The Virgin Way: Everything I Know About Leadership
Richard Branson





Format: Paperback, 400 pp.
ISBN: 9781591847984
Publisher: Portfolio
Pub. Date: October 20, 2015

Average Customer Review:


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Description and Reviews
From The Publisher:

While building the Virgin Group over forty years, Richard Branson has never shied away from seemingly outlandish challenges that others (including his own colleagues on several occasions) considered sheer lunacy. He has taken on giants like British Airways and won, and monsters like Coca-Cola and lost.

Now Branson gives an inside look at his strikingly different swashbuckling style of leadership. Learn how fun, family, passion, and the dying art of listening are key components to what his extended family of employees around the world have always dubbed (with a wink) the “Virgin Way.”

This unique perspective comes from a man who dropped out of school at sixteen, suffers from dyslexia, and has never worked for anyone but himself. He may be famous for thinking outside the box—an expression he despises—but Branson asserts that “you’ll never have to think outside the box if you refuse to let anyone build one around you.”

This is a unique book on leadership from someone who readily admits he has never read a book on leadership in his life. So expect the unexpected.


Reviews

No new ground is broken in this latest volume of aphorisms from Branson, billionaire founder of the Virgin Group—a conglomerate of 400 companies that are apparently run with breezy executive style and a fierce devotion to ensuring customer loyalty. Branson (Losing My Virginity) deserves credit for eschewing business jargon as he advises readers to challenge entrenched businesses (“Goliaths”) by creating a new niche markets right under their imperious noses, with “hybrid product[s] that [nobody can] pigeonhole.” That’s the essence of Virgin’s successes, from an airline with a rock n’ roll attitude to the iconic chain of record stores. Virgin Megastores “became tourist destinations in their own right” in Paris and New York, while other ventures, such as Virgin Cola, were less successful. Branson comes across as a branding genius, making an impression on the customer and his own workforce, which he credits lavishly and frequently, from key executives discarded by competitors to entry-level employees who have thrived and been promoted internally (a practice he endorses). Given his obvious drive, his protestations that he’s happiest working from a hammock on his private Caribbean resort island sound disingenuous.

—Publishers Weekly

About the Author

Sir Richard Branson is an international entrepreneur, adventurer, icon, and the founder of the Virgin Group. His autobiography, Losing My Virginity, and his books on business, Screw It, Let's Do It and Business Stripped Bare, are all international bestsellers. He is also the author of Reach for the Skies, Screw Business As Usual, and most recently Like a Virgin.


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