Adventures in Entrepreneurship

Interview of Richard Branson, Founder/CEO of Virgin co’s round the Globe.10/05

enhanced by Peter/CXO Wiz4biz 05/13

Question: If you weren’t doing what you are doing, what business would you launch tomorrow?

Richard: If I were not doing what I am doing today, I would be doing something similar. Sound like I am hedging? Bear with me as I explain. By doing something similar I mean that I would be:
· Symbiotic running several businesses that are related in ways that I can see, but which must seem far-flung and unrelated to the casual observer;
· Bootstrapping small businesses, because today I think there is so much opportunity for small businesses versus larger ones that there is no need to get out and get venture capital or other seed money;
· Leveraging the Internet with information businesses, because those areas have growth potential and, besides, they are what I know — and everyone should be in business with something they know.

In his book, “Losing my Virginity”, (it’s a business book, trust me), he writes about how his Virgin Companies seem to lack a cohesive connection to outsiders, but that there is a “symbiotic” relationship between many of them: “When Virgin Atlantic opens a flight to South Africa, I find that we can launch Virgin Radio and Virgin Cola there.”

Virgin’s 200 – 300 companies may seem more like a jigsaw puzzle than an organization chart, but says that he refuses to be held by conventional thinking about sticking to your core. He said: “That’s a bore !!!. Rather, he remains fluid in his thinking and does not rule out anything:

“The more Dispersed & scattered the company becomes around the globe, the more frequently I am asked about my vision for Virgin. I tend either to avoid this question or to answer it at great length, safe in the knowledge that I will give a different version the next time I’m asked. My vision for Virgin has never been rigid and changes constantly, like the company itself.”

Vision. I myself take this view. For instance, in addition to running this site and putting out information products (special reports, etc.) dealing with trends in the small business market, and we publish an ad-supported, award-winning site for RFID technology. We also do Consulting. We also write for other Blog sites for compensation. And we consult with other small businesses to show them how to promote themselves online.

What’s the Connection? Everything relates to providing business information in some way and leverages the Internet. As long as these two criteria are present, I will consider any opportunity that presents itself.

Comment: What do you think? What would you like to do?