I'm a big fan of Richard Branson, and his books read fun with lots of insight. Losing My Virginity had lots of fun wisdom and anecdotes. One of his first rules of doing business is to make it fun, which works for obvious reasons.
He puts a lot of time into customer/client experience, and it really shows. I went to a Virgin Active gym in London for a month, and it's so exceptionally well built down to the little details. They have a sauna, steam room, swimming pool, and a more shallow pool of water that's a cross between Roman-style baths and a jacuzzi.
The detail that impressed me the most? In the shower by the sauna, there's a device that quickly fills a bucket with cold water, and then you can pull a rope for it to fall on your head to cool off. My friend was giddy to show me the pullrope cold water bucket, because it's very cool and you remember it, and want to show and tell other people. Also, a cafe with free wireless and lots of computers, with great quality food that's only about 10-20% more expensive than equivalent high end food outside the gym. Lots of people hang out in there after working out, and they eat food, and Virgin makes more money. Some people might even lean towards signing up for Virgin because of the computers, which means more membership fees.
Guy is brilliant, charismatic, and also seems a legitimately good dude. One of the few people that I never tire of reading or watching interviews with.
I agree. His books are a good read and very inspirational. When he started his business, all hippy-like with long hair you can imagine what the (at the time) stuffy establishment thought of him. If anyone on here wants an inspirational read, I'd recommend Losing My Virginity. Read some of the other books on him too to realise that whilst he is 'cool' he's also quite ruthless, which you probably need to be to get where he has
Agreed - one of the first businesses he started was effectively a pyramid scheme (he wrote a newspaper in college to sell to other students in bulk, who would then make money by selling the copies to individuals at a profit. Of course, the newspaper itself wasn't any good, and so it was hard to sell, which means that no-one but him made any money. I know of this story because one of my dad's college friends bought some of his newspapers, and predictably failed to sell any).
Also, his first 'real' business was Virgin Records, which made it big off the back of Mike Oldfield's 'Tubular Bells'. However, Branson made Oldfield sign an almost usurious contract (http://www.synthtopia.com/content/2008/03/03/tubular-bells/), and didn't pay him any of the royalties on the recording for several years as he built up the company (until Oldfield, who considered Branson a personal friend, sued).
A great business man he may be, but I don't think he's a genuinely nice guy.
Interesting - got a recommendation for a book that deals more with his tactics or the ruthless side? I admire people who are ruthless without hurting others, breaking the law, or otherwise being bad people. You can even learn from people who might go too far - I just ordered "Titan" about John Rockefeller from Amazon, along with "Taiko" about 1600's Sengoku Japan. Some ruthless men in those books - I try to understand and internalize the drive while spotting potential Tony Montana style pitfalls in advance.
He puts a lot of time into customer/client experience, and it really shows. I went to a Virgin Active gym in London for a month, and it's so exceptionally well built down to the little details. They have a sauna, steam room, swimming pool, and a more shallow pool of water that's a cross between Roman-style baths and a jacuzzi.
The detail that impressed me the most? In the shower by the sauna, there's a device that quickly fills a bucket with cold water, and then you can pull a rope for it to fall on your head to cool off. My friend was giddy to show me the pullrope cold water bucket, because it's very cool and you remember it, and want to show and tell other people. Also, a cafe with free wireless and lots of computers, with great quality food that's only about 10-20% more expensive than equivalent high end food outside the gym. Lots of people hang out in there after working out, and they eat food, and Virgin makes more money. Some people might even lean towards signing up for Virgin because of the computers, which means more membership fees.
Guy is brilliant, charismatic, and also seems a legitimately good dude. One of the few people that I never tire of reading or watching interviews with.