Richard Branson

Taking on giant rival businesses

Not exact quotes, but things I learned reading texts written by richard branson

For an upstart to take on a giant and win, it only needs bravery, good people and a great idea. If you have a brilliant team around you, are determined to make it work and develop a concept that will genuinely have a positive impact upon people’s lives, then nothing can stop you.

The only one who can hold you back is yourself.

What to focus on

If you don’t have time for the small things, you won’t have time for the big things.

Focus on ideas, product, execution and your team. If you do this the money will ultimately come. People who focus on finance generally fail.

Entrepreneurs

Entrepreneurs create value from views opposite to other people and society.

They see economic value where others see heaps of nothing. And they see business opportunities where others see only dead ends.

Entrepreneurs driven just by profit are a lot more likely to fail. The entrepreneurs who succeed usually want to make a difference to people’s lives, not just their own bank balances. The desire to change things for the better is the motivation for taking risks and pursuing seemingly impossible business ideas.

Ideas

While some of us are lucky enough to experience game-changing inspiration, the vast majority of us will develop ideas through a more methodical approach.

Most his ideas took a lot longer to formulate and are the result of steady observation.

His best inspirations came from everyday frustrations encountered at work and in his personal life. Simply taking note of them can lead to great ideas, because if you follow up and find that you can offer consumers a better solution than the ones currently on the market.

Always keep a notebook handy to jot down ideas for improving our businesses; the same applies for starting them.

The important thing is to make a practice of it, preferably every day. Curiosity is a great quality in an entrepreneur: Since there are countless problems to solve, we are all exposed to many different opportunities throughout the day – all you have to do is follow up.

Management

Key to any business is communication and attention to detail. In the early days of Virgin Airlines they used to run out of sugar a lot, this would annoy some coffee drinkers if they could not have it on a long flight. Communication was needed so head office found out from the air hostesses and attention to detail, so they knew how important such a small thing was.