He Can be Intrusive at Times
With Branson penchant for fun and hilarity, and the image he represents as the Virgin brand, you would think that he would be considered an extremely hands-off manager that simply let things go. On the contrary, he can be sometimes overly pushy when he sees something that needs to be fixed. And not just overly pushy, but he will get under the hood at times and put people on edge.
I think that this is part of Branson's strategy, to look like a person just goofing around not knowing what's going on around the numerous companies he owns.
Underneath all of that is someone that really understands business and how it should be run, at least as far as the specific goals and purposes he has for them.
If he finds out something that isn't right, he is known to pester someone until he finds out that it has been taken care of. Sometimes he'll even call someone several times an hour to see if it's been completed.
For the most part this doesn't particularly bother the majority of his managers, as the other side of him makes it easy to diffuse a difficult or tense situation. To me it's one of those perks a business can receive from having a crazy type of culture as represented by Virgin. It brings a lot of unknown goodwill capital with it that can cover up times when there may be excesses; which Branson seems full of from many different angles.
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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» Richard Branson - Lessons in Business, Management and Life - 69 from ManagersRealm
He Likes the Challenge of SurprisesLast post we talked about Branson's over-intrusiveness at times, but there's another side of him that many of his managers say more than make up for those moments.One manager said that one of the key... [Read More]
Tracked on: March 23, 2007 11:25 PM | Permalink to Trackback