Thank you for the great feedback on who to profile next.
- Marc, I don’t have anything yet on Jean-Claude Biver and will begin researching!
- Alex, I profiled Vince McMahon in December (ALWAYS Win! – Vince McMahon) so will probably wait a while before doing a follow up post
- Nick, Richard Branson was our top Celebrity Entrepreneur (The Top 21 Celebrity Entrepreneurs) but I haven’t done a profile on him for a while so this one is for you!
“Having a personality of caring about people is important,” says Branson. “You can’t be a good leader unless you generally like people. That is how you bring out the best in them.”
Branson is often criticized for his management style – or lack thereof. He holds no regular board meetings, has no business headquarters, and has no idea how to operate a computer. But, with his brand name licensed to over 250 companies, Branson has had to develop the necessary leadership skills to ensure his survival.
His overall leadership principle rests on the need to treat other people with respect but the nuts and bolts of it are much harder to pin down. Branson stresses the importance of time management skills, saying he spends roughly one third of his time on trouble shooting, one third on new projects – both business related and charitable – and one third on promoting and marketing his businesses. In between, he also makes time for his family and vacations.
“I’ve had to create companies that I believe in 100%. These are companies I feel will make a genuine difference,” says Branson. “Then I have to be willing to find the time myself to talk about them, promote them and market them. I don’t want to spend my life doing something that I’m not proud of.”
Branson hires bright people, gives them a stake in his ventures so that they are motivated to be even more successful and then delegates. While his staff often takes care of the daily operations of a company, Branson focuses his time more on the end user experience, doing publicity and promoting his products.
Part of being a good leader, according to Branson, is also the ability to know when to back away from a task. “As much as you need a strong personality to build a business from scratch, you also must understand the art of delegation,” he says. “I have to be good at helping people run the individual businesses, and I have to be willing to step back. The company must be set up so it can continue without me.”
But, for Branson, the most important factor of good leadership is relating to other people. “If you’re good with people…and you really care, genuinely care about people then I’m sure we could find a job for you at Virgin,” he says. “The companies that look after their people are the companies that do really well. I’m sure we’d like a few other attributes, but that would be the most important one.”
Treating his employees as important team players is crucial to the success of Branson’s Virgin Empires, putting employees first, customers second, and shareholders third. “A company is people…employees want to know…am I being listened to or am I a cog in the wheel? People really need to feel wanted.”
With one of the most licensed brands in the world, Branson has demonstrated perhaps better than any other entrepreneur of the 20th century how good leadership skills can make the difference between success and failure.
Which Famous Entrepreneur would you like to see profiled? Leave a comment below and we might take you up on your idea!
Matthew Toren is an Award Winning Author, Serial Entrepreneur, and Investor. He Co-Founded YoungEntrepreneur.com along with his brother Adam. Matthew is co-author of the newly released book:Small Business, Big Vision: “Lessons on How to Dominate Your Market from Self-Made Entrepreneurs Who Did it Right” and also co-author of Kidpreneurs.
There not a lot of information about J-C Biver in english
He is a Swiss entrepreneur in the watch industry.
“Jean-Claude Biver, the man of Blancpain and Omega, was leaving the Swatch Group to take up the direction of Hublot, the brand created by Carlo Crocco.”
Here is some more about him (in english) : http://tinyurl.com/mrBiver
“Part of being a good leader, according to Branson, is also the ability to know when to back away from a task.”
Truer words have never been said before. I’ve done research on entrepreneurs like Branson and Stelios, and my findings were that, while these guys are great for starting a business up and turning innovative ideas into profitable reality, they are often horrible when it comes to actually running the business.
For this reason, for instance, Stelios does the right thing by setting a new venture up, making sure that it’s running smoothly and then moving on to the next big thing, leaving the day-to-day operating of, say, EasyJet, in the hands of competent managers rather than visionary leaders.
In fact, in my opinion, Branson and Stelios perfectly illustrate the importance of carefully distinguishing between managers and leaders, and of the knowledge of when to employ which.
Behind all of the PR and bravado lies an awesome business brain.
One of his key strengths is getting results through others and right from when he signed Mike Oldfield and Tubular Bells he’s carried on that theme.
He gets the people on his team and that can make the difference and people want to work for him. These are key business and leadership skills that we should all take note of
Sean
[...] How To Lead Like Richard Branson Awesome read – lead like Branson – the man ROCKS [...]
Thanks for the post. I found it interesting and inspiring.
write on black enterprneuship. i want to read write ups on sean john combs and curtis jackson. these two has definitely defined what business is all about, the highs and lows, and succeeded. tell me about it.
[...] you for your feedback Mits and Zuzanna. I did a Richard Branson profile in March (How To Lead Like Richard Branson) so we’ll wait a bit before we do him [...]
[...] you for your feedback Mits and Zuzanna. I did a Richard Branson profile in March (How To Lead Like Richard Branson) so we’ll wait a bit before we do him [...]
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