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Innovation in Learning
A A BUSINESS ENGLISH IN VIDEO
The Richard Branson Interview - Part 1
Lesson code: KIAN-61MB-ESCD-C ADVANCED
1 Warm-up
Do you know this man? Which businesses has he launched? Have you used any of his
products/services?
2 Key vocabulary
What do you think the underlined phrases and idioms mean? In pairs, match them to their correct
meaning below:
1. The speaker broke the rules, so in the end he was kicked off the stage.
2. Inspiring leaders are good at drawing out the best in people.
3. A few entrepreneurs like to take on the status quo and develop completely new ways of doing
things.
4. There's a thin dividing line between success and failure.
5. You must be out of your mind if you think you can start a business without any capital.
6. Our competitor launched a dirty tricks campaign against us.
7. The company brand stands for quality and value.
8. The ambitious young entrepreneur likes to shake up other industries.
9. The businessman had no experience with running an airline, but he decided to give it a go.
a. a boundary that distinguishes one thing from another
b. cause large changes to something
c. challenge the present ways of doing things
d. crazy
e. dishonest, unfair tactics
f. encouraging
g. forced to leave
h. represents
i. try something
LE
You can review this worksheet online at [Link]/ex 1/3
AB
Review your flashcards at least 3-5 times a week for 20 minutes to keep the material fresh in your memory.
PI
O
c
[Link] OC
P H OT
lingua house
TM
The Richard Branson Interview - Part 1
Innovation in Learning
A A A A BUSINESS ENGLISH IN VIDEO
3 Before you watch
You are going to watch an interview with Richard Branson, the founder of the Virgin business empire.
Guess True (T) or False (F) for each sentence below. Then watch the first part of the interview and
confirm or correct your answers.
1. Richard Branson once put on Nicole Kidman's wedding ring and had to go to a jeweller to get it off.
2. Branson's first successful business venture was a magazine called `Student'.
3. At the time of its sale, Virgin Records was the biggest record company in the world.
4. British Airways launched a dirty tricks campaign against Virgin Atlantic.
5. According to Branson, the Virgin brand stands for `spirit'.
6. All of Virgin brands have been successful.
7. The Virgin Group's revenue is approximately 25 billion dollars.
8. The Virgin Group employs a workforce of 15,000 people.
4 What do you remember?
Answer the questions below in your own words.
1. According to Richard Branson, how was he able to start so many companies? What did he learn
about running a business?
2. Why was Branson considered to be `out of his mind' for going into the airline business?
3. What did Branson do to protect the jobs of the people who worked for his record company and for his
airline?
4. Why did this turn out to be the right move in the end?
5. Why didn't Virgin Brides work according to Branson?
6. How did Branson respond to the customer complaint?
7. How did the customer's attitude change 9 months later?
5 Words in the video
Look at the transcript of the interview. Find a word or phrase in bold which means ...
1. strange
2. to a large degree
3. the combined power of a group of things working together which is greater than the total power
achieved by each working separately
4. cause it to change completely
5. not new
6. gambled something
LE
You can review this worksheet online at [Link]/ex 2/3
AB
Review your flashcards at least 3-5 times a week for 20 minutes to keep the material fresh in your memory.
PI
O
c
[Link] OC
P H OT
lingua house
TM
The Richard Branson Interview - Part 1
Innovation in Learning
A A A A BUSINESS ENGLISH IN VIDEO
6 Language practice
Look at the sentences below. Rewrite them, replacing the underlined parts with a word or phrase from
this lesson.
1. He is a very effective manager. He knows how to encourage people to perform their best.
2. When we launched our product, we caused our industry to change completely.
3. The distinction between madness and creativity is very slight.
4. Our competitor used a series of unfair and dishonest tactics to steal our customers.
5. Although I had never been scuba diving before, I decided to try it.
6. We are able to challenge the accepted ways of doing things because of our ambitious team of
professionals.
