student newspaper is now a multi-billion pound media, transportation and lifestyle empire. Branson is one of the most recognisable entrepreneurs in the world.

In fact, the world might not be big enough for Sir Richard. He dared to begin the company Virgin Galactic. This company aims to do no less than carry paying passengers into space.

Ambition and risk are only part of the Branson style. He has preserved his entrepreneurial spirit through decades of doing business. His style comes from his understanding of and talent for reaching people.

Branson is closely involved with the management of only his record and airline companies. Typically, though, he is a very hands-off man when it comes to running a company. He famously enters into realms in which he has no expertise. He buys a company and sometimes retains the controlling interest. He is far from controlling, however.

Instead, he tends to look for the right person for the job and his acumen and judgment in this area is where his real expertise lies. Branson says that he finds someone who has a passion, interest, and talent for any particular company, and then instructs that person to run the company as if it were his or her own.

While he does not directly manage the operations of all of these companies, he is accessible. He writes (literally writes, since he does not use computers) monthly letters to his employees, keeping the tone chatty and informal. He also encourages all of his employees to come to him with concerns or ideas, which he then might decide to back up with his support. When he makes a decision of this kind, he really does back it up. Every employee of a company with Branson in an executive chair has his phone number and home address.

One of his employees, a flight attendant on Virgin Airlines, was planning her wedding. The well-known difficulties involved in planning such an event gave her an idea for a business. She approached Branson with her idea for a wedding planning business.

Branson gave this business the green light and then some. Virgin Bride was launched in 1996, with Branson, complete with wedding dress, posing for promotional pictures. Virgin is now Europe’s largest bridal shop.

This story illustrates another aspect of the Branson style. Admirers and critics alike know about his splashy and outrageous tactics for promotion. He has been compared to P.T. Barnum for his wildly high-visibility promotions. He does not shy away from either controversy or downright tackiness. This attitude makes him loved by some and hated by others, but he is noticed by all, and that’s how he likes it.

People can criticise him all they like, Branson is laughing his big toothy laugh all the way to the bank.

Achievements and Foundations

Branson has published his autobiography; Losing My Virginity: How I’ve Survived, Had Fun, and Made a Fortune Doing Business My Way was published in 1998. His book, Screw It, Let’s Do It: Lessons In Life is a short book that outlines his personal lessons for business and personal success. His lessons here outline the simple principles that have guided him throughout life, many of which were learned from his mother and grandmother. Business Stripped Bare: Adventures of a Global Entrepreneur outlines four decades of business success and failure.

His books are a way to share his insights with a wide audience. Branson is known for candour, brashness and openness, and he has no problem sharing his ideas. Branson is a rich source of insight and inspiration.

He became Sir Richard Branson in 1999, knighted for “services to entrepreneurship”. Earlier, in 1993, he was awarded an honorary Doctor of Technology degree from Loughborough University. The list of companies involved in the Virgin empire is so numerous that Branson himself is hard-pressed to give an actual number.

Aside from the triumphs in business, Branson has had a notable series of records in adventure sports and travel. He has made several world record attempts with varied success. In 1985, he attempted the fastest crossing of the Atlantic, but capsized early and had to be rescued. The following year, he beat the sailing record.

One year later, he made the fastest balloon crossing of the Atlantic, in the largest balloon, thereby setting two additional records at once. In 1991, he took his balloon across the Pacific, breaking yet another speed record, reaching 394 km/h.

During the years between 1995 and 1998, Branson, along with Steve Fossett and Per Lindstrand, tried to go around the world by balloon. In late 1998, they did complete a record-breaking flight from Morocco to Hawaii. However, they did not complete the global circumnavigation before the record was set by a rival pair of adventurers in 1999.

An entirely different conveyance, an amphibious vehicle, was used in 2004 to set Branson’s speed record for such a crossing of the English Channel. He handily beat the previous record by over 4 hours, completing the crossing in 1 h, 40m and 6s.

Branson has also made numerous appearances on television and in print. Many of these are of course profiles and interviews. However, he has been tapped for cameo appearances in movies and on television. The media mogul doesn’t miss many chances to appear in the public eye.

