“I’ve never failed in my life, and I don’t expect anyone who works for me to fail!”
Really? Anyone else still drink Virgin Cola?
This was a telephone conversation that Richard Branson was taking in the back of his limo. Something an employee had done (or not done) had caused the Virgin chairman to shout this, before terminating the call.
His biographer was just meeting him, and the door to the car was open as the conversation was taking place.
The biographer spent 3 days with Branson, learning about his business, himself and his world, in preparation for the book.
At the end of the third day, Branson says to the biographer, “You’ve spent three days learning from me. What can I learn from you?”
I’ve always admired this question.
That inquisitiveness and need for constant learning is always a great sign from a leader.
“Well”, the biographer sheepishly said. “When we met, you were telling someone on the phone that you’d never failed. But that’s not true, is it? For example, you didn’t win the National Lottery.”
“True”, replied Branson.
“But, what if I told you that what I learned from that bid, we generated over £10-million in the next quarter. Would you still see that as a ‘failure’?”
What Branson had learned was that he had become arrogant in his customer service.
For his Lottery bid, he had told the commission that 100% of profits would go to charity.
He didn’t ask.
More importantly, he didn’t research.
If he did, he’d have found a worrying statistic from America, which showed that over 90% of lottery winners were bankrupt within 5 years.
Camelot had done their research.
Their bid didn’t give as much to charity – but it did set aside funds to support winners in their new reality.
Financial advisers. Therapists. PR support.
Branson hadn’t listened to his customers.
He hadn’t understood the challenges in the market.
Instead, he had made a diktat.
It sounded like the right thing to do. Who doesn’t want more money for charities?
And what he learned from that scenario – to listen to customers; to analyse the market; to understand the post-sale support – he used to improve Virgin services.
He launched Virgin Books, V Festival, Virgin Cosmetics, Virgin Mobile, and Virgin Active within the next 24-months.
All built on the learnings from that one “failure”.
“No”, said the biographer.
“I guess I wouldn’t class it as a failure.”
Happy 30th Birthday to the UK National Lottery
