Branson loves adventure, and his job provides plenty of it: from his quixotic attempt to save the high-speed Concorde to his dangerous transoceanic hot-air balloon races (he's been rescued four times by helicopter).
One unique, underlying theme to many of the great business managers is that the business becomes an extension of who they are.
In the case of Richard Branson, he has taken the Virgin Brand and used it as an outlet for every type idea that interests him.
When you look across a number of Virgin properties, you see a part of Branson in the majority of them. With the thrill of adverture, which is our theme in this post, you have seen it in most recently in the Virgin Galactic endeavor, or as we pointed out earlier - in his hot-air balloon races.
What's interesting about this is that he can take the most boring type of business and add his personality and touch to it and it suddenly becomes an adventure in life. That's the extraordinary value that the unique marketing of himself and Virgin as one in the same results in.
Great managers do this, not because they have it all planned out and implement it as a strategy, rather, they are simply true to who they are, and the result is the company is tremendously influenced by that reality. It goes back to the power of being "genuine." People appreciate and relate to genuine, and as a result, know what you represent as a company. That's more important than we could imagine.
It's a reason why Virgin is looked upon by those who are its fans as an adventurous company to interact with, along with never knowing quite what to expect when you do business with them. It's a part of their culture to be this way because it's simply what Branson himself is like. It's his genuinity that makes it work.
Other Branson Sources:
Richard Branson conquered the world. Now he wants to fly you to space.
OPEN LETTER TO GEOFF DIXON FROM RICHARD BRANSON
Richard Branson's: Losing My Virginity
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