Richard Branson: Like a Virgin

Reducing the red tape involved in hiring new employees and setting up businesses is a no-brainer. Why does the process remain lengthy and expensive almost everywhere?

The cost of fuel is rising and supplies of oil and natural gas are uncertain in an increasingly unstable world. Investing in renewable energy will create opportunities for skilled workers, lower costs across the board and assure an energy supply for the next generation. The public and private sectors must work together on this.

Skilled and enterprising workers are needed in almost every market and sector. Yet employers must often jump through endless bureaucratic hoops to take advantage of the expertise available in the global marketplace. The world is flat now; its workforce is increasingly mobile. Have you set out the welcome mat?

Germany remains the European Union’s powerhouse because of its very strong manufacturing and engineering capabilities. What’s stopping other countries from borrowing the German model? The US has succeeded in technological innovation, but software and hardware design is increasingly shifting to new Silicon Valleys in India, China and, before long, Brazil. As odd as it may sound in this techno-world, manufacturing is now the new ‘new frontier’. We can’t take it for granted any more.

In many fields (except maybe medicine) the duration of university degree courses could and should be shortened, enabling skilled people to move into the workplace more quickly, and, in countries like the US, with a less crippling student-loan burden. Colleges have become warehouses, storing students for as long as possible instead of preparing them effectively and efficiently for productive work.

Millions of workers around the world would prefer shorter hours but lack the option. Widespread adoption of job sharing and flexitime would dramatically reduce unemployment and its associated costs. People who wish to work less – often to spend more time with their families – would be able to do so, and some others would return to the workplace as a result. A win-win. Nothing but tradition is standing in the way.

Finally, a plea to leaders around the world: governments must lead the way to a stable financial environment. Interest rates should be set low; money must flow through the banking system. Controls on private enterprise are less important now than encouraging investment. Only this will give rise to the virtuous circle of new companies, new jobs and new markets that in turn will restore confidence and pride in our economies.

That’s it – so let’s get to it!

Coaching senior managers can be difficult, simply because they need to find a stretch of uninterrupted time to review their decisions. So, every year, we bring senior managers from across the Virgin Group to my home on Necker Island to discuss the challenges and opportunities we face. We celebrate our achievements, reflect on our mistakes and discuss how we could better work together.

In a session led by Sally Morgan, a former aide to Tony Blair who now serves as one of our advisers, our group came up with some handy guidelines for managers by looking at lessons learned from the public, private and non-profit sectors. Whether you are launching your first start-up or leading an experienced team, these basics will hold true in almost every situation.

It is crucial to set objectives for each period according to your business’s strategic direction – and then make sure that all employees know about them.

Sally told us that when she was working for the British government, every summer the ministers appointed to the Cabinet would receive a note from Tony Blair that outlined his overall strategic approach for the year and set clear objectives for each department.

The Cabinet would meet for a week to discuss these plans before Members of Parliament returned from their summer holidays and had the opportunity to analyse and challenge the approach. Thereafter, the team received a note from Blair every Sunday, which they would discuss at a meeting the next morning to agree on key actions.

Communicating your objectives regularly will help you to ensure that your team has a framework for making their own decisions. It is important that all must feel welcome to discuss the group’s objectives – that open debate is encouraged – because everyone will have a collective responsibility to follow through.

It is important to define a core set of values for your business, to which you and your employees can refer when making decisions.

When assessing investments and new directions at Virgin, we have always considered whether the proposed business meets our core values, which helps us to manage our diverse portfolio and maintain some consistency.

We look at whether the business will do something differently than most or all of the other companies in the industry or sector; whether it will provide real value, great customer service and still retain the sense of fun and pride that distinguishes a good business from a great business. More recently we have added a new core value: we also test whether a new business will have the legs to go overseas and can be scaled up within about three years.

It is always tempting to try to do too much; for ambitious managers and their teams, there always seem to be too many projects and too little time. But successful organisations know what their priorities are: they tackle the really important projects and the rest falls into place. Look at your strategic plan and rules of the road, and choose accordingly.

A good manager provides clear roles for the members of their team, which enables everyone to get on with the job of running the business. Once you’ve made these choices, do not micromanage. If you make a habit of diving in and changing a major project’s direction or otherwise intervening, your people will learn to be dependent on you, and they will never reach their full potential.

When your team makes a judgement call, you need to follow through with conviction. If you merely cast doubt and let their project languish, your team will not have the impetus or confidence to take the next steps. If you insist on making every big decision yourself, you will create a terrible logjam.

Don’t fall into the trap of asking for endless reports in order to justify moving forward. It is always better to act; it is debilitating to dither.

It is impossible to get every decision right. When things go wrong, take time to review what happened with your team and learn from it together. But don’t linger too long – just dust yourself off and tackle the next challenge.

When someone on your team has a big success, celebrate it and tell others. Success breeds success. And this is something that should be a part of your everyday work – as I’ve said before, you should try to catch your team doing something right.

In short, if the best real estate is all about ‘location, location, location’, then the mantra for running the best business has got to be ‘communication, communication, communication’.