Why the "Experts" Hate Richard Branson
The one thing that makes the so-called experts angry, infuriated and hateful of people like Branson, is that he demolishes their little theories and "expertise" on what makes a business successful; in other words, he breaks all the rules and they aren't able to explain it.
What Branson has done is to position himself as a rebel and risk taker that is challenging the establishment. When you consider some of his failures, from a marketing way of looking at it, they are tremendous successes.
When he took on Coca-Cola with his Virgin Cola, it eventually failed. Yet the publicity that he received for the Virgin brand made the failure really irrelevant. 
Everybody knew about the upstart that went after the big kid-on-the-block. Once he got the publicity he was after, the outcome of the venture no longer was relevant. The Virgin brand had been exposed to the world as a result. He couldn't have afforded the publicity that he got from the alleged battle with the big cola companies.
I think that Branson is a lot smarter than people think, and as a result he's underestimated time and time again by competitors that simply look at him as a rich, dumb playboy out there having fun. While the having fun part is true = along with the rich - the dumb couldn't be farther from the truth.
In truth, he thinks so far outside of the norm, that most people that attempt to analyze what he does aren't even able to put together the story to be able to comment on him. If they can't, neither can the majority of his competitors. People can say anything they want about him, but if he enters into their field of service, they've got a major battle on their hands that they are never quite sure how to fight.
Other Richard Branson Resources:
Richard Branson's Virgin Success
Thoroughly postmodern billionaire
Richard Branson's latest adventure will take Virgin into space
Richard Branson - Life - Philanthropy - Money
Richard Branson, Business Personality
Richard Branson conquered the world. Now he wants to fly you to space.
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