Wirraway
7th Nov 2003, 22:07
Sat "Weekend Australian"
Branson on course for global dream
By Michael Sainsbury reports
November 08, 2003
Richard Branson looks exhausted. He has just accompanied the British media herd on the first flight of Virgin Atlantic's refitted Upper Class cabin.
It has been some party, apparently, and he is about go to another one, this time as co-host with US mobile content partner MTV.
No one slept on the plush leather seats which flip over and turn into a mattress. But doubtless it will be different on the return flight the following evening.
At 6.30pm Branson pulls up outside the swanky Hudson Hotel, one block from Central Park in New York. His plans for freshening up and having a shower have been dashed by the traffic - so we jump straight into the Lincoln Continental.
He must squeeze in an interview on CNN's Larry King Live before the party. Then he will leave New York for a whistlestop trip to visit New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clarke and 200 staff who have been hired for the trans-Tasman airline, Pacific Blue, en route to Australia.
In Brisbane on Monday he will take the wraps of the prospectus for the float of Virgin Blue which has been valued at between $1.6 billion and $2 billion. Virgin will pocket up to $100 million.
Such is the life of the man who made his fortune in his 20s with Virgin records. Since then he has started a startling range of enterprises - largely successful - from health clubs to cosmetics.
Top of the agenda right now for the group are planes, phones and financial services. Apart from the UK, Australia is the only country in the world with all three operating. But not for long.
In the process he has invented the businessman and rock star. Before the aggressive west coast coterie of IT moguls such as Bill Gates, Larry Ellison and Andy Grove there was Branson.
Running the Branson show tonight is Lori Levin, an 18-year Virgin veteran and New York local who runs corporate affairs and branding for the group.
Apart from being on call for Branson 24/7 she is also one of America's "soccer mums" ferrying her two kids around Princeton, New Jersey, in a Volvo. It might finally be happening for the group in the US.
"We have been enormously successful in the UK," Branson says. But he is determined to properly crack the world's biggest market and will use a combination of all his existing businesses to do it.
Virgin's mobile phone business, which now has more than 6 per cent of subscribers in his highly competitive home market, passed 1 million users in the US last week.
The company has also turned the corner in Australia. After languishing as an also-ran it has experienced a recent turnaround and looks set to pass 400,00 customers by the end of the year, says Virgin Australia chief Jonathan Marchbank.
Branson is enthusiastic about the business.
"By the end of next year there should be about 10 mobile businesses around the world," he says.
Back in the car - driven by regular driver Vincent, who like most people around Branson, seems very much part of the family - Levin directs him down Broadway, past Virgin's flagship Times Square store.
Even in the swelling sea of neon that marks out the international landmark, the Virgin sign, flashing like a scene from the science fiction film Blade Runner, stands out.
So it should. The billboard space outside the store costs more than the lease of the three-storey retail outlet.
"Turn left here," Levin cries. "It's the new billboard for Virgin Mobile. They tell me it's the biggest in New York - a quarter of an acre."
The tired Branson cranes his neck. "It's so big I can't see it," he complains. He is sceptical. "Oh, yes, there it is. Biggest in New York, that might be an exaggeration."
After arriving at CNN's studio at 7pm, in the nick of time, Branson is hurried into make-up and disappears for 15 minutes to tape a segment with King -- who is in California - for a show to air next week. Larry King not-so-Live in fact.
What did they talk about?
"Oh, ah, I can't remember." He's knackered. "Yes, mobile phones we talked a lot about mobile phones."
After returning to the hotel he appears downstairs at 8.30pm after 25 minutes freshening up. He looks better. Years of practice.
His conversation is more animated, too. Levin has a plate of food, grabbed from the media dinner upstairs waiting for him. "It's the Jewish mother thing," she explains, downing a quick glass of fizz.
Of the drawn-out tussle between himself and Virgin Blue's co-founder Patrick Corp - which will move to a controlling stake of about 45 per cent in the airline after the listing - Branson insists he and Patrick boss Chris Corrigan are on good terms.
"We just had to agree to differ," Branson says. "But I will be as involved in Virgin Blue as I have ever been. I will be releasing more details on that next week. Chris is good at running public companies."
Next year the pace of the group will get even more frenetic. After failing four years ago to grab a slice of the US airline industry's latest success story JetBlue - which has gone from a standing start to 41 planes, 46 on order and plans for 115 more in that time - Branson is readying for an assault on that market in 2004.
"We haven't settled on the name, but VirginUSA is the working title," Branson says.
