Richard Branson, this time you screwed it!
Sir Richard Branson is one of my entrepreneurial heroes. The author of ‘Screw it, Let’s do it’, he started from little with a single music magazine and launched that into a record label that afforded him a private island. Then jumped into aviation and created a world-class airline. And now, he is working on space flight and successfully built a rocket ship!
But lately, in his journey, he has started to make silly mistakes that have backfired. And as a big fan of this flamboyant CEO, I’m disappointed.
What happened?
As the world battles against the coronavirus’s tyranny and the havoc that it causes, there have been few decimated industries hit harder than airlines.
In particular, Richard Branson’s airlines, Virgin Atlantic and Virgin Australia have been crushed by the fall in passenger traffic, with the latter having to restructure earlier this year.
Virgin Australia’s new investors, Bain Capital, have decided to cut around 1/3 of the workforce (3000 jobs), including all staff tied to international flights. They are even selling every plane apart from their Boeing 737 fleet.
As these poor crew members say goodbye to their career and carrier (many of which won’t be able to return to the aviation workforce again), Richard Branson has decided to give them a ‘’gift’’.
A signed photo of a plane.
I get it’s part of his personal and corporate branding, however now put yourself in the shoes of the staff members. At first, their health was at risk as the airlines and government slowly responded to the coronavirus, then didn’t have a job for months with their company on the financial ropes, finally being told to stay home and grounded indefinitely.
Imagine returning all that stress and heartache with a signed photo of a plane. Likely the signature is just printed on the page (will Richard Branson really write his name 3,000 times?), a signature of a boss who effectively abandoned the airline when he couldn’t get a bailout from the government.
It is truly tone-deaf at the worst time.
What should have Richard Branson done?
Let’s put aside the thought that Richard Branson could have saved Virgin with his billions of dollars for a moment (he actually only owned 10% of Virgin Australia; thus the real culprits were Singapore, Etihad, and a group of Chinese consortiums), what could have he done differently when seeing the end of Virgin Australia?
What would a real leader do?
Be an example by displaying Authentic Humanity.
The staff deserve better than a signed photo, but complete absence is better than this. Sir Branson should have remained quiet and not tried to make it about him. At most issuing a statement, that he feels for the staff and somewhat understands how they feel.
A better leader during this time to take inspiration from Nestlé CEO Mark Schneider. This CEO understood the sacrifices made by staff during the pandemic and didn’t at all involve himself.
He came across down to earth and understanding of what he was asking in his corporate message.
I fully recognize we are asking a lot because all of us are also busy managing challenging personal and family situations at this moment. Your effort will make a huge difference to our company and to our society.
He is also empathetic to his staff, which 90% are working from home at his orders:
Along with everyone else at Nestlé I am working hard to cope with this crisis. We — and I — will be with you every step of the way. Like most of you I also have a family to worry about. I am a Nestlé colleague, but also a father, a husband and a son. At times like these, the worry list can be long for all of us, there are no exceptions.
While his comments come across unconventional for a multinational CEO (who typically only cares about the share price), he wins big PR and human points in being a real leader during this time.
I am proud and inspired by the way our company has risen to this challenge — with flexibility, resilience, courage — and a caring heart. Thank you for your enormous contributions. Let’s work together — across all parts of the business — to keep going. Let’s make this one of our finest hours.
What can we learn from this?
Being a leader is more than just the flamboyant face of the company. It’s about having a greater awareness of all the staff in your care and ensuring that your workforce want to return when work resumes.
Understand that sometimes it is best to either be quiet and let others steer the ship (while you focus on mapping to the destination) or empathize with your front line staff and authentically show and act that you care. Great leaders do.
