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Where Virgin ventures have not been successful, it has been
noted,4 it is often when he has had a good idea himself and gone
out to look for a manager to run it. The best business proposals
have come to him from managers who want to run the business
themselves. He is better at spotting talent when it comes to him
than he is at going out and finding it.
MASTER OF MAYHEM
Branson s other great leadership role is to preside over and en-
courage the creative environment that gives Virgin its special
buzz.  A mad house, is how one visitor described the group s
premises.  There were people running about all over the
place.
 DON T LEAD SHEEP, HERD CATS 117
Another described the scene at Albion Street, the site of Bran-
son s first business venture, in 1969:  Phones were ringing;
attractive women were coming and going. At the other end of
the room, a young man with tousled light brown hair and a daz-
zling smile was talking very earnestly into the telephone.
Yet another described the Virgin headquarters in Holland Park:
 There are dirty plates stacked up in the kitchen above Richard
Branson s office. There is a photocopier on the landing. All over
the house where he oversees his 200 companies there are doors
ajar, mugs left on tables, people wandering in and out & it is
nothing like a modern corporate headquarters. 5
And in the centre of all the mayhem, there is always Richard
Branson: usually working the telephone, charming, teasing, ca-
joling, shouting, or in some other way trying to get someone to
do something to the benefit of Virgin.
Like the director of a Marx Brothers film, Branson is the mas-
ter of mayhem, orchestrating the chaos. In his own opinion, he
does so with commendable restraint, leaving the managers of
the Virgin companies to make their own decisions and seldom
interfering in operational matters.
 The bosses of each company have almost total authority to
make their own decisions. If I do make a suggestion, quite often
they tell me to fuck off, he says.
But there is another view. The reason Virgin never worked as a
public company, his critics say, is because Branson is a control
freak who hates to be accountable to anyone. He is also, say the
critics, an inveterate meddler, who undermines the authority of
118 BUSINESS THE RICHARD BRANSON WAY
his managers by interfering in decisions that he has supposedly
delegated.
Contrary to Branson s own claims, says one disgruntled former
employee, the Virgin top management  all sit there like nod-
ding dogs, their heads nodding whichever way Branson s does.
None of his management dare go to the toilet without asking
him first.
These and other accusations have been leveled at Branson, but it
is difficult to see how such pandemonium could be ruled over by
such a panjandrum. Most dictators rely on rules to keep people
in line. Branson s empire is closer to chaos.
SHIP AHOY
Branson has been called a visionary, a sage, a guru even.  The
 hippy capitalist has become a business visionary whose man-
agement style and philosophy offers some potentially crucial
lessons for capitalism in the throes of change, notes one com-
mentator.6
 A child of the revolutionary 1960s, he s forged a unique synthesis
of the youth revolution s values and the needs of a modern busi-
ness & somehow his values and style allay our nagging doubts
about the morality of modern capitalism s ends and means.
Utopian in the romantic sense he may be, but Branson is no so-
cial engineer. He has no blueprint. Even if he thought he knew
the answer, Branson wouldn t want to alienate people from the
Virgin brand by explaining it.
 DON T LEAD SHEEP, HERD CATS 119
Although he has an outrageous
 The  hippy
sense of humor, he is far too politi-
capitalist has
cally correct to offend any particular
social group. When asked questions
become a business
on controversial topics his typical
visionary whose
response is to offer multiple choice
management style
answers, indicating there are many
and philosophy
dimensions to the issue, or to sug-
offers some
gest that perhaps  there is no right
or wrong answer.
potentially crucial
lessons for
In truth, the  vision thing isn t re-
capitalism in the
ally Branson s thing. What he is good
throes of change.
at is keeping his one good pirate s
eye pressed to the telescope and
constantly scanning the horizon for
heavily laden treasure ships ripe for boarding. The other eye he
uses to keep a watchful vigil on the here and now, and to ensure
he knows what is going on with his constituency  the Virgin
faithful.
One of the lessons to be learned from Branson is not to get too
hung up on grandiose ideas and projects, but to move with the
times. His great skill is the ability to stay in touch with Virgin s
customers and employees and use that knowledge to spy new
business opportunities that are ripe for the Virgin formula.
As for his philosophy and ideas of a better world, it is hard to
separate them from his instinctive feel for what motivates and
inspires people. In other words, don t ask Branson for answers,
just follow where his instinct leads.
120 BUSINESS THE RICHARD BRANSON WAY
DON T LEAD SHEEP,
HERD CATS
Rather than expect people to follow blindly where he leads,
Branson relies on his ability to get the best from individuals
by creating a challenging environment. Like herding cats, it s
much harder to do but a lot more lively. The lessons for lead-
ers are:
Æ% Be a back seat leader. One of the characteristics of the
Branson leadership style is knowing when to get out the
way and let people get on with it.
Æ% Act as a catalyst. Branson is the catalyst that transforms
potential energy in a project or idea into kinetic energy
that sends people scurrying in a thousand directions.
Æ% Surround yourself with talented people. What Branson is
good at is surrounding himself with very talented people
and creating the right environment for them to flourish.
This is no mean feat.
Æ% Encourage chaos. Branson is the master of mayhem,
orchestrating the chaos.
Æ% Constantly scan the horizon for new opportunities. Bran-
son s great skill is the ability to stay in touch with Virgin s
customers and employees and use that knowledge to
spy new business opportunities that are ripe for the Vir-
gin formula.
 DON T LEAD SHEEP, HERD CATS 121
NOTES
1 Mitchell, Alan, Leadership by Richard Branson, Amrop Inter-
national, 1995.
2 Jackson, Tim, Virgin King, HarperCollins, London, 1994.
3 Mitchell, Alan, Leadership by Richard Branson, Amrop Inter-
national, 1995. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]