Business Lessons From Mega-Entrepreneur Richard Branson (part 2).

Five Tips For Success.
On American Express Open Forum, Branson gives five tips for entrepreneurial success.

Find good people.
Realize that the employees are the business.
Always look for the best in your people. Lavish praise. Never criticize.
Don’t take yourself too seriously.
Screw it, just do it.

On Managing.
Find The CEO.
This one may be difficult for some entrepreneurs.

Branson recommends that, early on, you need to find somebody better than you to run the business on a day-to-day basis. Remove yourself from the day-to-day “nitty-gritty.” Branson even suggested possibly getting out of the building. He says if you do this, you’ll be able to deal with the bigger picture and become a better entrepreneur. Learn how to delegate.

Remember that, just because you leave the CEO role, doesn’t mean you cannot return. Larry Page ran Google with Sergey Brin until 2001, when they hired Eric Schmidt to be the CEO until 2011. Then, in April 2011, Page became CEO of Google. Being the CEO through all the different stages of a company can be difficult, so don’t think stepping down means you’re incompetent. As Branson says, it’ll help you focus and gain a fresh outlook.

Learn To Delegate.

An entrepreneur must learn the art of delegation. Branson says of his CEOs.

“I have a fantastic team of people who run the Virgin companies, who have a lot of freedom to run the companies as if they were their own companies, I give them the freedom to make mistakes…”

In an interview with Marc Benioff, Branson says.

“I learned to delegate early on and I think that for people in this room who are building businesses I think quite early on it’s worthwhile in trying to find somebody better than themselves to do the day-to-day running of their business so they think about the big picture. They can be entrepreneurial, they can do the next venture, they can be ready to firefight when something’s going wrong, they can spend their time helping promote and put their companies on a map on a global basis. If you delegate, you’ve got to be very careful not to second guess people. You’ve got to accept…let them make mistakes without jumping down on top of them all the time. Some things they’ll do better than you, some things they won’t do quite as well as you. Giving people the freedom to make those mistakes is important.”

Everything Trickles Down From Your Staff.
Put your staff first, customers second, and shareholders third. He says.

“If the person who works at your company is 100% proud of the job they’re doing, if you give them the tools to do a good job, [if] they’re proud of the brand, if they’re well looked after, [and] they’re treated well, then they’re going to be smiling, they’re going to happy, and therefore the customer will have a nice experience.

“If the person whose working for your company is not given the right tools, is not looked after, is not appreciated, they’re not going to do things with a smile, and therefore the customer will be treated in a way in which they don’t want to come back for more. So my philosophy has always been, if you can put your staff first, your customers second, and your shareholders third, effectively in the end the shareholders do well, the customers do better, and your staff are happy.”

Get Lots Of People Involved In Brainstorming.
Everyone in the organization should get involved in brainstorming discussions. Branson says that the quietest person in the room may have the best ideas, so it’s important to include them in discussions and brainstorming sessions. Bringing in people from other departments also may spark new and fresh ideas.

“Ultimately, you need to find a balance between brainstorming your way out of a great idea and acting as lone ranger. Use brainstorm sessions to obtain your team’s perspective, listen to and follow up their best ideas, but in the end you need to make a choice and then take responsibility for that decision.”

Keep Things Fun.

Branson advises companies to do activities outside of the office. Companies need to bring a sense of play to the office. This will pay off in the long term as employees are more likely to remain loyal to the company. Since they enjoy their job, they’re also likely to perform better. If people feel trapped and stuck in their job, performance will suffer. And if that happens, company performance suffers and the company won’t live up to its potential.

What Great Leaders Do
“The best way of becoming a successful business leader is dealing with people fairly and well and I like to think that’s how we run Virgin.”

Branson also adds that a key attribute of a good leader is listening. Listen more than you talk, you’ll learn more.

On Hiring, What To Look For.

