Richard Branson is to the staid, suited world of European business what Kerry Packer was to the starchy world of cricket. Both redefined not just the rules of the business (or the game) but altered business culture as well. Branson’s sassy, in-your-face and arduously promoted informality — such as conducting critical interviews in bed — shook the business world as tectonically as did his adventurous, high-risk business models.
Much of Branson’s life from his early entrepreneurial ventures (he mostly calls them “adventures”) such as Virgin Records and Virgin Atlantic to his bemused acquisition of “respectability” in the form of a knighthood is documented in his hugely entertaining autobiography titled Losing My Virginity. The risqué title and racy style pander to his persona as the freewheeling, risk-taking maverick (not, to be sure, in the Sarah Palin style). But they also reveal a basically shrewd and competitive mind. His second book, Screw it, Let’s Do It: Lessons in Life and Business was intended to distil for readers (and fans) Branson, the strategist.
This current offering — the title of which has the trademark Branson-esque sex appeal — looks like an attempt to leverage Brand Branson some more. Indeed, much of it is more of the same. Why has Sir Richard, the dedicated non-conformist, chosen to tread the conventional path of offering readers lessons from his business experiences? Well, he doesn’t suffer any false modesty. “The Virgin story has been a phenomenon — building a global business in one lifetime…,” he writes quite matter-of-factly. Later, he writes, “We turn entrepreneurial ideas into outstanding businesses…”
The short point is Branson truly believes that his success — and it is certainly outstanding — holds critical lessons for other aspiring entrepreneurs. He wants to “map the territory” he’s seen, he explains in his introduction. “The good news is that I’ve covered a lot of territory,” he adds with assurance.
Stripped to its bare essentials, Business Stripped Bare offers readers conventional lessons in successful entrepreneurship. What are these? That people are the fulcrum of the success of a business, the importance of the brand, why delivery is vital, and even a chapter on “the wider responsibility of business”…get the picture?
If there’s nothing fundamentally new in Branson’s “lessons”, it’s probably because being successful in business has always entailed doing all of these things, and most good entrepreneurs instinctively know this. So even if Branson has altered the rules of several businesses, he’s basically trodden where all other successful entrepreneurs have dared to tread.
The chapter that is probably the most absorbing and useful is “Learning from Mistakes and Setbacks”. Branson needs to be applauded for this inclusion, because it is a topic few successful businessmen care to document when they write their autobiographies.
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He starts out with an incident that, as he admits, has provided a lever to competitors and detractors even four decades later (including when Virgin bid for Northern Rock last year). Branson was 19 at the time and spotted an “opportunity” in re-selling records marked for exports in the British market. Records meant for exports did not attract purchase tax, which meant he could earn better margins on them. The ruse was, he admits, not only illegal but “pretty stupid”. He was, “caught red-handed” spent a night in Her Majesty’s prison and was asked to pay three times the value of the customs duty evaded in return for not being slapped with a criminal charge. It took three years to recoup from that crisis but as Branson said, the lesson he learned was “never do anything that means you can’t sleep at night”.
For readers who have read Branson’s first two books, this one doesn’t offer much extra, unless you’re looking for an entertaining in-flight read. For others, it’s a good way of getting a précis of Branson’s life, times, adventures and some idea of how he thinks. The critical question he doesn’t answer clearly, however, is how Brand Virgin can stand apart from Brand Branson, the true test of a sustainable, institutionalised business.
If the book remains readable, it is mostly because of Branson’s style. His virtue lies in his genuine lack of gravitas, so he writes with the earthy directness and passion of a successful soccer coach, a tactic that keeps the pages turning even if the lessons are not startlingly novel.
BUSINESS STRIPPED BARE
Adventures of a Global Entrepreneur
Author: Richard Branson
Publisher: Virgin Books
Price: £20
Pages:352