First Take Care of Your People
In his first book "Losing My Virginity" Branson makes one of those common sense statements that we hear all the time but really don't pay much attention to as business owners or leaders.
He says in the epilogue:
"Virgin is not a big company - it's a big brand made up of lots of small companies. Our priorities are the opposite of our large competitors'. Convention dictates that 
a company look after its shareholders first, its customers next, and last of all worry about its employees. Virgin does the opposite. For us, our employees matter most. It just seems common sense to me that if you start off with a happy, well-motivated workforce, you're far more likely to have happy customers. And in due course the resulting profits will make your shareholders happy."
If it sounds so easy, why don't the vast majority of companies and executives practice it? My thought is the time frame that most business leaders work in, hinders them from fully employing this way of thinking, living and running a business.
I've run businesses for owners that literally looked at sales about every 20 minutes. They would attempt to do something in response to the figures that would always be harmful to the employees, the customers and finally the business itself ... which led back to them being unhappy. Then the whole process would begin over.
When leadership centers on looking after their people first, the rest really does follow. Why short-term outlooks are held as such important pieces of business by management is still a puzzle when a number of the best companies in the world have abandoned that practice long ago, yet still remain the best at what they do.
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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