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