The issue here, and the reason the group has focused its energies on the Blue part of its Australian business -- Blue Holidays is its Australian travel business and the new trans-Tasman airline doesn't mention Virgin -- has to do with the deal Branson struck with Singapore Airlines to buy 49 per cent of Virgin Atlantic.
The Singapore group has veto rights over the use of the brand for planes everywhere but Australia. That too will be a key focus of his Australian trip once the prospectus has been launched. He will be meeting in Hong Kong with airline and government officials hoping for a breakthrough in his long-held desire to fly Virgin Atlantic into Australia.
Plans are also already afoot to extend Virgin's portfolio of financial services in Australia. "In Australia we have been the fastest growing credit card," he explains.
Keeping track of so many businesses is a constant job for Branson. And the ultimate aim of all this is simple: Virgin wants to be the first global brand of the 21st century.
"It doesn't really feel like a job," he says. "I'm having fun. It sounds ridiculous but I am off to New Zealand tomorrow and Australia the day after. I am going for a number of different reasons. I am going to see my son who is at a tennis camp on the Gold Coast."
Tomorrow night he will settle into Brisbane's Suncorp Stadium to watch Rugby World Cup favourites England play Wales in the tournament's quarter-finals. He describes the code as "exciting -- more interesting than football (soccer)".
Branson will return to Australia next month. By then, the Virgin Blue float will be in its final stages and he plans to take the airline's staff to an island he has bought in Queensland where building is well advanced for a company getaway.
"Then we (Branson and his family) will take about three weeks to explore Australia which we have never done," he says. "I always take holidays when the kids have holidays, it's one the benefits of being successful when you are young. Maybe I take too many.
"But I always have my phone and laptop with me," he adds, a little sheepishly.
The limo arrives at the nightclub - Avalon, the huge New York club famous as Limelight in the 1980s and housed in a massive old church. Branson enters, like the talent, through the stage door, avoiding 1000 or so punters out front who are probably more keen to see the hip-hop acts Busta Rhymes and Mya than Branson.
As he goes upstairs into an interview with US Entertainment program E, the famous baby blues, at last, start to twinkle. He feeds on the energy of the club.
After that, the Branson show moves up a gear - the swarming Virgin staff and partners all want a piece of the man. Try getting anywhere near him now - the rock star businessman hard at work. Levin struggles to keep track of him.
============================================
Branson on course for global dream
By Michael Sainsbury reports
November 08, 2003
Richard Branson looks exhausted. He has just accompanied the British media herd on the first flight of Virgin Atlantic's refitted Upper Class cabin.
It has been some party, apparently, and he is about go to another one, this time as co-host with US mobile content partner MTV.
No one slept on the plush leather seats which flip over and turn into a mattress. But doubtless it will be different on the return flight the following evening.
At 6.30pm Branson pulls up outside the swanky Hudson Hotel, one block from Central Park in New York. His plans for freshening up and having a shower have been dashed by the traffic - so we jump straight into the Lincoln Continental.
He must squeeze in an interview on CNN's Larry King Live before the party. Then he will leave New York for a whistlestop trip to visit New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clarke and 200 staff who have been hired for the trans-Tasman airline, Pacific Blue, en route to Australia.
In Brisbane on Monday he will take the wraps of the prospectus for the float of Virgin Blue which has been valued at between $1.6 billion and $2 billion. Virgin will pocket up to $100 million.
Such is the life of the man who made his fortune in his 20s with Virgin records. Since then he has started a startling range of enterprises - largely successful - from health clubs to cosmetics.
Top of the agenda right now for the group are planes, phones and financial services. Apart from the UK, Australia is the only country in the world with all three operating. But not for long.
In the process he has invented the businessman and rock star. Before the aggressive west coast coterie of IT moguls such as Bill Gates, Larry Ellison and Andy Grove there was Branson.
Running the Branson show tonight is Lori Levin, an 18-year Virgin veteran and New York local who runs corporate affairs and branding for the group.
Apart from being on call for Branson 24/7 she is also one of America's "soccer mums" ferrying her two kids around Princeton, New Jersey, in a Volvo. It might finally be happening for the group in the US.
"We have been enormously successful in the UK," Branson says. But he is determined to properly crack the world's biggest market and will use a combination of all his existing businesses to do it.
Virgin's mobile phone business, which now has more than 6 per cent of subscribers in his highly competitive home market, passed 1 million users in the US last week.
The company has also turned the corner in Australia. After languishing as an also-ran it has experienced a recent turnaround and looks set to pass 400,00 customers by the end of the year, says Virgin Australia chief Jonathan Marchbank.
