Having always
worked for myself, I’ve never had to play by anyone else’s rules, and I
wouldn’t want to. This attitude has shaped my approach to management since
Virgin’s early days, when I decided to grant our employees many of the same
freedoms that I enjoy.
Today the Virgin Group is made up of dozens of companies headed by CEOs
and managers who have the freedom to run their businesses as they see fit. This
philosophy goes against the usual rules of business and may seem unmanageable,
but it has turned out to be one of the keys to our success.
In the past year we launched new Virgin mobile businesses in Chile and Poland, countries where our brand previously had no presence. This would ordinarily be a very difficult and somewhat risky project for any company, but we have a process that works very well. In Chile and Poland, teams assessed the needs and requirements of the markets, then structured the companies accordingly -- there was no top-down pressure dictating how the companies should manufacture or sell their products and services, or otherwise conduct their daily business. Once employees had been hired to run the new companies, launch teams made sure that everyone had a good understanding of what Virgin is all about and why our businesses are different from the competition.
Safe in the
knowledge that these new companies were ready to do business the Virgin way, we
were able to grant their employees the freedom to run them in whatever way best
suited their respective markets -- it was all up to them. Both companies went
on to have very successful starts.
Another of the
areas where we ask many employees to make their own decisions -- and many other
brands can’t -- is short-term profit: We focus less on this metric than most
companies do. We all understand the importance of profit -- if we didn’t, the
Virgin Group would not be around long. However this shouldn’t be, and never has
been, our driving force. Our employees are free to take positive risks knowing
that they will not solely judged on a company’s profit margin, but also on
factors that all of us at Virgin value, like raising awareness of the brand,
creating happy and loyal customers, or making a positive impact on the larger
community.
By giving
employees the same freedoms that the senior managers and I give ourselves, our
team can successfully take on projects that other brands can’t, such as Virgin
Galactic and Virgin Oceanic -- tourism companies set to expand travel to space
and the ocean depths.
This policy
also helps our employees to succeed because they can pursue their passions. Our
newest business, the global touring company Virgin Live, had a great launch for
this reason. Although the Virgin brand is well respected within the music industry
given our roots -- in the past Virgin Records and Virgin Music did very well at
music production and distribution – we had no history of promoting global
tours. However, our small, enthusiastic team at Virgin Live beat competition
from giants within the industry and won the right to promote The Rolling
Stones’ 50 & Counting series of shows. This was a very proud moment for us:
If you are going to enter this business, there really isn’t a bigger or better
way to show.
My advice to
let your employees loose might not be for everyone -- Virgin has a strong
culture of ignoring the traditional rules of business and looking for purpose
beyond just profit. Our responsibilities may alter over the years -- acquiring
a bank or providing healthcare services -- but
our formula for success remains constant: ''Don’t just play the game -- change
it for good.''