7 Talking point
Discuss any of the following questions:
1. Do you agree that `companies are about finding the right people'?
2. Who is your country's most successful entrepreneur? How did he achieve this position?
3. How easy is it to become a successful entrepreneur in your country?
4. Do you think it is possible nowadays to achieve Branson's level of achievement in business?
LE
You can review this worksheet online at [Link]/ex 3/3
AB
Review your flashcards at least 3-5 times a week for 20 minutes to keep the material fresh in your memory.
PI
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[Link] OC
P H OT
The Richard Branson Interview - Part 1 - Transcriptslingua house
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Innovation in Learning
A A A A BUSINESS ENGLISH IN VIDEO
3- Before you watch
CA: Welcome to TED.
RB: Thank you very much. The first TED has been great.
CA: Have you met anyone interesting?
RB: Well, the nice thing about TED is everybody's interesting. I was very glad to see Goldie Hawn,
because I had an apology to make to her. I'd had dinner with her about two years ago and I'd -- she
had this big wedding ring and I put it on my finger and I couldn't get it off. And I went home to my
wife that night and she wanted to know why I had another woman's big, massive, big wedding ring
on my finger. And, anyway, the next morning we had to go along to the jeweller and get it cut off. So
-- (Laughter) -- so apologies to Goldie.
CA: That's pretty good. So, we're going to put up some slides of some of your companies here. You've
started one or two in your time. So, you know, Virgin Atlantic, Virgin Records -- I guess it all started
with a magazine called Student. And then, yes, all these other ones as well. I mean, how do you do
this?
RB: I read all these sort of TED instructions: you must not talk about your own business, and this, and
now you ask me. So I suppose you're not going to be able to kick me off the stage, since you asked
the question. (Laughter)
CA: It depends what the answer is though.
RB: No, I mean, I think I learned early on that if you can run one company, you can really run any
companies. I mean, companies are all about finding the right people, inspiring those people, you
know, drawing out the best in people. And I just love learning and I'm incredibly inquisitive and I love
taking on, you know, the status quo and trying to turn it upside down. So I've seen life as one long
learning process. And if I see -- you know, if I fly on somebody else's airline and find the experience
is not a pleasant one, which it wasn't, 21 years ago, then I'd think, well, you know, maybe I can
create the kind of airline that I'd like to fly on. And so, you know, so got one second-hand 747 from
Boeing and gave it a go.
CA: Well, that was a bizarre thing, because you made this move that a lot of people advised you was
crazy. And in fact, in a way, it almost took down your empire at one point. I had a conversation with
one of the investment bankers who, at the time when you basically sold Virgin Records and invested
heavily in Virgin Atlantic, and his view was that you were trading, you know, the world's fourth
biggest record company for the twenty-fifth biggest airline and that you were out of your mind. Why
did you do that?
RB: Well, I think that there's a very thin dividing line between success and failure. And I think if you start a
business without financial backing, you're likely to go the wrong side of that dividing line. We had --
we were being attacked by British Airways. They were trying to put our airline out of business, and
they launched what's become known as the dirty tricks campaign. And I realized that the whole
empire was likely to come crashing down unless I chipped in a chip. And in order to protect the jobs
of the people who worked for the airline, and protect the jobs of the people who worked for the
record company, I had to sell the family jewellery to protect the airline.
CA: Post-Napster, you're looking like a bit of a genius, actually, for that as well.
RB: Yeah, as it turned out, it proved to be the right move. But, yeah, it was sad at the time, but we moved
on.
CA: Now, you use the Virgin brand a lot and it seems like you're getting synergy from one thing to the
other. What does the brand stand for in your head?
RB: Well, I like to think it stands for quality, that you know, if somebody comes across a Virgin company,
they --
CA: They are quality, Richard. Come on now, everyone says quality. Spirit?
RB: No, but I was going to move on this. We have a lot of fun and I think the people who work for it enjoy
it. As I say, we go in and shake up other industries, and I think, you know, we do it differently and I
think that industries are not quite the same as a result of Virgin attacking the market.
