Cut the officialdom, business as well as life should be fun

When you’re starting out with a small business and an enthusiastic team, it is relatively easy to keep the focus on details and high-quality service, with a light touch. But how can you retain the passion and attention to detail after your business becomes established, successful and larger?

• Know your mission. At Virgin this was often about shaking up the established markets and providing something of great value and service.
• Make sure you get the basic structure right. Know what you are going to do.
• Get the right team at the top. It is hard to get this right first time. Many small businesses fail to grow because they don’t identify team members who can no longer keep up.
• A strong purpose and a sense of ethics give the company a solid foundation.
• No matter how big you are, details count.
• Listen to your customers and act on what you hear.

Over the years we’ve started many Virgin businesses out of frustration at the way things were done in established sectors. Whether it was airlines, mobile telephones or financial services, we’ve stood out by focusing on ways to improve people’s lives through better service, innovation and value.

Sometimes a small detail, such as more transparent pricing or a friendlier staff, gave us our edge. Our humour and tone also helped attract and keep customers. I try to keep bureaucracy to a minimum.

When you’re starting out with a small business and an enthusiastic team, it is relatively easy to keep the focus on details and high-quality service, with a light touch. But how can you retain the passion and attention to detail after your business becomes established, successful and larger?

In past columns, I’ve mentioned how we grew our music businesses by splitting them, creating smaller units so we could maintain that vibe and hunger.

By the time we sold to EMI, Virgin Records was made up of several small independent labels, which fostered healthy competition among them for new bands.

This approach would not work with some of our other companies that require scale and size to compete against much larger rivals. So we’ve had to adapt our businesses to maintain Virgin’s innovative spirit, especially when we have grown through acquisition or international expansion.

Virgin America is a good case. This upstart airline in the US is renowned for its high-tech planes, quirky marketing and fabulous crew. This summer it will celebrate its fifth birthday.

We have more than 2,500 staff members already, and there are no signs of growth slowing. We must work hard to keep the enthusiasm that marked our early development.

To do it, David Cush, the CEO, embarks on an annual training programme known as “Refresh.” The point is to keep our teams up to date and connected, which prevents them from becoming complacent or settling for the status quo.

Recently I hosted a conference with a number of fast-growing UK companies. One of the speakers was Richard Reed, a founder of Innocent, the British maker of smoothies and soft drinks.

Richard founded the business with two friends, Adam Balon and Jon Wright, in 1998. Since then the business has grown to 200 million pounds (about $315 million) in annual sales, and Coca-Cola has come in as a majority shareholder. Still, the founders have managed to retain that spirit of innovation and fun that marked their beginning.

It is fascinating how they managed to keep their magic formula after the big investment. I’ll try to summarise what they did because I believe there are many lessons in their experience for entrepreneurs around the world.

First, know your mission. At Virgin this was often about shaking up the established markets and providing something of great value and service. In Innocent’s case it was about creating great juices to help people lead healthier lives — and doing this in a fun way.

Second, make sure you get the basic structure right. Know what you are going to do.

Right team