Ripping apart Richard Branson — A critical lesson in Leadership

It’s quarantine. It’s sunday. Today I feel like judging somebody. Let’s pick Richard Branson. What is more fun than judging a flamboyant billionaire!

Sir Richard Charles Nicholas Branson is a self-made billionaire and the flamboyant founder of Virgin Group, which, according to Wikipedia, comprises of more than 400 companies including Virgin Blue airlines, Virgin Galactic Space travel, Virgin mobile and many others. I have never met Richard in person, but I hear from those who have that he is a “Rockstar, without the band, with the entourage, without the attitude”. His book ‘Business Stripped bare,’ which, by the way, is a fantastic read, describes him as an iconic entrepreneur and a “Tie-loathing adventurer and thrill seeker, who believes in turning ideas into reality. Otherwise known as Dr Yes at @virgin!”

So how will we do it? We will grade Richard on each of the eight traits of Level 5 leaders on a scale from 1 (representing poor) to 10 representing (excellent). If Richard scores more than 90%, he is a level 5 leader. To correctly judge his score, we will search the popular media to locate instances where his behavior and actions aligned with the given trait or performed negatively on the given trait.