Tag Archives: Michael Hopkins

About 2971 days ago E-Commerce

26 Most Fascinating Entrepreneurs: Richard Branson

Richard Branson Virgin Group because he’s game for anything. In fact, everything. Whatever else he may be doing at any moment (the “whatever else” here being preposterous understatement), Richard Branson is also cutting a figure. You’ve seen it. There’s the grin (not smile), the goatee he’s worn since decades before everyone else did, the still-leonine head of hair that even at age 54 gives him the appearance of always plowing through the wind like a man on the prow of some very sweet ship. He’s short, but people say you don’t notice it because he never stands in one place long enough for the necessary comparisons. He’s one of those fearless, twinkling guys you hear about who’s always certain that the next thing — the very next — well, that will be something else, that’ll be the best. Branson for better or worse is brio personified. Everything about him seems propelled. That figure he cuts is anything but irrelevant. The more you look, the more you realize it might be the most important of several important things about him. Not that Branson’s body of work isn’t admirable. Beginning with a student newspaper at age 17 and a record label to which he signed the Sex Pistols in his mid-20s, Branson has built the Virgin Group into an international conglomerate of some 350 companies, many of them still tiny but all of them combining for more than $8 billion a year in sales. We know, of course, about Virgin’s music businesses and transcontinental airline and pay-as-you-go mobile phone service — which the company claims has become the fastest business ever to reach $1 billion in revenue. Most of us have glimpsed newscasts about Virgin Galactic, Branson’s bid to take paying customers into space. And we’re all soon to hear incessantly about Virgin’s launch of a domestic air carrier in the United States, which Branson judges to be a miserably served market. But how many of us know about Virgin’s limousine companies and wine business and trains, and its enterprises that rent bikes, make cosmetics, operate bridal shops (Virgin Brides), run health clubs, sell holidays, offer balloon flights, and market lingerie (VirginWare — “sleek, smooth, and sexy underwear”)? Though it’s hard to picture anything Branson does as being underpublicized, only 10% of Virgin’s business is done in the States, so most of us here are bound to overlook the odd juice bar and manicure shop in the swelling Virgin empire. Branson can’t seem to stop himself, and he doesn’t appear to care how badly he gets flamed by critics (starting with the much-maligned 1984 launch of the now extravagantly successful Virgin Atlantic airline). Said one guru/academic, echoing many: “A brand can’t stand for music stores, airlines, mobile phones, colas, financial services, and on and on. There’s no brand on earth that can do that. That’s ego.” Branson shrugs. “Yeah, I know,” he says. “The conventional wisdom is you should specialize in what you know and never stray from that, but no other brand has become a way-of-life brand the way Virgin has. And it wasn’t us setting out to become a way-of-life brand, it was me continually being interested in learning new things. We’ve got people all over the world who are coming up with great new ideas, and trying them doesn’t actually cost us a lot relative to the overall size of the group.” So they try. In the process Virgin has developed a business method that Branson calls “branded venture capital,” whereby he starts and manages all manner of new companies under the Virgin name while partners provide most of the investment. On the February afternoon when Branson is explaining all this by phone he happens to be sailing into Antigua, his cell connection coming and going as he rounds some headland or other and then picks his way through yachts in Nelson’s Dockyard, which the seasoned Caribbean sailor will recognize as one of the partyingest of the Leeward Islands ports. Branson had Virgin colleagues aboard, and later that night would be sharing a spirited evening out with 15 or 20 of them, his notebook as ever alongside. “I keep a notebook in my pocket all the time,” he says, “and I really do listen to what people say, even when we’re out in a club at 3 a.m. and someone’s passing on an idea in a drunken slur. Good ideas come from people everywhere, not in the boardroom. “Anyway, it’ll be a really fun evening, I’m sure,” he says innocently, seeming genuinely unaware of whatever envy he might be triggering on the other end of the conversation. “I always have tried to make sure I work from an environment that’s pleasant and fun. If the chairman’s having fun, it’s easier for everyone else. “And if it’s fun, you’re going to keep going until you drop.” The afternoon’s expensive floating obstacles be damned, Branson was characteristically free with his thoughts as he talked. Here are excerpts from what he said: “The world is a massively more hospitable place for entrepreneurs than it was 20 years ago. In most industries it is virtually possible to think of