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BUSINESS ENGLISH · BUSINESS ENGLISH IN VIDEO · UPPER-INTERMEDIATE (B2-C1)

THE RICHARD
BRANSON
INTERVIEW - PART
1
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146X-J4EC-AIMX

1 Warm-up

Do you know this man? Which businesses has he launched? Have you used any of his
products/services?

2 Key vocabulary

What do you think the underlined phrases and idioms mean? In pairs, match them to their correct
meanings:

1. The speaker broke the rules, so in the end he was kicked a. a boundary that distinguishes
off the stage. one thing from another
2. Inspiring leaders are good at drawing out the best in b. cause large changes to
people. something
3. A few entrepreneurs like to take on the status quo and c. challenge the present ways of
develop completely new ways of doing things. doing things
4. There’s a thin dividing line between success and failure. d. crazy

5. You must be out of your mind if you think you can start a e. dishonest, unfair tactics
business without any capital.
6. Our competitor launched a dirty tricks campaign against f. encouraging
us.
7. The company brand stands for quality and value. g. forced to leave

8. The ambitious young entrepreneur likes to shake up other h. represents

industries.
9. The businessman had no experience with running an i. try something
airline, but he decided to give it a go.

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THE RICHARD BRANSON INTERVIEW - PART 1

3 Before you watch

You are going to watch an interview with Richard Branson, the founder of the Virgin business empire.
Guess True (T) or False (F) for each sentence below. Then watch the first part of the interview and
confirm or correct your answers.

1. Richard Branson once put on Nicole Kidman’s wedding ring and had to go to a jeweller to get it
off.
2. Branson’s first successful business venture was a magazine called ‘Student’.
3. At the time of its sale, Virgin Records was the biggest record company in the world.
4. British Airways launched a dirty tricks campaign against Virgin Atlantic.
5. According to Branson, the Virgin brand stands for ‘spirit’.
6. All of Virgin brands have been successful.
7. The Virgin Group’s revenue is approximately 25 billion dollars.
8. The Virgin Group employs a workforce of 15,000 people.

4 What do you remember?

Answer the questions below in your own words.

1. According to Richard Branson, how was he able to start so many companies? What did he learn
about running a business?
2. Why was Branson considered to be ‘out of his mind’ for going into the airline business?
3. What did Branson do to protect the jobs of the people who worked for his record company and
for his airline?
4. Why did this turn out to be the right move in the end?
5. Why didn’t Virgin Brides work according to Branson?
6. How did Branson respond to the customer complaint?
7. How did the customer’s attitude change 9 months later?

5 Words in the video

Look at the transcript of the interview. Find a word or phrase in bold which means ...

1. strange
2. to a large degree
3. the combined power of a group of things working together which is greater than the total power
achieved by each working separately
4. cause it to change completely
5. not new
6. gambled something

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THE RICHARD BRANSON INTERVIEW - PART 1

6 Language practice

Look at the sentences below. Rewrite them, replacing the underlined parts with a word or phrase
from this lesson.

1. He is a very effective manager. He knows how to encourage people to perform their best.
2. When we launched our product, we caused our industry to change completely.
3. The distinction between madness and creativity is very slight.
4. Our competitor used a series of unfair and dishonest tactics to steal our customers.
5. Although I had never been scuba diving before, I decided to try it.
6. We are able to challenge the accepted ways of doing things because of our ambitious team of
professionals.

7 Talking point

Discuss any of the following questions:

1. Do you agree that ‘companies are about finding the right people’?
2. Who is your country’s most successful entrepreneur? How did he achieve this position?
3. How easy is it to become a successful entrepreneur in your country?
4. Do you think it is possible nowadays to achieve Branson’s level of achievement in business?

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TEACHER MATERIALS · UPPER-INTERMEDIATE (B2-C1)

THE RICHARD BRANSON INTERVIEW - PART 1

Transcripts

3. Before you watch

CA: Welcome to TED.

RB: Thank you very much. The first TED has been great.

CA: Have you met anyone interesting?

RB: Well, the nice thing about TED is everybody’s interesting. I was very glad to see Goldie Hawn,
because I had an apology to make to her. I’d had dinner with her about two years ago and I’d –
she had this big wedding ring and I put it on my finger and I couldn’t get it off. And I went home
to my wife that night and she wanted to know why I had another woman’s big, massive, big
wedding ring on my finger. And, anyway, the next morning we had to go along to the jeweller
and get it cut off. So – (Laughter) – so apologies to Goldie.

CA: That’s pretty good. So, we’re going to put up some slides of some of your companies here.
You’ve started one or two in your time. So, you know, Virgin Atlantic, Virgin Records – I guess
it all started with a magazine called Student. And then, yes, all these other ones as well. I mean,
how do you do this?

RB: I read all these sort of TED instructions: you must not talk about your own business, and this,
and now you ask me. So I suppose you’re not going to be able to kick me off the stage, since
you asked the question. (Laughter)

CA: It depends what the answer is though.

RB: No, I mean, I think I learned early on that if you can run one company, you can really run any
companies. I mean, companies are all about finding the right people, inspiring those people,
you know, drawing out the best in people. And I just love learning and I’m incredibly inquisitive
and I love taking on, you know, the status quo and trying to turn it upside down. So I’ve seen
life as one long learning process. And if I see – you know, if I fly on somebody else’s airline and
find the experience is not a pleasant one, which it wasn’t, 21 years ago, then I’d think, well, you
know, maybe I can create the kind of airline that I’d like to fly on. And so, you know, so got one
second-hand 747 from Boeing and gave it a go.

