BOLD: HOW TO BE BOLD IN BUSINESS AND WIN – The Story of “Virgin Galactic”

The future belongs to the Bold.  The world is so crowded that only those who have a significant and dramatically different story to tell will grab the attention of customers.

In a world and age when we have come to expect good level of service and product as given, only an exceptional and memorable experience will earn customer loyalty.

Different breed of organizations are now emerging, they succeed because they have courage, confidence or just sheer chutzpah to pursue a purpose beyond profit:  to engage, entertain and educate their audiences, who see their customers and employees as members of a like minded community, who create and administer cult-like following among their brand – both within and outside their organizations – who are not just different, but dramatically different and who push to the extreme the consequences of their dreaded positioning and strategy.  Virgin Galactic is one of the bold brands.

Virgin Galactic

Virgin has long been thought of as the ultimate “challenger brand”.  It’s business model has been to take on large, established companies in a sector and seek to rewrite the rules, usually in favour of customers.  Being Bold, brave and innovative are in the DNA of the brand and it’s Visionary founder, Sir Richard Branson.

The Brand believes in making a difference.  Virgin stands for money, quality, innovation, fun and a sense of competitive challenge.  At virgin, they always look for the next big things, that may become a major global business.  This approach has led Virgin to create more than 200 branded companies world-wide, employing about 50,000 people in over 29 countries.  Their business spans music, media, mobile phones, travel, financial services, entertainment, leisure, and many others -the latest being Virgin Galactic – the successful flights of Virgin Galactic Vss Eve, the launch vehicle along with VSS Enterprise, the passenger vehicle – represents the opportunity of ordinary people traveling into space, making pace a new frontier for business.

Bold Practices

-       Virgin Galactic aims to fly 600 people in the first year of operation, that is more people than have been in space in 50 years.

-       The Mother ship USS Eve, is the largest 100% carbon composite plane currently in service and is the most environmental friendly aircraft in the world.

-       The passenger vehicle VSS Eve, completely redesigned based on customer feedback about their expectation of space travel.

-       The cost of a passenger flight is $200,000 compared with the Soviet-era passenger seat of $20-30 million.

-       Over 300 customers have registered and the company has over $40 million in deposit, though the first commercial passenger flight is yet to take-off.  Such is the power of Virgin brand.

-       The aircraft will operate initially from the purpose-built Space Port America in New Mexico but can operate from any commercial airport in the world.

-       The name Virgin Galactic was registered before the first flight was ever made.  

        So, let’s be bold.

Culled from:  BOLD:  How to be bold in Business and Win, by Shawn Smith and Andy Milligan