the world as one country. All our expansion plans are overseas: China, India…. We’re really not interested in a new thing unless it can become global.” “Even the smallest, youngest companies should not be frightened to go overseas. The opportunities in the world are immense — China has a growth rate of 9% to 10% a year, and you should go there and participate in it and enjoy it. Enjoy it.” “Lavish praise on people and people will flourish; criticize people and they’ll shrivel up.” “Give people a second chance if they screw up. Even people who have stolen from us have become, when given a second chance, incredibly loyal and valued employees. I don’t know where I’d be if I hadn’t been given second chances.” “If you can run one business well you can run any business. There just needs to be a crying-out need for you to enter the marketplace. The time to go into a business is when it’s abysmally run by other people.” “Most of our businesses do succeed, but if something completely fails, then as long as we bow out gracefully and pay off all our debts, and nobody gets hurt, then I don’t think people disrespect Virgin for trying. The public appreciates someone having a go; it appreciates the attempt. Who’s been a success in life who hasn’t failed?” “It’s important for the company’s sake that the chairman not get bored.” “My general philosophy in life is you never really go wrong saying yes.” “I want Virgin to be as well known around the world as Coca-Cola.” It’s that last comment that too many observers have used to sum Branson up. And yet, even the Coke comparison does him inadequate justice and risks missing the point. Coca-Cola has never opened a business to fly passengers to the moon. Nor has it expanded into online auto sales. Or railroad operations. Or any of a hundred other things Branson’s appetite has led him to undertake. Will that appetite thin Virgin’s brand to worthless dilution? It’ll be a kick to watch and find out. But back to that figure the man cuts, because in the end it’s not the deliriously ambitious branding ploy or even the deliriously ambitious appetite that attracts us to Branson and braces us, and offers us inspiration. It’s something about the figure itself, the way it is not just sensible and straightforward but steadfastly alert and delighted and fun. When is Branson working? When is he not? It all appears so seamless and so authentically pleasing. Unlike many of our most vaunted and imitated entrepreneurs, Branson forever strikes one as not compulsive or haunted or even, strangely enough, driven — though no one ever questions his drive. No, instead he just keeps looking like he’s on the prow of that sweet boat, grinning because he knows a secret, happy because he doesn’t know exactly what’s next but is absolutely sure that it won’t be dull and will quite possibly be a good deal better even than that. Michael S. Hopkins Martha Stewart, Martha Stewart Omnimedia because she took one for the team Richard Branson, Virgin Group because he’s game for anything. In fact, everything. Michael Dell, Dell Computer for being brilliantly straightforward Jim Sinegal, Costco because who knew a big-box chain could have a generous soul? Diane von Furstenberg, Diane von Furstenberg Studio for staging an elegant comeback Julie Azuma, Different Roads to Learning for offering hope and help to the parents of autistic children Fritz Maytag, Anchor Brewing for setting limits Ray Kurzweil, Kurzweil Technologies and other companies because he is Edison’s rightful heir Craig Newmark, Craigslist for putting the free in free markets Jack Mitchell, Mitchells/Richards because his family business makes an art of customer service Frank Robinson, Robinson Helicopter for whipping an entire industry into shape Mark Melton, Melton Franchise Systems for giving immigrants their shot at the American Dream Michelle Cardinal & Tim O’Leary, Cmedia and Respond2 for rewriting the rules for husband-and-wife teams Mike Lazaridis, Research in Motion because someone had to stand up for all those frustrated engineers Trip Hawkins, Electronics Arts and Digital Chocolate for still scrapping Warren Brown, Cake Love and Love Cafe because only in America will someone quit a secure job as a lawyer to start a bakery Muriel Siebert, Muriel Siebert & Co. for being a notable first with a worthy second act Chuck Porter, Crispin, Porter + Bogusky for verging on reckless Katrina Markoff, Vosges Haut for setting a completely unreasonable goal for her business Barry Steinberg & Craig Sumerel, Direct Tire and Auto Service for showing the power of the peer group Victoria Parham, Virtual Support Services for serving as a mentor to military spouses Tom LaTour, Kimpton Hotels and Restaurants for staying at fleabag hotels so that we don’t have to Mitchell Gold & Bob Williams, Mitchell Gold for creating a true comfort zone Izzy & Coco Tihanyi, Surf Diva for kicking sand in the face of conventional wisdom Tony Lee, Ring Masters for saving 16 jobs, including his own Rueben Martinez, Libreria Martinez Books and Art Galleries for simultaneously building a business and nurturing Latino culture