CA: Well, that was a bizarre thing, because you made this move that a lot of people advised you was
crazy. And in fact, in a way, it almost took down your empire at one point. I had a conversation
with one of the investment bankers who, at the time when you basically sold Virgin Records
and invested heavily in Virgin Atlantic, and his view was that you were trading, you know, the
world’s fourth biggest record company for the twenty-fifth biggest airline and that you were
out of your mind. Why did you do that?

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THE RICHARD BRANSON INTERVIEW - PART 1

RB: Well, I think that there’s a very thin dividing line between success and failure. And I think if you
start a business without financial backing, you’re likely to go the wrong side of that dividing line.
We had – we were being attacked by British Airways. They were trying to put our airline out of
business, and they launched what’s become known as the dirty tricks campaign. And I realized
that the whole empire was likely to come crashing down unless I chipped in a chip. And in order
to protect the jobs of the people who worked for the airline, and protect the jobs of the people
who worked for the record company, I had to sell the family jewellery to protect the airline.

CA: Post-Napster, you’re looking like a bit of a genius, actually, for that as well.

RB: Yeah, as it turned out, it proved to be the right move. But, yeah, it was sad at the time, but we
moved on.

CA: Now, you use the Virgin brand a lot and it seems like you’re getting synergy from one thing to
the other. What does the brand stand for in your head?

RB: Well, I like to think it stands for quality, that you know, if somebody comes across a Virgin
company, they –

CA: They are quality, Richard. Come on now, everyone says quality. Spirit?

RB: No, but I was going to move on this. We have a lot of fun and I think the people who work
for it enjoy it. As I say, we go in and shake up other industries, and I think, you know, we do it
differently and I think that industries are not quite the same as a result of Virgin attacking the
market.

CA: I mean, there are a few launches you’ve done where the brand maybe hasn’t worked quite as
well. I mean, Virgin Brides – what happened there?

RB: We couldn’t find any customers.

CA: I was actually also curious why – I think you missed an opportunity with your condoms launch.
You called it Mates. I mean, couldn’t you have used the Virgin brand for that as well? Ain’t virgin
no longer, or something.

RB: Again, we may have had problems finding customers. I mean, we had – often, when you launch a
company and you get customer complaints, you know, you can deal with them. But about three
months after the launch of the condom company, I had a letter, a complaint, and I sat down and
wrote a long letter back to this lady apologizing profusely. But obviously, there wasn’t a lot I
could do about it. And then six months later, or nine months after the problem had taken, I got
this delightful letter with a picture of the baby asking if I’d be godfather, which I became. So, it
all worked out well.

CA: Really? You should have brought a picture. That’s wonderful.

RB: I should have.

CA: So, just help us with some of the numbers. I mean, what are the numbers on this? I mean, how
big is the group overall? How much – what’s the total revenue?

RB: It’s about 25 billion dollars now, in total.

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THE RICHARD BRANSON INTERVIEW - PART 1

CA: And how many employees?

RB: About 55,000.

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THE RICHARD BRANSON INTERVIEW - PART 1

Key

2. Key vocabulary

1. g 2. f 3. c 4. a 5. d 6. e 7. h 8. b 9. i

3. Before you watch

Play the video up to 06:03.

1. F 2. T 3. F 4. T 5. F 6. F 7. T 8. F

Note: The interview was filmed at a TED (Technology Entertainment Design) conference. TED, founded in 1984,
is a global set of conferences owned by a private non-profit foundation, formed to disseminate "ideas worth
spreading." ‘TED’ is referenced to several times during the interview. The interview with Richard Branson was
conducted by Chris Anderson, the curator of the TED conference.
When Chris Anderson says ‘Post-Napster, you’re looking like a bit of a genius’, he is referring to the file sharing
service Napster, released in 1999, which facilitated the downloading of music and resulted in a decline in record
industry revenue.
The metaphor ’I chipped in a chip’ comes from poker and refers to betting a ‘chip’ (a small counter that represents
money). The ‘chip’ Branson is talking about was his Virgin Records business.

4. What do you remember?

Play the extract again if necessary. Pause where appropriate to allow students to write down the answers.
1. He learned that if you can run one business you can run any business, and that companies are about finding
the right people.
2. He was replacing his established record business, the fourth biggest in the world, with an airline start-up.
3. He sold the record company to invest in the airline company.
4. because of Napster (the internet file sharing service)
5. He couldn’t find any customers.
6. He wrote a letter of apology.
7. She wrote him a letter with a picture of the baby, asking Branson to be godfather.

5. Words in the video

Hand out a copy of the transcript to the students.

1. bizarre 2. profusely 3. synergy
4. turn it upside down 5. second-hand 6. chipped in a chip

6. Language practice

1. He is a very effective manager. He knows how to draw out the best in people.
2. When we launched our product, we turned our industry upside down.
3. There’s a thin dividing line between madness and creativity.
4. Our competitor launched a dirty tricks campaign to steal our customers.
5. Although I had never been scuba diving before, I decided to give it a go.
6. We are able to take on the status quo because of our ambitious team of professionals.

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