Put employees first: Sir Richard Branson

18 November 2005

Sir Richard Branson, founder, Virgin Records and Virgin Atlantic says corporations should put their employees ahead of customers and shareholders to build sustainable businesses. Rex Mathew reports.

Delivering the fourth annual Madhavrao Scindia memoral lecture on leadership and building successful businesses in New Delhi yesterday, Sir Richard Branson, founder of the hugely successful Virgin Atlantic, started with Mahatma Gandhi''s famous remark on customer service. He said, though he does not want to argue with Mahatma Gandhi, at Virgin he does things in a slightly different manner.

Outlining the Virgin management mantra, Sir Richard said happy employees keep customers happy. A lot of happy customers would create a lot of happiness to shareholders as well. Without good people, corporations are worth nothing. And to motivate people, corporations should create a fun environment to work. Employees should feel that it is a crusade, not just another job.

Brand Building
Branson recalled the early days of the Virgin brand, which is now the eighth most well-known brand globally. After his mail order music store became successful, Branson and his team were working on creating a distinct identity for the business. They finally short listed two names — Virgin and Slip Disc. Luckily, as Sir Richard said, they chose Virgin as it would have been rather difficult to imagine an airline called Slip Disc.

The now famous Virgin logo also had a very interesting beginning. Branson and his team were working with a graphic artist on the logo. The artist grew increasingly frustrated and threw away some of the designs. Luckily, once again, on his way to the loo Branson picked up one of the crumpled bits of paper from the floor. The scribble on that bit of paper became the very distinct and stylish Virgin logo.

Life was not always smooth for the Virgin brand. The application for a copyright remained with the patent office for three long years as the name was considered ''too rude''. The brand has had its difficult periods when some of the product launches, notably drinking products, were not as successful.

On competition
"Competition is not about eliminating your competitors" he points out. But most corporations and executives try all the time to kill their competitors and create monopolies for themselves. Conventional businesses work on the principle of "minimum competition for themselves and maximum competition for their suppliers".