Branson is enthusiastic about the business.
"By the end of next year there should be about 10 mobile businesses around the world," he says.
Back in the car - driven by regular driver Vincent, who like most people around Branson, seems very much part of the family - Levin directs him down Broadway, past Virgin's flagship Times Square store.
Even in the swelling sea of neon that marks out the international landmark, the Virgin sign, flashing like a scene from the science fiction film Blade Runner, stands out.
So it should. The billboard space outside the store costs more than the lease of the three-storey retail outlet.
"Turn left here," Levin cries. "It's the new billboard for Virgin Mobile. They tell me it's the biggest in New York - a quarter of an acre."
The tired Branson cranes his neck. "It's so big I can't see it," he complains. He is sceptical. "Oh, yes, there it is. Biggest in New York, that might be an exaggeration."
After arriving at CNN's studio at 7pm, in the nick of time, Branson is hurried into make-up and disappears for 15 minutes to tape a segment with King -- who is in California - for a show to air next week. Larry King not-so-Live in fact.
What did they talk about?
"Oh, ah, I can't remember." He's knackered. "Yes, mobile phones we talked a lot about mobile phones."
After returning to the hotel he appears downstairs at 8.30pm after 25 minutes freshening up. He looks better. Years of practice.
His conversation is more animated, too. Levin has a plate of food, grabbed from the media dinner upstairs waiting for him. "It's the Jewish mother thing," she explains, downing a quick glass of fizz.
Of the drawn-out tussle between himself and Virgin Blue's co-founder Patrick Corp - which will move to a controlling stake of about 45 per cent in the airline after the listing - Branson insists he and Patrick boss Chris Corrigan are on good terms.
"We just had to agree to differ," Branson says. "But I will be as involved in Virgin Blue as I have ever been. I will be releasing more details on that next week. Chris is good at running public companies."
Next year the pace of the group will get even more frenetic. After failing four years ago to grab a slice of the US airline industry's latest success story JetBlue - which has gone from a standing start to 41 planes, 46 on order and plans for 115 more in that time - Branson is readying for an assault on that market in 2004.
"We haven't settled on the name, but VirginUSA is the working title," Branson says.
The issue here, and the reason the group has focused its energies on the Blue part of its Australian business -- Blue Holidays is its Australian travel business and the new trans-Tasman airline doesn't mention Virgin -- has to do with the deal Branson struck with Singapore Airlines to buy 49 per cent of Virgin Atlantic.
The Singapore group has veto rights over the use of the brand for planes everywhere but Australia. That too will be a key focus of his Australian trip once the prospectus has been launched. He will be meeting in Hong Kong with airline and government officials hoping for a breakthrough in his long-held desire to fly Virgin Atlantic into Australia.
Plans are also already afoot to extend Virgin's portfolio of financial services in Australia. "In Australia we have been the fastest growing credit card," he explains.
Keeping track of so many businesses is a constant job for Branson. And the ultimate aim of all this is simple: Virgin wants to be the first global brand of the 21st century.
"It doesn't really feel like a job," he says. "I'm having fun. It sounds ridiculous but I am off to New Zealand tomorrow and Australia the day after. I am going for a number of different reasons. I am going to see my son who is at a tennis camp on the Gold Coast."
Tomorrow night he will settle into Brisbane's Suncorp Stadium to watch Rugby World Cup favourites England play Wales in the tournament's quarter-finals. He describes the code as "exciting -- more interesting than football (soccer)".
Branson will return to Australia next month. By then, the Virgin Blue float will be in its final stages and he plans to take the airline's staff to an island he has bought in Queensland where building is well advanced for a company getaway.
"Then we (Branson and his family) will take about three weeks to explore Australia which we have never done," he says. "I always take holidays when the kids have holidays, it's one the benefits of being successful when you are young. Maybe I take too many.
"But I always have my phone and laptop with me," he adds, a little sheepishly.
The limo arrives at the nightclub - Avalon, the huge New York club famous as Limelight in the 1980s and housed in a massive old church. Branson enters, like the talent, through the stage door, avoiding 1000 or so punters out front who are probably more keen to see the hip-hop acts Busta Rhymes and Mya than Branson.
As he goes upstairs into an interview with US Entertainment program E, the famous baby blues, at last, start to twinkle. He feeds on the energy of the club.
After that, the Branson show moves up a gear - the swarming Virgin staff and partners all want a piece of the man. Try getting anywhere near him now - the rock star businessman hard at work. Levin struggles to keep track of him.
============================================