Hire people who are.
Smarter than you.
In agreement with your vision, goals, and values.
Friendly and eager to have fun.
Motivated to be successful.
Able to see their work as a mission.
Great Employees Like To Learn.
Hire people who want to learn. Branson says, “The day you stop learning is the day you stop living.” When you hire people who want to learn, you are getting a competitive edge over your competition. You’ll look forward to trying fresh approaches and ideas on how to do things differently.

Take Care Of People.
Take care of employees and let them grow in their job. Branson says.

“If your best people aren’t growing in their careers as your business gains traction and expands, they will quickly lose enthusiasm for their work. And before you know it, you’ll be dealing with unsatisfied customers as well as unsatisfied employees.”

Don’t Hire People Looking For Money.
“For more than 40 years, I have felt that one of my most important jobs is to attract and motivate great people who genuinely feel their job is more important than just money.”

To do this, people need to know the mission of the company. They also need to be fully onboard with making the company a success. This is especially true with startups.

Create A Culture Of Opportunity.
Let people run with their ideas. Let people know that they can move up within the company. Once they see this, they’ll work that much harder to master their current job so they will be considered for promotion or further development.

If employees constantly see people from the outside taking top jobs in the company, they’ll become discouraged and work will suffer. You’re also more likely to have high turnover. Why work at a place if you’ll always have the same amount of responsibility and never be promoted?

Quotes.

On Dreaming Big : “I sometimes think in life you’ve got to dream big by setting yourself seemingly impossible challenges. You then have to catch up with them. You can make what people believe is impossible possible if you set big enough targets. Flying from New York to Australia in, say, two hours. Can we do it in our lifetimes? I’m determined to try. If you don’t dream, nothing happens. And we like to dream big.”

On Delegation : “The art of delegation is absolutely key.”

On What Makes An Exceptional Company :
“An exceptional company is the one that gets all the little details right.”

On Failure : “The most important thing is not to be put off by failure.”

On Being The Best : “Not only can a small company be the best, but it has to be the best to stand a good chance of thriving in today’s competitive world. Then, once it reaches the top spot, it has to strive to do better every day, to ensure customers buy its products or services. Large scale can bring a company many advantages: a hefty marketing budget, established brand awareness in target markets and dependable distribution networks. But, luckily for the smaller players, a business’s size does not guarantee better products or great service.“

On Learning : “The best way of learning about anything is by doing it.”

On Facing The Downside : “In business, protecting against the downside is critical.”

On Starting Businesses : “I think most of the ventures I’ve started I’ve never thought, ‘I’m going to make lots of money going into this.’ I’ve started them quite often out of the frustration of finding that I couldn’t achieve something unless I started it.”

Advice For Startups : “For people in this room who want to start something, they just got to think: ‘What’s not being done well by other people? How can I create something that’s really going to make a difference in people’s lives?’ Then hopefully at the end of year you’ll have more money coming in than going out.”

On People : “If you do look for the best in people – your life is so much richer for it.”

On Playing The Game : “Don’t just play the game – change it for good.”

David Vs. Goliath : “If you’re a lot smaller than the bigger competitions, you’ve got to use every weapon you’ve got. And I suppose the fact that I am relatively well known means that I can get on the news or get on the front page of the local newspapers when we launch a new route.”

On Smiling : “If you’re looking for the next big investment for your business but don’t have much money to spend, start by looking at yourself in the mirror. A smile won’t cost you anything, and the returns to your business will start right away.”

On Customer Service : “Simplicity and good customer service will win every time.”

On Working : “If you’re spending most of your life at work, it should not be a chore, it should be fun. If you’re the switchboard operator, you should feel as appreciated as one of the directors in the company. People very rarely leave companies because they don’t feel they’re being paid well enough. I mean, some do, but it’s much more that they come up an idea that they’re not being appreciated, they’re not being listened to, and they feel, ‘I’ll go off elsewhere and do something else.'”

The lesson to learn from Branson is to find an area where customers are being underserved and then build a business from the customer point of view. Also, make a difference in people’s lives and change them for the better. Build a business where you would shop. And then, when the time comes, step down from the CEO role and learn the art of delegation. Have fun, make mistakes, and don’t take yourself too seriously.