From The Economist Richard Branson

Call in the B Team

Richard Branson’s big idea for building a better version of capitalism

Oct 6th 2012 | from the print edition

SLOWING down seems to be the last thing on Sir Richard Branson’s mind. Since turning 62 in July, the bearded British entrepreneur has as usual been making headlines around the world. On October 3rd he celebrated victory in a campaign to overturn the British government’s decision to strip Virgin Trains, of which his Virgin Group owns 51%, of the West Coast main-line rail franchise. The government now admits it got its sums wrong, as Sir Richard had claimed, and the bidding process will be rerun (see article). Recently Sir Richard has also been in the news for (among other things) urging Barack Obama and Mitt Romney to end America’s war on drugs; declaring his intention to visit Mars; and parking a mock-up of the new Upper Class bar from his transatlantic aircraft outside the New York Stock Exchange. From there he promoted his latest book (“Like A Virgin: Secrets They Won’t Teach You at Business School”) and led a discussion with his Twitter followers. The subject under discussion was: “How can business change the world for the better?”
This last topic has become increasingly central to Brand Branson in the past few years—although social activism has been part of Sir Richard’s repertoire since he opened advice centres for students in the 1960s. Under Virgin Unite, its charitable arm, his corporate empire has become a leader in the booming business of “cause marketing” (aligning brands with charities). Sir Richard has even updated his old creed of “have fun and the money will come” to “do good, have fun and the money will come.” He has also launched a couple of much bigger ideas. One, the result of conversations he had with Nelson Mandela and Peter Gabriel, is the Elders, a group of veteran statesmen (including Jimmy Carter, Desmond Tutu and Mary Robinson) who work together to provide advice to today’s politicians. The second is the Carbon War Room, an attempt to bring business leaders together to find profitable ways to reduce fossil-fuel use in the most carbon-intensive industries, including Sir Richard’s beloved airline business. On October 3rd, a few hours after his win against the British government, Sir Richard began to roll out a third initiative, which he has christened the B Team.
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