1. Notes from a seriously good
entrepreneur
…that’s Sir Richard Branson to
you and me
©Monica Booth Consultancy Services Ltd 2012

2. The Virgin (V) Brand
• The V brand is a premier “Way of Life” brand
• The brand means something
• V says “We will make you happier”
• How will V make you happier? RB enjoys life to the full –
your brand signature is what you do (not only in your
“job”)
• “We will make you happier by offering you (the
customers) excellent VFM in so many different areas of
your lives, leaving you with spare money to go and enjoy
yourselves with”
• It is RB’s own ethos. It is this ethos that has made his
brand so successful.
• You succeed in business by doing first, getting people to
follow and then selling this ethos to your customers (you
set the example)
©Monica Booth Consultancy Services Ltd 2012

3. What does Virgin do?
• “We….
– Run railways
– Build spaceships
– Launch new airlines in Africa
– Help fight AIDS and HIV”
©Monica Booth Consultancy Services Ltd 2012

4. How do we fight HIV/AIDS?
• “…Wait until you hear what we have done for
our staff in South Africa”
• Great things are achieved through staff
• In this case, senior management have worked
on staff
• …or rather they identified a problem (large % of
staff in their SA office w/ HIV/AIDS) and took it
upon themselves to deal with the problem.
• Once they clearly identified what they do, they
put a name on it and used it as their USP
©Monica Booth Consultancy Services Ltd 2012

5. Ethics are the whole point of
business
• If you decide to make something, it is an ethical
decision
• In the beginning… I made decisions to:
– Create a business I could be proud of
– Create a business that paid the bills
– Create a business that was strong and survived
• In the second half... I made decisions to:
– “tackle environmental problems and disease”
– “bring together leaders to form Elders (a project group
of compassionate people who wield influence for the
good of humanity)”
• Which half/stage are you in?
©Monica Booth Consultancy Services Ltd 2012