‘At its heart, business is not about formality, or winning, or ‘the bottom line’, or profit, or trade, or commerce, or any of the things the business books tell you it’s about. Business is what concerns us. If you care about something enough to do something about it, you’re in business, and you’ll find ideas in this books that will help you.’
I enjoy reading biographies of entrepreneurs and businesspeople. Much has been written about Richard Branson and the Virgin brand. If you read between the lines, Branson offers a whole lot more. The rebel billionaire (yes, he is worth a lot in stocks) who is dyslexic isn’t a person whom you would give a PowerPoint presentation. He is highly intuitive, and unconventional. He is a people person, who lives by his own credo on how to conduct business. One such axiom he lives by is ‘Screw it. Just do it!’ (That happens to be the title of one of his earlier books). He also believes in the ‘David versus Goliath’ approach when Virgin Airlines took on Big Boys, British Airways – and won.
In this book, published in 2008, covers the topics of People, Brand, Delivery, Learning from Mistakes and Setbacks, Innovation, Entrepreneurs and Leadership, and Social Responsibility. He includes many case studies, some of success, and some of failure yet they reflect his hindsight, insights, and foresight. There are a lot of perspectives to be gleaned from his unconventional wisdom. Also, this book describes the many values that strongly reflect the corporate core values of Virgin. Branson explains the equalities he looks for in the people he hires. He shares how he manages a crisis. He also talks about the entrepreneurs he admires.
I heartily recommend this book for the executive, entrepreneur and start-up companies.
No comments:
Post a Comment