Virgin

"Branson also precisely replicated Kirk Kerkorian’s policy of “keeping the back door open” in acquiring aircraft. The deal for the air¬ line’s first Boeing 747 allowed him to sell the plane back to the manufac¬ turer at nearly the original price if Virgin failed."

"But why do you think I have all those companies? They almost certainly wouldn’t be there had I not repeatedly dug my heels in and refused to spend my time on things I recognised as just not right for me.’"

"Having what we like to call ‘serious fun’ is at the core of ‘the Virgin way’ and that’s something for which I will never apologise. Being passionately engaged and enjoying every minute of what you do is an attitudinal thing – a spark – that cannot be mandated, trained, put in a job description or an employee manual. It’s something that’s either in a person’s DNA or not, and as such has to come from within."

"I have always viewed the maturation of companies as being very much like that of young people. When they are newborn or toddlers they tend to get away with all kinds of stuff on the basis that they are just finding their feet and so they generally enjoy a higher forgiveness factor. If companies survive this stage (many do not), like teenagers they then start to develop acne and other character blemishes while they get a little bit cocky and know-it-all. After that there comes a more mature stage: they have hopefully learned from their mistakes and settled down, but this period is filled with very different kinds of risks, with complacency possibly being the biggest. And once a company reaches the mid-life crisis stage it easily gets lazy, overweight, set in its ways and, like adults, can spend more time looking in the rear-view mirror than forging new ways forward and trying to see what’s around the next corner."

"From a leadership perspective, shepherding a company through each of these various stages of growth is not that different to bringing up a child. Just as raising a toddler is very different to keeping a teenager on track and the skill sets may change a little as the company gets older, the fundamentals of parenting and corporate leadership are very closely intertwined."

"said, I am a huge believer in the old customer service mantra of, ‘First to know, first to handle.’ If someone can fix a problem on the spot it saves all kinds of angst for the customer plus time and expense for the company – just as importantly, an on-the-spot resolution more often than not will also keep a customer in the fold."

"Anyway when John raised the subject in front of all the airline heads I was probably expected to be the one to quickly put this Qantas interloper in his place and say something like, ‘Sorry, but that is one area where we cannot go.’ On the contrary, other than John, I think I was the only one in the room who thought it made sense and so said, ‘Screw it, if that’s what you think you need then let’s do it.’ The result was a very different-looking sideways rendition of the logo that, in all honesty, some love and some don’t, but the updated treatment freshened up the brand and got us lots of media and consumer attention in the process."

"‘You’re not going to like this but . . . ’ Avoid any such negativity whenever possible. Rather than immediately sowing a seed of doubt with the audience it’s far better to say something like, ‘This may be a tough nut to crack but I’m sure we’ll get it done.’"

"Virgin Group were ever to adopt such a motto, then something along the lines of ‘Ipsum Sine Timore, Consectetur’ would look incredibly impressive on a scroll right below our familiar red Virgin logo. Loosely translated from the Latin this means ‘Screw It, Let’s Do It’ and, as mission statements go, that’s about as real as it gets!"

"It also manages to keep it very real by saying things like, ‘As much as we like to think we’re a pretty great company, and we want you to love coming to work every day, we can’t expect you and our members to love us unconditionally. We’ve got to earn it.’"

"‘That’s certainly different!’ A statement such as this could be anything from a ringing endorsement to a stinging condemnation or even an admission of ‘I have no idea what the heck this is all about’. Differences, like ‘change’, can be good or bad and for every company that differentiates itself by its excellence there’s at least one other that achieves it by mediocrity."

"It had a particular vibe to it and looked every bit the young new challenger. The huge cargo ships were painted a solid red and emblazoned with the Hafskip logo, and the corporate look and feel was carried through everything from newspaper adverts to the company’s huge cargo terminals by the harbour. In its time it was a bit like Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin brand in Iceland, exuding a similar vibrancy compared with the other boring old conservative shipping corporations. When you live on an island, the shipping companies are always going to be the main businesses."