Richard Branson is the founder of the company called Virgin which has found its way from a small record outlet to a global brand. He was asked what kind of advice he had for the aspiring entrepreneurs. This is how he responded.
The Key Attribute:
An entrepreneur according to him has to remember at all times that a company is just a group of people. As an entrepreneur and the leader of that group, you have to be very attentive and responsive to them, in short you have to be a great listener and motivator. You have to have the appreciation for good work done by other people and the ability to bring out the best in people who are under you. People are more like flowers according to Richard; he says just like flowers bloom if you water them, inner qualities of people flourish through praising. So this is a very crucial quality of an entrepreneur.
The obstacles:
When asked what has been most challenging in running of his company Virgin, he answered that there is a fine line between success and failure. Once he was in this dire situation when he almost lost his company. He was tired of flying on other people’s airlines so he established the Virgin Atlantic’s Airlines in which he first flew for New York from London. But in the meantime his Bank had a panic attack and when he got back to his home he found his bank manager sitting on his doorstep giving him the bad news that they would close the company down by Monday if he failed to repay the loan he had taken. At that time it was Friday already so he had only two days in hand. He gave his bank manager a piece of his mind which was not a very professional thing to do. Then he fell to calling each of all the distributors of their music and managed to get enough money to repay the bank but by the end of that week they changed to a better bank with 30 times the overdraft facility the previous bank had lent them. Thus he saved the company. From this experience he learned that it is okay to step up and do something that wouldn’t be normally done. We are not captives to our banks.
Delegation:
He was further asked if his company will be able to keep its present reputation in his absence. He without even flinching admitted that his company is well off without him to. He surely built the brand establishing three to four hundred companies worldwide but he also learnt the tactics and facilities of using representatives. He has a great team of eligible people who run the Virgin companies and he gives them full authority and responsibility. Although he gives the delegates the chance to make mistakes and run their respective companies according to their will, his brand still ranks among the top 20 brands around the world. ‘Maybe my face value has been acting as icing on the cake but they can recover that too by a bit more marketing. Virgin is in a very steady and reputed state. It can go on well without me’, he said.

Benazir Elahee Munni