I'm fortunate enough to have part of the vast Virgin commercial empire as a good client. I'm also a good customer of theirs, in that I use Virgin Trains extensively for business travel within the UK. Being both supplier and customer has given me visibility on "both sides of the fence" - not something ordinarily available to customers. I can honestly say that I'm hugely impressed with how Sir Richard Branson seems to have got his personal values and business beliefs into very nook and cranny of Virgin - if you cut his employees in half you'd find the cursive script of "Virgin" written right through the middle of them, just like a stick of Brighton (or Blackpool) Rock. They are utterly delightful people with whom to do business - either as supplier or customer. By the way, if you're reading this outside the UK and wonder what "rock" is in this context, it's a particular type of sweet (or candy) that has lettering running through it. You can find out more about how it is made by following this link: http://www.sweetthoughts.co.uk/acatalog/How_is_Rock_Candy_Made.html.

I thought it might be interesting to spend a short time reviewing some of Sir Richard's words on how he's achieved his success and see what lessons there for any business, regardless of size or scope. What follows is a mixture of direct quotes and my interpretation, from Sir Richard's book "Business Stripped Bare":

1) What is business about?
Surprisingly maybe, not profit or winning at all costs - no, it's about what concerns you. "If you care enough to do something about it, you're in business." I find this a wonderfully uplifting thought, because - like a lot of you, I suspect - I founded my business around something that genuinely concerns me and to have that belief reaffirmed produces a good feeling. I can also vouch for it being the case with Virgin's employees too - they are genuinely concerned about their business.

2) Learn by doing
This is a hard one for me, as I'm one of those people who wants to get things right. However, the simple fact is that in business the greatest teacher is experience and we all know what that is: it's what you get when you don't get what you want. Take action.

3) Time is valuable
I have a question for you - how many of you position your desk near the letter box and stop work whenever the postman pushes mail through the flap? None of you, of course - so why is it that so many people working on computers nowadays have their e-mail application open, regardless of whatever else they are doing, and break away from all other tasks to read e-mails as they arrive. Stop it. Turn email (and phones) off. Return calls and process e-mails twice a day - say at 1130 and 1630 - that really ought to be good enough for the vast majority of businesses. Get on with the stuff that you know really counts. In an eight hour day, you have less than 500 minutes, don't waste a single one - you can't buy more.

4) Simplicity is the key
People love making life - and that includes business - complex. Resist the temptation. Business really is simple and the smaller the business, the simpler it should be. At the heart of any business there can only be four things: the performance of the people running it, the quality of the product (or service) being sold, the effectiveness of the marketing and the efficiency of the company's operations. Keep all four elements as simple as possible.

5) Be good at what you do
This ought to be really simple and yet I've seen many people make a real hash of it, and mostly they're ex-corporate types who've gone into business on their own after a successful corporate career. Here's the issue: big companies love giving their employees "feedback", regardless of whether they want it, deserve it, or need it. Most of the time this feedback is given by managers who aren't very good at giving it. The result is that the focus of the feedback is the employee's weaknesses and the work that needs to be done to improve them. Most of the time people aren't praised enough for what they do really well - which is sad, because it's what they do really well that got them the job in the first place. Now that you're running your own business, you're the boss and you get to do what you want. Do what you're really good -work at being even better at it - and get someone else to do the rest. The work needs experts like you - people who really know how to "do stuff". Make sure you know your stuff.  

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