Business Stripped Bare: Adventures of a Global Entrepreneur

A well written and thought out book based on personal experience and beliefs. Richard Branson is an experienced and insightful man who believes in the entrepreneurial approach to business and life. Everyone should be an entrepreneur of one kind or another.

This is the second time I have listened to Sir Richard Branson’s book, but the first time I have reviewed it. Richard Branson is a fascinating entrepreneur. Struggling in school, he started a newspaper for students. It quickly grew in popularity to the point he received an offer to sell it. He immediately turned that money into the music business, reselling vinyl albums by mail cheaper than the corner shops. The next logical step was to create a recording studio and begin promoting bands. From there, things continued to grow and grow. The result of his willingness to strike out into areas he knew nothing about became known as the Virgin group of brands.

Business Stripped Bare is a look at Branson’s business philosophy and brand show more genius. He shares the story of how he built the brand and why he feels it is successful. He is brash, challenging, energetic and doesn’t subscribe to stuffiness on any scale. He believes in keeping businesses as small as possible (100 employees where possible), empowering employees to make decisions and energizing them around the brand.

The Virgin Group is one of the largest privately held companies in the world and this inside look at how they approach business is fascinating to me. Branson’s easy-going, chatty-style of writing is engaging. He provides story after story demonstrating his core beliefs on building a business. More than most business books, I found the advice useful and entertaining. While not a step-by-step manual, he covers the more intangible aspects of success, such as keeping employees engaged, dreaming big, where to never compromise, how to recognize and capitalize on opportunity and how to learn from mistakes.

There are few global business leaders I would like to meet. Branson is one whom I would. Judging from his writing style, I think I would l even be comfortable talking with him. Perhaps this book is ghost written, but the style matches what I have read about him in the news. He seems like a normal guy who made it big. He isn’t afraid to let it all hang out on the line in promotion of the company, even if it means bungee jumping from a helicopter or showing up naked to a product release. He does things on his terms and no one else’s. He believes in his people and is relentless in the pursuit of of perfection for the customer service and safety.

One thing I took away from his book is the importance of constant observation. He carries a notebook with him everywhere he goes and writes down every observation. Everything from worn carpet on a plane, salt shakers on trains to ideas for improving cell phone offerings go into the book for review and implementation. He prides on Virgin’s ability to rapidly adapt and execute change quickly to meet customer needs and expectations. I believe they are richly rewarded for this attention to detail. There is a lot to be learned from his approach.

Business Stripped Bare: Adventures of a Global Entrepreneur is a book every entrepreneur should read and reread. I believe his advice to be sound and immediately adaptable to any size business. I am attempting to implement as much as possible within my own company, even though it is far from entrepreneurial. Of course, I also try to apply it to the virgin brand of my own. If I have even a half a grain as much success as he has, I’ll be satisfied. show less

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book from Richard Branson. This is a good inspirational and motivating book that is very easy to read. I knew that there were a number of Virgin companies prior to reading this book, however I was not aware of how many different industries Virgin is involved with (music, mobile, space travel, planes, trains, finance, health clubs, ...).

The culture of Virgin is a key component of the why the Virgin companies have been successful. Whilst there is not a step by step guide for how to build a successful company, there are many useful insights and lessons learnt. Caring and Encouraging your people, Customer-focus, Innovation, Embracing leadership, Fun, Learning from mistakes and Social Responsibility are key show more attributes I now associate with the Virgin brand. show less

Although this book is marketed as a Business book, it has a much wider appeal. It offers some very interesting glimpses into how Richard Branson runs his companies, as well as some of the global issues that he believes in.

During the course of the book, he outlines how he first started in business, and how he grew Virgin Records from very little. He also gives insights into the mobile phone business, his airlines, and even space travel.

It’s interesting to discover that Richard does not view ‘Virgin’ as one large company, but rather as a brand.. each section runs as a separate business, with it’s own team. Richard also believes strongly in a happy workforce, and those he employs often move amongst the various businesses, show more especially when they have specific skills to share.

As well as business, Richard is highly involved in health issues in Africa, and he’s passionate about global warming. He believes that businesses have social responsibilities too, and the book outlines some of the ways he is trying to tackle these issues.

Even as someone not involved in business, I found the book easy to read, and interesting. Dotted throughout are points that Richard feels are important when running a business, be it large or small.. but many of these are also relevant for our day to day lives.

This is an interesting read, giving an insight into the business world, as well as Richard himself. show less