About 4675 days ago E-Commerce

Getting a Life

FYI: From the editor I doubt if there has ever been a time when company builders have confronted a choice starker than the one they face now: they can have a business, or they can have a life. They can’t have both. The level of competition is so intense these days that it’s just assumed the top people at a company will devote their lives to it. If that’s not what they want, says the conventional wisdom, they shouldn’t be in business at all. So what happens when an experienced executive decides to launch a company — a real company — with the express goal of creating for himself the kind of life he’s always wanted but has never been able to find in business? What happens when he starts making decisions based not just on considerations of growth potential and market positioning but on achieving things like balance, peace of mind, and happiness? Can he pull it off? Can the company be successful without reverting to more conventional ways of operating? And if so, what will it look like? How will it be different from other businesses? Paul Eichen is determined to have a business and a life. Those were some of the questions I had when I first heard about Paul Eichen’s radical plan for the Rokenbok Toy Co. While the company is still a work in progress, it is already challenging some widely held assumptions about what’s required to be successful in the new economy, as you will see from reading this month’s cover story by executive editor Michael Hopkins, ” The Pursuit of Happiness (in an Internet-Clocked, Overnight-Billionaired, 500-Times-Earnings World).” The free lunch There’s a refrain we’ve heard over the years from company founders as diverse as Steve Jobs of Apple Computer, Don Burr of People Express Airlines, and Jack Stack of Springfield ReManufacturing Corp. When asked why they decided to share equity with their employees, they’ve said it was just common sense: you make more money in the long run by having a small piece of a large pie than by having a large piece of a small pie. That’s a concept many business owners still find hard to swallow. The majority opinion has been that existing shareholders must be picking up the tab by allowing their returns to be reduced through dilution. As Bo Burlingham reports in this issue, a new study provides the first substantial and credible evidence that broad-based stock-option plans appear to pay for themselves. When companies institute them, performance improves enough that the effects of dilution are neutralized, and the existing shareholders wind up doing as well as, or better than, they did before the issuance of the options. Those findings could well accelerate the already rapid spread of stock options as a form of employee compensation. To get a sense of how far this trend might go, check out this month’s Face to Face with Corey Rosen of the National Center for Employee Ownership. Not so fast, Kowalski How many times have you heard that speed is everything in the new economy? The Internet is a digital land rush, we are told. And the company that “gits thar fustest with the mostest” always wins. It’s supposedly a new rule of business, and a popular one at that. It’s also wrong, and Built to Last coauthor Jim Collins returns this month to demolish it. Not only does he show that an old rule — best beats first — is still valid, but he argues that it will eventually prove even more applicable to Internet businesses than to other companies. Why? Because the barriers to entry are so low on the Web. The ultimate E-winners, he suggests, will be the businesses that learn from the mistakes of the first movers — just as in the old economy. Fun, fun, fun I have to admit that strictly as a reader, I’ve come to look forward to each new installment of Andrew Raskin’s E-Diaries. Somehow he manages to put every aspect of Internet life into a wonderfully human, delightfully humorous context. This month he writes about fun — specifically, the efforts of Internet businesses to create environments in which people can have some. It’s amazing to me how hard these companies work at fun, but I guess they have no choice. In the Internet space, fun is an employee benefit, more or less like stock options: every business has to offer it. In any case don’t miss Raskin’s story about his company’s encounter with an Uzbekistani hot-dog vendor who served up some advice about viral marketing. Thinking like Norm Among Norm Brodsky’s many gifts is an ability to take something that seems hopelessly complex and make it breathtakingly clear. He does just that in this month’s Street Smarts, in which he addresses the period of confusion that often characterizes the earliest stage of start-up activity. I myself find it energizing, even inspiring, to observe his thought process in this type of situation. While the rest of us may never achieve his level of analytical mastery, we can at least appreciate the discipline it’s based on — a discipline that we can all develop to some degree if we try. Please e-mail your comments to editors@inc.com.