Virgin Galactic, human destiny and ambitious Asian brands
In a world characterised by an out-of-control global financial community, entrepreneur Richard Branson's voice is a relatively lone one that advocates and practises responsibility
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A FEW days ago, Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo crashed in the Mojave Desert, killing one pilot and seriously injuring the other. Beyond the human tragedy, the world's attention immediately moved to question the safety of the programme as well as the billions of dollars that were being poured into it. The tone so far has been reactive and reflective of human nature when people are shocked: to focus on the near, recognisable and comprehensible, and lose sight of the broader picture. While predictable and understandable, it is - in this case - wrong. Virgin Galactic is, in a real sense, on a mission that has the potential to change the course of human destiny.
The Virgin Galactic brand is not just another business in a big commercial portfolio; it is arguably and quite sensibly the pinnacle manifestation of an enterprising effort that began very modestly some 40 years earlier and has grown into what is the Virgin Group today. Whether always a conscious goal by its founder Richard Branson or one that took shape over time, Virgin emerged and behaved as a company that was going to grow and evolve upwards, not just sideways - that is, becoming not just bigger but better, particularly in terms of its contribution to society (see charity work, events and causes: https://www. looktothestars.org/celebrity/richard-branson).
What has made Virgin so very different from most companies has been the human driving force of one man's will and how he has successfully built a culture that has produced tens of thousands of followers prepared to champion the same mindset: a relentless determination to "make a difference" and "give back". Mr Branson has created successful companies that do much more than just provide good products and services. By consistently and faithfully living by its values - fun, entertainment, irreverence and innovation - Virgin has come to embody an ideal that resonates with "regular" people around the world: those who feel economically and socially disenfranchised, people who worry about their jobs, people who worry about the world their children will grow up in, people who feel helpless to stop the outrageous corruption or self-interest or simple mismanagement they see everyday in their financial and political systems. Regular people. That mission - "to be the people's champion" - was forever engraved in my mind when he took on what he felt were anti-trust practices by British Airways in 1993, pledging to "bust cartels and support the underdog".
