Product Description

From its creation as a mail-order record company to the literal launch of Virgin Galactic, today Virgin is one of the premier 'way-of-life' brands in the world, trusted and enjoyed by many millions of people. In Business Stripped Bare, Sir Richard Branson shares the inside track on his life in business and reveals the incredible truth about his most risky, brilliant and audacious deals. Discover why Virgin tried to take on one of the world's biggest superbrands, how Virgin Mobile USA holds the record as the fastest company in history to generate revenues of over one billion dollars (faster than Microsoft, Google and Amazon) and how Richard is the only person in the world to have built eight billion-dollar companies from scratch in eight different sectors. What qualities does Richard look for in the people he hires? How does he manage a crisis? Who are the entrepreneurs he most admires? Find out the true story behind Virgin Blue's success in Australia, what really happened when Virgin bid for Northern Rock and why Richard believes all businesses must work with governments to tackle climate change and invest in the future of our planet. Combining invaluable advice with the remarkable and candid inside stories of Virgin's greatest achievements, as well as some of its setbacks, Business Stripped Bare is a dynamic, inspirational and truly original guide to success in business and in life. Whether you are an executive, an entrepreneur or are just starting out, Richard strips business down to show how you can succeed and make a difference.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #16719 in Books
• Published on: 2008-09-18
• Released on: 2008-09-18
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 352 pages

From the Inside Flap
From its creation as a mail-order record company to the literal launch of Virgin Galactic, today Virgin is one of the premier ‘way-of-life’ brands in the world, trusted and enjoyed by many millions of people.
In Business Stripped Bare, Sir Richard Branso

From the Back Cover
[artwork from notebooks]

About the Author
Sir Richard Branson is a hugely successful international entrepreneur and icon, and is chairman of the Virgin Group.

Customer Reviews

Virgin Optimism
Regardless of who you are - one thing you have to admit is that Richard Branson oozes charisma, energy and vitality. Even looking at the front cover of the book he is given an exotic yet accessible quality. But enough of this hero worship on my part - what are my thoughts on the contents of the book?

Branson does not claim to be an academic businessman. What comes across in this book is his ethos and belief in the power of entrepreneurship. He covers such themes as Leadership, Brand and Social Responsiblity.

The book has of number of strengths. Throughout he uses stories to illustrate his points. My particular favourites were his tales regarding BA, Coco Cola and his initial set up of Virgin Money. So Branson avoids the situation that other business books fall into - using big words and leaving the reader none the wiser to what they are actually talking about.

A second strength of this book is that Branson portrays business not as an entity detached from his or our everyday lives. If used properly and ethically - it can be a source of great change. I reckon Branson and Adam Smith would have gotten on like a house on fire.

A third strength is Branson's ideas about self empowerment. We may think of Virgin as a monster sized company - whereas in fact it is made up of lots of smaller companies (aside from Virgin Atlantic which Branson readily admits is big). Branson states that the smaller companies avoid the problem of stagnation and each employee can stay energised and involved. Staying with this small scale approach - Branson illustrates how it can be used to tackle such problems as climate change. Correctly he states that large scale solutions often become bogged down.

However the book does have one issue. Branson is much more engaging when talking about the individuals that makes up his company and his relationship with them. The sections where he talks about the high profile individuals such as Al Gore, Clinton and Mandela - tend to get bogged down and I found my attention drifting. I got it that he thinks these guys are great - I just didnt need to read about it for the next 10 pages. Bit rich coming from me since I have just read 328 pages about my hero Branson!

Overall - a great book and with great messages.

The best message being "the brave may not live forever - but the cautious do not live at all".

Branson does it again
A good book and whilst reading you can really imagine Richard Branson living and breathing his experience as a leader and entrepreneur. With this book you also gain a greater insight of Virgin as the brand and group of companies within the Virgin family. Branson is fairly honest about his setbacks and mistakes- although he doesnt talk about Virgin's part in its collusion with BA and how it got away with it. This omission makes me wonder about Virgin's business ethics in reality!!!
Overall a good read

Smoke and Mirrors
They say self praise is no recommendation but that lesson has been lost on Richard Branson. Buoyed by an overdeveloped sense of his own importance Branson emerged from the British establishment (public school, money, privilege and a host of top level contacts) using his undoubted talents for propaganda to raise questions about the efficacy of existing business models.

He did so in an irreverent manner but not without a strategy which he paints as being employee and customer orientated. However, Branson has often showed scant regard for separating myth from fact, hiding behind more spin than Alistair Campbell.

This was set out in Tom Bower's "Branson", much to the millionaire's chagrin. He sued Bower and lost !!! Bower versus Branson has become a landmark case in the right to prick the pomposity of the rich and famous with needles of truth.

When Virgin ventured into financial services Branson was featured prominently as being the person the public could trust. Yet Virgin's life assurance policies were specifically written for those age groups least likely to need them (over 55's need not apply), with less consumer choice and were more expensive than many of their competitors. Tracker funds haven't done that well either.

Similarly when the Sunday Times compared the true cost of flights between Atlantic carriers Virgin came out as the one which, in monetary terms, was the least favourable to customers. Airline Virgin Blue was found guilty of age discrimination against staff and disability discrimination against customers in cases in the Australian courts, neither of which appear in the book. Bower doesn't get a mention either.

It's a point Branson, pontificating that entrepreneurs have literally destroyed poverty in the western world, simply doesn't understand. The British Rail monopoly was bad enough but free market entrepreneurs priced working people off the trains and made it cheaper to travel from the provinces to London by air. Capitalism works - so why is the taxpayer bailing out the banking industry? Branson's response is to whinge about failing to buy Northern Rock, despite having the assistance of some top flight contacts.

Branson's picture of himself fighting the establishment is a myth. He simply represents one section of the establishment against another. The game is given away by the response to the One Account which was lapped up by the professional classes (the minimum mortgage of £50,000 was outside the range of ordinary mortals in those days) but excluded the bulk of the population. Branson is the boss of the bourgeoisie not the mentor of the masses.

Branson has always taken risks - his earliest one of avoiding tax by using illegal means still haunts him. In most cases the risk has been shared with willing partners shouldering the bulk of the financial burden. Branson sees himself as developing good business ideas under the Virgin brand. He's been aided by confronting inept business competitors; British Airways and BT spring to mind. Many Virgin businesses are quite small but, taken together, generate a lot of business. How many of them are profitable remains hidden in a maze of companies.

For Branson the name Virgin is synonymous with success, for many it means getting short changed by publicity. I read this book the week after Virgin Media announced the loss of 2000 jobs. Branson takes the view that Virgin gets up people's noses. This isn't true. What people dislike is not Virgin but Branson himself. Having put himself in the vanguard of spin he doesn't understand why people people react negatively when the spin is stripped away and the bare facts are known.

They don't like what they see, preferring a genuine smile to a silly grin. Branson is successful at much of what he does but he only tells that sanitised part of the story he wants readers to know about, never the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. Read it but don't be fooled into believing it's true. It's smoke and mirrors at its best.