CA: I mean, there are a few launches you've done where the brand maybe hasn't worked quite as well. I
mean, Virgin Brides -- what happened there?
LE
You can review this worksheet online at [Link]/ex i
AB
Review your flashcards at least 3-5 times a week for 20 minutes to keep the material fresh in your memory.
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[Link] OC
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The Richard Branson Interview - Part 1 - Transcriptslingua house
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Innovation in Learning
A A A A BUSINESS ENGLISH IN VIDEO
RB: We couldn't find any customers.
CA: I was actually also curious why -- I think you missed an opportunity with your condoms launch. You
called it Mates. I mean, couldn't you have used the Virgin brand for that as well? Ain't virgin no
longer, or something.
RB: Again, we may have had problems finding customers. I mean, we had -- often, when you launch a
company and you get customer complaints, you know, you can deal with them. But about three
months after the launch of the condom company, I had a letter, a complaint, and I sat down and
wrote a long letter back to this lady apologizing profusely. But obviously, there wasn't a lot I could do
about it. And then six months later, or nine months after the problem had taken, I got this delightful
letter with a picture of the baby asking if I'd be godfather, which I became. So, it all worked out well.
CA: Really? You should have brought a picture. That's wonderful.
RB: I should have.
CA: So, just help us with some of the numbers. I mean, what are the numbers on this? I mean, how big
is the group overall? How much -- what's the total revenue?
RB: It's about 25 billion dollars now, in total.
CA: And how many employees?
RB: About 55,000.
LE
You can review this worksheet online at [Link]/ex ii
AB
Review your flashcards at least 3-5 times a week for 20 minutes to keep the material fresh in your memory.
PI
O
c
[Link] OC
P H OT
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The Richard Branson Interview - Part 1 - Key
Innovation in Learning
A A A A BUSINESS ENGLISH IN VIDEO
2- Key vocabulary
1. g 2. f 3. c 4. a 5. d 6. e 7. h 8. b 9. i
3- Before you watch
Play the video up to 06:03.
1. F 2. T 3. F 4. T 5. F 6. F 7. T 8. F
Note: The interview was filmed at a TED (Technology Entertainment Design) conference. TED, founded in 1984,
is a global set of conferences owned by a private non-profit foundation, formed to disseminate "ideas worth
spreading." `TED' is referenced to several times during the interview. The interview with Richard Branson was
conducted by Chris Anderson, the curator of the TED conference.
When Chris Anderson says `Post-Napster, you're looking like a bit of a genius', he is referring to the file sharing
service Napster, released in 1999, which facilitated the downloading of music and resulted in a decline in record
industry revenue.
The metaphor 'I chipped in a chip' comes from poker and refers to betting a `chip' (a small counter that represents
money). The `chip' Branson is talking about was his Virgin Records business.
4- What do you remember?
Play the interview extract again if necessary. Pause where appropriate to allow students to write down the answers.
1. He learned that if you can run one business you can run any business, and that companies are
about finding the right people.
2. He was replacing his established record business, the fourth biggest in the world, with an airline
start-up.
3. He sold the record company to invest in the airline company.
4. because of Napster (the internet file sharing service)
5. He couldn't find any customers.
6. He wrote a letter of apology.
7. She wrote him a letter with a picture of the baby, asking Branson to be godfather.
5- Words in the video
Hand out a copy of the transcript to the students.
1. bizarre 2. profusely 3. synergy
4. turn it upside down 5. second-hand 6. chipped in a chip
6- Language practice
1. He is a very effective manager. He knows how to draw out the best in people.
2. When we launched our product, we turned our industry upside down.
3. There's a thin dividing line between madness and creativity.
4. Our competitor launched a dirty tricks campaign to steal our customers.
5. Although I had never been scuba diving before, I decided to give it a go.
6. We are able to take on the status quo because of our ambitious team of professionals.
LE
You can review this worksheet online at [Link]/ex i
AB
Review your flashcards at least 3-5 times a week for 20 minutes to keep the material fresh in your memory.
PI
O
c
[Link] OC
P H OT
