"Hi Richard. So, how did you first get started in business? What was your first success?

The very first thing I did that was a success was Student Magazine. I was a teenager at the time and we operated from a London basement. By the summer of 1967 the magazine started to take off and had a circulation of over 50,000 copies an issue. All of us working on the project felt like we were students, living away from home in a rented basement with a constant flow of people in and out of the project. It was a very exciting time. Inspired by that, in 1969 we decided to develop a mail order record company.

How many times have you tried to break records? Are you some sort of adrenaline junkie?!

Well, I've always liked a challenge! I've been involved in a number of world record breaking attempts since 1985. My first success was in 1986 with my boat "Virgin Atlantic Challenger II". I wanted to rekindle the spirit of the Blue Riband by crossing the Atlantic Ocean in the fastest ever recorded time. A year later I crossed the same ocean, by hot air balloon this time. The "Virgin Atlantic Flyer" was not only the first hot-air balloon to cross the Atlantic but was also the largest balloon ever at 2.3 million cubic feet. It reached speeds in excess of 130 miles per hour (209 k/ph).

In January 1991, I crossed the Pacific Ocean from Japan to Arctic Canada at the furthest distance of 6,700 miles. Again, this broke all existing records. The balloon measured 2.6 million cubic feet with speeds of up to 245 miles per hour.

Between 1995 and 1998 I made a number of attempts to circumnavigate the globe by balloon with Per Lindstrand and Steve Fossett. In late 1998 we made a record breaking flight from Morocco to Hawaii but unfortunately, our dream of a global flight was shattered by bad weather… and then a Swiss team successfully circumnavigated the globe in early 1999.

So if all that makes me an adrenaline junkie, then yes, guilty as charged.

How do you cope when things don't go your way?

Whenever I experience any kind of setbacks, I always pick myself up and try again. I prepare myself to have another stab at things with the knowledge I've gained from the previous failure. My mother always taught me never to look back in regret, but to move on to the next thing. The amount of time that people waste on failures, rather than putting that energy into another project, always amazes me. I have fun running the Virgin businesses, so a setback is never a bad experience, just a learning curve.

What would you say are the key things that entrepreneurs need to make a successful business?

I think one of the reasons for our success is the core values which Virgin aspires to. This includes those that the general public thinks we should aspire to, like providing quality service. However, we also promise value for money, and we try to do things in an innovative way, in areas where consumers are often ripped-off, or not getting the most for their money. I believe we should do what we do with a sense of fun and without taking ourselves too seriously, too! If Virgin stands for anything, it should be for not being afraid to try out new ideas in new areas.

Branding is also important. If you get your face and your name out there enough, people will start to recognise you. Many people know the Virgin brand better than the names of the individual companies within the group. A young girl once came up to me and told me I could be famous because I looked just like Richard Branson! Branding is everything. I think it's also wise to diversify; this enables you to have a contingency plan when the economy is going through a rough patch.

Finally, I'd better not forget luck. The odd bit of luck goes a long way. We were lucky to sign Mike Oldfield and we were lucky to get hold of the Sex Pistols in 1977. We've also been lucky that people liked Virgin Atlantic's unique airline service across the Atlantic, and I was lucky to survive all my balloon and boat trips!

Your family obviously means the world to you. What else is important to you?

Loyalty means a lot to me. Working with people I know and trust makes me feel secure. I guess that's why I prefer to promote from within. People who join Virgin know that there are plenty of opportunities to progress their career.

There have been dozens of articles written about your management style. How would you describe it?

Most importantly, management is about exactly what it says: “managing”. To manage you have to make decisions about people, events unfolding and you usually have to spend money in order to make more. One of the sad realities of big business is that often people tend to forget the bit about making decisions, which is why so many large companies seem to suffer from inertia. One of the reasons that we run Virgin as a series of independent businesses is precisely to keep people focused on managing their individual companies and keep the decision process fluid. It's worked for us.

Public relations obviously plays a big role. What would you say is the secret to good PR?

Good PR is really about having something different to say in the first place. Your PR is about your relationship with the public as a whole, rather than just the media. Therefore, it is about getting products right and the challenge of fixing things that are not. It can never be about empty promises never met.

Is there a danger that the more businesses you launch, the more the brand gets diluted?

People have been asking me that same question every year we've been in business! The fact is, Virgin is unique and can't easily be compared to other brands. Research as recently as this year shows that we're one of the UK's top three favourite and most respected brands.

Clearly in the eyes of the consumer the brand has not been diluted, but we must guard against that happening at all costs. Our model is to develop each business separately with its own shareholder and management – this way we can concentrate on the job in hand, rather than be part of some enormous and faceless conglomerate. We don't actually plan to launch new businesses over the next few years, but we are planning to take the ones we have into new territories.

You seem to enjoy taking risks! What is the riskiest thing you have done?

It is impossible to run a business without taking risks. Virgin would not be the company it is today if risks had not been taken. And to be honest, I couldn't tell you which was the riskiest, because most of the decisions we have to make are risky. The very idea of entrepreneurship not only conjures up thoughts about starting up businesses and building them, but also the more frightening prospect of taking risks and failing. It's the last part that puts so many people off taking a leap into the unknown and working for themselves. I have enjoyed all the challenges we have taken at Virgin, so because I'm having fun doing what I do, the risk factor takes second place.

Are you still enjoying working or would you rather be doing something else now?

I love what I do and I can't see myself slowing down just yet. I have a fantastic team of people who do a tough job and seem to enjoy running the businesses with me. We try our best to keep up with any changes and trends, and by doing so find ourselves entering new areas of business all the time. Keeping with the pace and continuing to experiment into new ventures means that I am doing different things all the time anyway.

Which is your favourite Virgin company?

I try not to have any favourites, but I will always have a soft spot in my heart for Virgin Atlantic Airways. We started the business in 1984 and almost all my colleagues at Virgin said I was completely mad to go into the airline business. The newspapers said calling an airline Virgin was mad. The company is now worth over £1billion, it has fantastic people working for it and every time I see a Virgin tail fin at an airport around the world, I feel genuinely proud that we changed the way the airline business worked in the capitalist west. And of course the Megastores business which is our original business from 1970.

So, what's next for the Virgin brand?

The next phase of growth for the Virgin brand will be starting businesses in new countries and markets, rather than expanding the range of things that we do. By worldwide standards, Virgin is still a small group of companies, but the brand is a major multinational one. That gives us lots of opportunities to create a truly global presence, and to do some good, too." [Via virgin.com]