Business Stripped Bare

BUSINESS
STRIPPED BARE
Adventures of a
Global Entrepreneur
RICHARD BRANSON
RICHARD BRANSON is one of the world’s most recognized business personalities. He is the founder and
chairman of the Virgin Group which operates more than 300 companies in 30+ countries. Branson helped
build Virgin Mobile USA into the fastest company in history to generate more than one billion dollars in
revenue. Virgin is active in the leisure, travel, tourism, mobile, broadband, TV, radio, music festivals, finance
and health industries. Virgin is also one of the most respected and valuable brands in the world. Richard
Branson has more than forty years experience in starting and building companies to commercialize new
ideas.
The Web site for this book is at www.businessstrippedbare.com.
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Business Stripped Bare - Page 1
MAIN IDEA
The whole object of being in business is to create new things, make them and sell them. Anything else is merely window dressing. The
essence of any business is creativity. There is no reverse gear in commerce – if you have a problem, you have to invent a solution
rather than trying to uninvent what is already there. This is part of the reason why business is so challenging.
To really make the right things happen, you need seven elements to be in place:
1 People
You need to find good people
7 Be socially responsible and give them freedom to move 2 Build your brand
Turn a profit at the same time as You need to deliver
you make the world better everything you promise
The seven essential elements in

6 Show solid leadership building a business 3 Delivery
Encourage everyone to be Communicate well and pay
entrepreneurial in their thinking close attention to the details
5 Innovate your way forward 4 Learn from your mistakes

Respond to challenges by Always face unpalatable facts
making improvements and keep moving forward
Once you bring these seven elements together, your success or failure then flows from the ethics you enshrine and your ability to put
those ethics into action. In business, ethics are everything. If you can create a company you’re proud of, that does things you feel
good about and which genuinely takes a step towards making the world a better place, then you’ve achieved something very
worthwhile. And strange as it may seem, the bigger your enterprise becomes, the harder the ethical questions also become.
“Success for me is whether you have created something that you can be really proud of. Profits are necessary to invest in the next
project – and pay the bills, repay investors and reward all the hard work – but that’s all. Nobody should be remembered for how much
money they have made in life. Whether you die with a billion dollars in your bank account or $20 under your pillow is actually not that
interesting. That’s not what you’ve achieved in life. What matters is whether you’ve created something special – and whether you’ve
made a real difference to other people’s lives. Entrepreneurs, scientists and artists who died as paupers are often the heroes. In
business, as in life, all that matters is that you do something positive.”
– Richard Branson
“The brave may not live forever – but the cautious do not live at all!”
– Richard Branson
“In business, as in so many other creative endeavors, the idiots’ guides are for idiots. Every business, like every painting, operates
according to its own rules. There are many ways to run a successful company. What works once may never work again. What
everyone tells you never to do may just work, once. There are no rules. You don’t learn to walk by following rules. You learn by doing,
and by falling over, and it’s because you fall over that you learn to save yourself from falling over. It’s the greatest thrill in the world and
it runs away screaming at the first sight of bullet points. Most of what I’ve done with the Virgin group is about my own gut instinct. I’ve
never analyzed what I do in any formal way. What would be the point? In business, as in life, you never step in the same river twice.”
– Richard Branson
1. People – You need to find good people and give them freedom to move . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Page 2
2. Build your brand – You need to deliver everything you promise . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Page 3
3. Delivery – Communicate well and pay close attention to the details . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Page 4
4. Learn from your mistakes – Always face unpalatable facts and keep moving forward . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Page 5
5. Innovate your way forward – Respond to challenges by making improvements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Page 6
6. Show solid leadership – Encourage everyone to be entrepreneurial in their thinking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Page 7
7. Be socially responsible – Turn a profit at the same time as you make the world better . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Page 8
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BUSINESS

The Web site for this book is at www.businessstrippedbare.com.

The seven essential elements in

5 Innovate your way forward 4 Learn from your mistakes

We condense 300+ page business books into

By reading summaries, you’ll get the key ideas in

Knowledge is Power — Invest in Your Future

1,000 Top Business Book Summaries

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