Finally, Branson is known for the many philanthropic and other causes that he involves himself with. He has either supported or founded many charities and groups. This tendency showed itself very early in Branson’s life, around the time of his first business success. At age 17, he began the Student Valley Centre charity.

Branson is interested in solving the world’s biggest problems and thinks that entrepreneurs and leaders have just the right mindset to be able to do so. With that in mind, Branson founded The Elders, an organisation of the world’s big achievers devoted to solving big problems. Bringing together the unlikely grouping of politicians to musicians to businessmen, he is not afraid to tackle the biggest questions that society is grappling with. The group includes Nelson Mandela, Desmond Tutu, former US president Jimmy Carter and Peter Gabriel, among others. This group is a fitting gathering. Branson has frequently said that his biggest influences have come from his reading of nonfiction. Nelson Mandela is one of his personal inspirations, and he now has helped to form a mutual admiration society of thinkers that he admires, in order to focus on what he sees as some of the major issues facing everyone.

Other charities include the International Rescue Corps, a group dedicated to search and rescue operations. This group is an independent operation, run completely on donations and volunteer time.

Prisoners Abroad is a group with the goal of helping British citizens who have been detained abroad. The group attempts to assure humane treatment for detainees and to provide support for their families.

Sir Richard is a recipient of the United Nations’ Correspondents’ Association Citizen of the World Award for supporting these and many other causes.

Sir Richard Branson’s Tips for Success

 Given his meteoric and seemingly erratic ventures, one might expect that Branson would have some complicated formulas for business success. Indeed, one might say that a great deal of his strategy is intuitive. Given his academic struggles, because of his dyslexia, he has learned to operate somewhat by “feel”. He doesn’t read financial reports, being unable to make efficient sense of strings of numbers. He has developed a talent for reading and knowing people. He grasps things in a conceptual way, but often is hard-pressed to quantify things.

 A major key for Sir Richard has been the way that he has turned a disadvantage — his dyslexia — into an advantage. His difficulties with the printed page did not stop him from starting a newspaper. Why not? He understood people, and he is a risk-taker. He realised that having a voice was what the media was about, not typesetting. He hires specialists for each job and understands that the people he hires are the real lifeblood of his enterprises.

 “…look for the best and you’ll get the best.”Branson runs his companies with the idea, he says, of “look for the best and you’ll get the best.” He is a big proponent of providing encouragement to people, in the form of “lavish praise”, for motivation. He doesn’t run things either by micromanaging or by criticism. “If a flower is watered, it flourishes. If not, it shrivels up and dies. It’s much more fun looking for the best in people. People don’t need to be told where they’ve slipped up. They’ll sort it out themselves.”

 Notice the word “fun” in Sir Richard’s advice. Fun is a major part of the experience for Virgin employees, and this translates into the customer experience. As hard as Branson works, the idea of fun seems to underlie everything he does. One gets the impression that the search for a good time is what really motivates him, and has motivated him his whole life.

 He has mentioned the fact that he thinks that, “Leaders have got to make a bigger effort to make sure that the people who work for them are enjoying what they’re doing.” Branson himself certainly always seems to be enjoying what he’s doing. He relishes big things, big challenges and big accomplishments. One has no trouble imagining that his charisma is infectious enough to sift down through the ranks to his most minor workers.

 He not only communicates with his employees regularly, but shares his thoughts with anyone who cares to listen. He has done many interviews and keeps up a regular blog on his Virgin website. His famous accessibility keeps him in touch with big names and small alike. One sometimes gets the impression that he would chat with just about anyone if he could only find the time.

 “He relishes big things, big challenges and big accomplishments.”He has continued to develop this faculty for risk-taking, coupled with finding people who can create perfection in their own specialties. He himself has mentioned that he cannot grasp how to repair an airplane, but he can find the people who can. When critics said that someone would be foolish to go from the entertainment industry into transportation, he saw the weakness in this argument. He knew he could find the engineers for the job, but he also grasped the importance of providing a good experience for passengers, which he exploited by bringing his full experience in the entertainment industry to bear on airline travel.

 Virgin Atlantic is run with the flair that people have come to expect from Branson. The flights offer everything from roomy seating with personal entertainment experiences in economy seating, to the super-luxury of a bar and masseuse in first class.

