Richard Branson Talks with Matt Lauer About Entrepreneurs Becoming a Force for Good

One of the things included in my morning routine is playing (occasionally glancing at)  NBC’s Today Show as I get ready for my work day. This morning’s interview of Mougal Sir Richard Branson by Matt Lauer caught my attention. Branson spoke about entrepreneurs becoming a force for good and helping the communities around them. Matt’s question as to why new business owners should listen to some of what he is “preaching” about solving community problems when he has already made his billions was an  interesting one.  Branson said “When you are starting to build a business all that matters is survival.” He went on to say “Make sure that you survive so that you can do good once you have actually built your business, but whatever happens run it in an ethical way.” He also talked about the unemployment in America and gave his take on rectifying the situation; he suggested that he would share the work. That by sharing the workforce the unemployed would be able to bring in some income instead of no income on a part-time basis. He shared that at least 20% of the people he brought this idea to said that they would job-share for at least 6months to help the unemployment crisis. 

He talked about how losing his Neckar Island home to a fire earlier this year has made him re-think how he looks at “stuff”.  He said it is people, family and friends that are important, not things.  Sounds like great advice to me! 

Branson’s new book is called Screw Business As Usual and is about caring for people, communities and the planet.

I would love to hear what you think… would you job-share? Would you split the workload by hiring two part-time employees instead of one full-time employee? Would you ask your team to work less hours so that you might hire new part-time employees? What are your thoughts?