Entrepreneurship – the Richard Branson way
March 7, 2008
Living in the UK, one always reads about Richard Branson on a regular basis for his maverick business moves. His most recent one was a takeover bid for the troubled Northern Rock, a mortgage lender. Though we tend to associate him with his most successful ventures, such as Virgin Atlantic and Virgin Mobile, there have been a few duds as well, like Virgin Cola. According to this interesting article here Branson has founded more than 300 companies throughout his Virgin empire!
In a recent speech, one of his senior aides termed the Virgin empire as a massive private equity house that invests according to Branson’s ideas. However, this doesn’t fully capture the spirit that permeates all of his activities. Otherwise, why would Branson be willing to invest $25 million in the Virgin Earth Challenge, to identify the best carbon capture technology?
For a closer look at the man and his thinking about his business ventures, check out this article.
Entry Filed under: Entrepreneurship. .
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shailendra vyakarnam | March 9, 2008 at 11:22 am
Richard Branson kind of defies most definitions of entrepreneurship. He has been an instigator of so many companies, seems to have a great sense of vision, but at the same time he is able to capture opportunities as they go past. As owner of a large company he still demonstrates the whimsical nature of the entepreneur.
It is good to study him and perhaps others will add insights into what makes him tick. He is an icon of the age – perhaps we can’t all reach his style of success – but it would be good to understand him!