All of these elements make the adventurer and business buccaneer a continued and dynamic success. He understands the importance of corporate culture. He creates a mood in his companies that keep them self-sustaining and growing. He makes sure that his employees are not just holding a job, but working for something important; their investment in their working time is always something bigger than their tasks. The underdog mentality continues to give everyone something to fight for. Despite the size of his empire, each company has a culture and attitude that they are the little guy and are continually climbing closer to the top.

 “…get help for mundane tasks whenever possible.”On the other hand, this creative, fluid and intuitive attitude works seamlessly with some extremely simple advice for succeeding. Richard Branson makes to-do lists each day. This is one of his basic pieces of advice. Make lists and get them done. The simplicity here can remind us of the importance of fundamentals. Have a goal, break it down into steps and then go out and accomplish each step, one at time.

 Such simple, and seemingly obvious, advice underlies a key strategy for Branson — the importance of dedication. If he dedicates himself to a project, he sees it through without loss of focus. His simple advice is to get through the to-do list every day. Consistency in action is the lesson here.

 Finally, Sir Richard advises to get help for mundane tasks whenever possible. He acknowledges the brutal difficulties of trying to start out by doing everything oneself without financial backing. He did have help starting out and getting over some initial hurdles; his mother mortgaged her home to help him in the early days. He has likened his initial investments to going into the equivalent of credit card debt today. He is willing to risk it all on the projects he believes in.

Summary

Sir Richard Branson has a gloriously adventurous attitude no matter what he is doing. He can approach a morning in the office, or a record-setting flight, with the same spirit. He throws himself into things and goes full-bore as if there were no such thing as an obstacle in existence.

“… a laser

focus on

everything he

undertakes.”

What lessons can we take from this? He has certainly lived openly enough to be available as an example for anyone who wants to look to him for ways to create riches and success. His example is one of ambition, adventure, fulfilment and passion. He gives a strong impression of boundless energy.

Let’s distil his operating methods down into a few principles:

 Create what you want to see. When Branson looks around at the way things are, he sees what he wishes were there. Then, he goes out and makes these wishes a reality. From his earliest venture, he set out to make something that filled the gulf between what was available at the time and what he wanted. Student, the paper, was the result of his noticing that young people, including himself, had no real expression and resources with which to speak. Instead of lamenting this lack, he set about creating that means of expression.

 Dedication and consistency are paramount. While Branson is often viewed as a wild card, with his unpredictable moves in business and in life, he doesn’t worry as long as things make sense to him. Underlying this apparently mercurial behaviour is really the opposite—a laser focus on everything he undertakes.“…doing whatever it takes, every single day, to get the job done.”He dedicates himself to doing whatever it takes, every single day, to get the job done. So he is an irresistible combination of discipline and risk-taking that elevates entrepreneurship into the level of artistic accomplishment. His utter disregard for all the pitfalls done.” that surround him, coupled with his disciplined push to get things done every day, has rocketed him into the stratosphere of success. This brings us to the next point:

 Never shy away from risks. If Branson demonstrates anything, it is the importance of taking great risks. The real key here is that vision is more important than risk. When he imagines something that he thinks should be created, it happens without regard to what anyone else thinks is the normal course of events. He has risked his capital and reputation in business, and his life, more than once, in his record-setting sailing and flying attempts. He simply proceeds as if risk were not the point of anything. He has both failed and succeeded with spectacular gusto.

 Set hugely ambitious goals and constantly see if you can surpass them. It would probably never occur to Branson to be afraid that a goal was too big. He would probably be far more bothered by a goal that is too small, deeming it a waste of time. He relishes the challenge of setting goals that definitely sound too big. He knows that any goal that is set has an infinitely better chance of success, no matter how outrageous the ambition, than a goal that is never set.

Branson is a stellar example of wealth, success and fulfilment. He has generated billions in wealth, set amazing records and accomplished more in any given year—or month—than most people do in a lifetime. Yet, he is the opposite of the buttoned-up and irritable businessman that we often have as a vague image of the billionaire. His ready smile attests to the joy that a life of accomplishment can bring.