The Virgin Way summary

When it comes to qualities we look for in a leader, listening features rather far down on the list. Instead, we focus on their powers of oration – their speaking skills.

Just consider two esteemed leaders of the twentieth century, Winston Churchill and John F. Kennedy. Ask anyone what made these men great, and they’ll probably mention great speeches. Indeed, Churchill’s ‘Finest Hour’ speech in 1940 and Kennedy’s famous inaugural address in 1961 have defined both leaders’ legacies.

Ask someone what their company culture is like, and they may look at you blankly. Indeed, for many of us, the only way we feel as if we’re experiencing any ‘culture’ in the office is if we eat yogurt at our desks. But that’s not the Virgin way. In fact, Branson agrees with Peter Drucker, the wise management consultant who famously said: “Culture eats strategy for breakfast.”

What does a winning company culture look like?

How can you make your own luck? Well, an ancient philosopher wisely opined that “luck is what happens when opportunity meets preparation.” In other words, when opportunity knocks, you’d better make sure you’re ready to greet it. Let’s take a look at an example from Branson’s own life to see what happens when these two elements come together.

The first album that Branson’s fledgling Virgin Records ever released was Mike Oldfield’s Tubular Bells. Unfortunately, though the album was a hit in the UK, Branson was having a hard time selling it to the Head of Atlantic Records, Ahmet Ertegun, who thought the record would be unpopular with American audiences.

Making great decisions is arguably the most important part of being a leader. As the top decision-maker at Virgin, Branson understands that there’s no secret formula for making the correct call every single time. Indeed, after decades of getting it mostly right, but sometimes wrong, there’s only one thing he’s sure about – the best decisions usually take time.

Interestingly, Branson didn’t always take such a measured approach to decision-making. In fact, for most of his career, he admits he’s been guilty of jumping into things feet-first, with varying results.

As an innovator, your biggest challenge is often persuading naysayers that your idea will work. In the sixteenth century, Sultan of the Ottoman Empire Bayazid II wanted to build a bridge across Istanbul’s River Bosphorus, an act that would connect Europe and Asia. Unfortunately, the engineers of the day were stumped. Eventually, the Sultan asked an Italian artist named Leonardo da Vinci to come up with a design.

Incredibly, da Vinci produced a beautiful rendering, based on cutting-edge mathematical concepts that he was sure would hold. But the rest of the engineering world sneered at his efforts and told the Sultan that the design was too fantastical to succeed. Da Vinci’s bridge was never built.

Branson is proud to say that the Virgin way is to always lend a hand to the young people who will become our next generation of entrepreneurs. Of course, finding budding entrepreneurs and equipping them with the skills they need to succeed cannot be done by the business world alone.

That’s why Branson is calling on schools to wake up to the enormous potential of entrepreneurship and change the way they teach our children. As a school dropout at the age of 16, Branson believed, as he still does, that the mainstream school system places too little emphasis on the skills needed for an entrepreneurial career.