The truth about Richard Branson

"it is a foul, foul piece of work from the first words to the last тАУ really rotten, nasty stuff". No, not an irate poster complaining about something Lunchtime O'Booze has written, but Richard Branson complaining about the unauthorised biography that lost him a chance to run the National Lottery in the UK and whose libel case against the author was thrown out of court. I read it a few years ago, and it has just bee re-issued. Here's an article by the author - http://www.spectator.co.uk/business/the ... dity.thtml (http://www.spectator.co.uk/business/the-magazine/books/2191156/for-tycoons-facts-are-a-negotiable-commodity.thtml)

[Lunchtime O'Booze]

well it could just as well be about me as I'm not a great Branson fan..although I have to admit to having worked at one stage for one of his organisations. Getting invoices paid was a job in itself.

In the end he is no different than any other successful businessman with a huge corporation.he's as tough as any other but with superb marketing that gives one a nice and fuzzy feeling.

One must hand to the bloke who was on the verge of bankruptcy with his one record store in Notting Hill, so much so that he had to do business from a red box phone booth ( when they still had them in the UK..another wonderful purely British thing that has bitten the dust). He did that usual thing that good entrepreneurs do when they are just about to fall over, as prospective lenders enquired as to whether his shop was about to shut for good..Branson would reply.."good God no..I'm just about to open 20 more". That boldness paid off..then.

Branson has never produced anything of orginiality but has simply followed the well trod paths of others, learning from their mistakes and picking the best bits and discarding the worst.

Just as the great and eccentric, late Freddie Laker was the first to bung on cheap transAtlantic flights between NY and London but then crashed after British Airways connived to do him in-Branson took Laker aside and grilled him for every bit of info that the man who had spent 20 years putting together his doomed Laker Air, could provide-and then didn't even give poor Freddie a free airline seat for his troubles.

[Lunchtime O'Booze]

Good God fatmann..did we do business together ?. In fact it was work for Heaven that I'm still waiting to be paid for ?. And I got Andy Warhol and Bob Dylan down there and I still didn't get paid !!

[Lunchtime O'Booze]

oh my God..now the Roof Garden !!..actually only went there but it was rather magnificent on the gay Sundays..while it lasted.

I think Branson had plans to actually live there but the council nipped that in the bud. What a magnificent place..I think I went for afternoon tea there when I was a kid ..when it was Derry & Toms !..oh the memories..Biba !!

ps: you must know the manager of Heaven who is actually a friend of mine who should remain nameless..he always said it didn't make money !! That must be why he put together a consortium to buy the place !

They may not have been making money on paper, but cash was pouring through the doors and over the bars in truckloads. God knows where they hid it all. May be it was used to finance the airlineYou are confusing inwards cash flow with profit (ie. making money). Who knows what their outwards cash flow was like

Homi, I had some insight, at the time I was contracted by them, they were making huge profits.You were the contract accountant, were you?

Not exactly, but had good access.I've had good access to Lee's books at Telephone too - thank god for a spot of bribery, as Doris O'Booze keeps telling me - not a pretty sight, when compared to the vendors' books. Mind you, no-one could call @Richards a resounding success, which bears out my theory that Telephone prospered in spite of its owner's benign neglect (in contrast to Lee's malign influence)