Media Spotlight: Business Stripped Bare By Richard Branson
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Sir Richard Branson is a PR machine. His book, Business Stripped Bare - Adventures Of A Global Entrepreneur, should be handed out to PR students as an exercise in how to elevate a business profile while simultaneously plugging as many products as possible.
That said, once you accept the fact that every other page will contain a reference to how great the Virgin brand is, the book does make interesting reading.
Setting aside the pearls of business wisdom on how to run a company as successfully as Virgin, Branson - or at least someone pretending to be Branson - writes candidly about his experiences as an entrepreneur.
He also talks frankly about banking, Virgin’s unsuccessful bid for Northern Rock and the state of the economy.
Branson sets the tone for the book with his preface, written to fill the gap between when the hardback edition was published in September 2008 and the launch of this paperback edition in July this year.
He not only believes that it is right for governments to bail out banks but makes the controversial suggestion that not enough has been done to prop up the ailing lending system.
He argues that Lehman Brothers should not have been allowed to collapse because of the unparalleled damage this did to trust in the financial system. According to Branson, savers need to be able to “go to bed at night secure in the knowledge that the money they deposited today will still be there for them to withdraw tomorrow”.
Perhaps unsurprisingly - and maybe prophetically, given the forced asset disposals still to come from the Royal Bank of Scotland and Lloyds Banking Group - he makes the case for small private banks. Cue a reference to Virgin Money, which in Branson’s words “employs a grand total of 200 people and is doing very nicely, thank you”.
Without wanting to dwell on the past too much the book gives some interesting insights into the thinking that lay behind Virgin’s failed bid to take over Northern Rock long before there was any talk of nationalisation.
It reveals that the bid was the brainchild of Jayne-Anne Gadhia, chief executive of Virgin Money. One option under consideration was to rebrand Northern Rock as Virgin Bank, withdraw from mortgages in the short term and focus on savings to strengthen the balance sheet. Branson would have fronted a campaign highlighting the importance of increasing savings and reducing debt. He says he was charged with generating support and more importantly funding. He then makes vague references to personal phone calls “to ensure there would be goodwill towards a private rescue bid. I was given the green light at the highest level”.
Read into that what you will, although Branson rubbishes suggestions made in the media that there was some kind of sweetheart deal between himself and the Prime Minister.
Having said that, he still claims that Virgin was the preferred bidder of both the Bank of England and the Financial Services Authority.
All in all, Business Stripped Bare isn’t going to be the answer to your business prayers but it reveals some of the politics that underpins high level business and provides some insight into the inner workings of a global brand.
So if you can stomach the relentless PR, it’s worth a read.
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