Richard Branson on Intrapreneurs

The business icon talks about empowering employees to break the rules.
By Richard Branson | January 31, 2011




I am incredibly lucky to be able to live in the British Virgin Islands, one of the most beautiful spots on the planet. My family's home is on Necker Island, which is both our home and a luxury resort. Here, I'm much more likely to do my thinking in an office hammock rather than an office chair.
Seeing guests exploring the beach reminded me that one of the first charming things visitors to the BVIs see are signs in the airport arrivals area that designate the immigration channels. Unlike the rest of the English-speaking world, here the signs read "Belongers" and "Non-Belongers," rather than "Residents" and "Nonresidents."
Since I became a resident, I've come to find the term "belonger" amazingly powerful. When a nation embraces its own as "belonging here" as opposed to just living there, it breeds a different form of loyalty. It reminds us that this is where we belong, and so our efforts are not just on our own behalf, but also to benefit the community.
This made me think about how such little, seemingly semantic, details apply in the business world: What if companies had belongers rather than employees? Does what we call each other make a difference in other contexts?
Many millions of people proudly claim the title "entrepreneur." On the other hand, a title that hasn't gotten nearly the amount of attention it deserves is entrepreneur's little brother, "intrapreneur": "an employee who is given freedom and financial support to create new products, services and systems, who does not have to follow the company's usual routines or protocols." While it's true that every company needs an entrepreneur to get it under way, healthy growth requires a smattering of intrapreneurs who drive new projects and explore new and unexpected directions for business development.
Virgin could never have grown into the group of more than 200 companies it is now, were it not for a steady stream of intrapreneurs who looked for and developed opportunities, often leading efforts that went against the grain.
One example that springs to mind was at Virgin Atlantic, about 10 years ago. None of the big expensive seat design firms seemed able to solve the design problems posed by our specifications for our Upper Class cabin, but a young designer, Joe Ferry, volunteered (insistently) to give the project a go.
We set him loose, and the herringbone-configured private sleeper suites that resulted from his "outside the box" creativity put us years ahead of the pack and made for millions of very happy horizontal fliers.
How to unleash the power of intrapreneurs like Joe? The key is to enable them to pursue their vision. But people don't always think of leaders within a company – the managers, executives, and the chief executive officer – as people who enable others. As I learned back when I was starting up Student magazine, "The chief executive officer of a major corporation might only make a couple of decisions a year, but those decisions can affect the lives of millions." What a terrible way to run a company!
So, since this seems to be true throughout the business world, clearly it's time for a major shake-up in the nomenclature of business. What if CEO stood for "chief enabling officer"? What if that CEO's primary role were to nurture a breed of intrapreneurs who would grow into tomorrow's entrepreneurs?
We inadvertently developed this role at Virgin by virtue of the fact that when we've chosen to jump into a business about which we have little or no real knowledge, we've had to enable a few carefully selected people who do know which end is up.
When Virgin moved into the mobile phone industry we had no experience, so we looked for our rivals' best managers, hired them away, took off their ties and gave them the freedom to set up their own ventures within the Virgin Group. Tom Alexander in the U.K., Dan Schulman in the U.S. and Andrew Black in Canada have all done this with great success, aggressively taking Virgin companies in new and unexpected directions.
Perhaps the greatest thing about this form of enabled intrapreneurship is that often everyone becomes so immersed in what they're doing that they feel like they own their companies. They don't feel like employees working for someone else, they feel much more like ... well, I think the only word to describe it is "belongers."

Question and the Answer given by Candidates, most of them are IAS Officers now.

Q.How can you drop a raw egg onto a concrete floor without cracking it?
A.Concrete floors are very hard to crack!

Q.If it took eight men ten hours to build a wall, how long would it take four men to build it?
A. No time at all it is already built.

Q. If you had three apples and four oranges in one hand and four apples and three oranges in the other hand, what would you have?
A. Very large hands.

Q. How can you lift an elephant with one hand?
A. It is not a problem, since you will never find! an elephant with one hand.

Q. How can a man go eight days without sleep?
A. No Probs , He sleeps at night.

Q. If you throw a red stone into the blue sea what it will become?
A. It will Wet or Sink as simple as that.

Q. What looks like half apple ?
A : The other half.

Q. What can you never eat for breakfast ?
A : Dinner.

Q. What happened when wheel was invented ?
A : It caused a revolution.

Q. Bay of Bengal is in which state?
A : Liquid.


Q. How many buckets of water does Pacific Ocean contains?
A : It depends on the size of the bucket.

Richard Branson on the Power of Your People

The celebrated entrepreneur shares his five best tips for business success. 
By Richard Branson   |   January 4, 2011




The people factor appears over and over on my list of top five tips. It is the basis of many entrepreneurial successes and, because many business leaders discount it, innumerable failures. While the current thinking in business schools holds that all someone with an idea needs to succeed are focus, clarity and a good business plan, I have found that bringing together a great team that's united by strong motivation, determination and bravery is much more important. Here's how to get started.
No. 1: Find good people.
The successes of Virgin businesses such as Active, Atlantic, Money and Mobile were all based on our assembling a great management team that had a vision, passion and a real sense of ownership. We look for leaders with the ability to listen to feedback from employees and customers -- this is crucial to keeping a service or product fresh and innovative. Often, when things start going wrong, you'll notice the staff members feel ignored and good ideas are not bubbling to the top. Leaders should have the character to make tough decisions and the passion and ability to inspire their staff and carry them through difficult times. Our best CEOs tend to be unconcerned about the size of their office or the thickness of the carpet.
No. 2: Realize that the employees are the business.
A successful business isn't the product or service it sells, its supply chain or its corporate culture: It is a group of people bound together by a common purpose and vision. In Virgin's case, we fly the same planes as our competitors and our gyms offer much of the same equipment as other gyms. What separates our businesses from the competition? Our employees. The best designed business plan will come to nothing if it is not carried out by an enthusiastic and passionate staff. This is especially true when things go slightly wrong; a friendly and proactive team can often win people round, averting a potential disaster or even turning it to your benefit.
No. 3: Always look for the best in your people. Lavish praise, never criticize.
Rather than focusing on mistakes, a leader needs to catch someone doing something right every day. If this culture of fostering employee development through praise and recognition starts at the top, it will go far toward stamping out the employee fear of failure that can stunt a business, particularly in its early days. When mistakes happen -- which is inevitable -- I always take the position that you have to learn from them, not dwell on what went wrong. It's almost always better not to go over the obvious with the people involved. They know exactly what happened.
No. 4: Don't take yourself too seriously.
We at Virgin pride ourselves on finding the fun in our businesses. We try to ensure our staff and customers feel a sense of warmth and affection. I have led from the front on this -- dressing up in costumes, trying all manner of stunts (not all going 100 percent right!), and generally showing that I do not take myself too seriously. My approach will not work for all businesses, but keeping a sense of perspective and not allowing management to be seen as aloof will help keep your staff onside. To foster a personal interest in clients' needs, it's crucial to ensure employees enjoy what they're doing. Everyone must be proud of the company. This is vital to building lasting success and ensuring an edge over the competition. To find employees who will take such an interest in our customers, we look for people who show genuine enthusiasm and character.
No. 5: Just do it.
Finally, you must have the bravery to give it a go. Starting a business is a big risk; an entrepreneur needs resolve and conviction to overcome the early hurdles. Most start-ups fail in the first few years, so a key ingredient of success is the ability to pick yourself up and try again.
If it starts to look like your business is not going to make it, some on your team might start to lose courage. At that crucial time, your knowledge of the people factor may make or break your company.