Richard Branson: 'Capitalism has lost its way'

[tabatha]

Capitalism has "lost its way" and financial profit should no longer be the main driving force behind big business, says Richard Branson, the Virgin Group founder who bought the formerly nationalised bank Northern Rock.

Branson makes the assertion in the foreword of his book, Screw Business As Usual. In it, he says he wants to reflect "a vibrant and marked sea change from the way business always used to be done, when financial profit was the only driving force".

At the book's press launch in London earlier in the week, Branson said: "This may not be a popular statement at the moment so please bear with me.

"I truly believe that capitalism was created to help people live better lives, but sadly over the years it has lost its way a bit. The short-term focus on profit has driven most businesses to forget about the important long-term role they have in taking care of people and the planet."

Branson also offered words of sympathy for the Occupy protesters. "Rightly so, people all over the world are no longer accepting this short-term approach and are demanding that business as usual changes," he said. Writing in the Guardian Work section, Branson outlines his vision in which he urges businesses to transform themselves along ethical principles.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2011/nov/18/richard-branson-capitalism-lost-way?newsfeed=true

Thank you RB - please give a series of talks in the US.

[joeybee12]

1. He's right...

Not sure it was ever created to help people better their lives, but it certainly is only about short-term profit, especially those running the companies who wnatt he stock to rise quickly, make their fortune, run the company into the ground, then bail.

[WCGreen]

2. yep, this belongs on the greatest page....

K&R

[Terry in Austin]

3. In other news... water discovered to be wet

Glad one of the lost is copping to it, though...

[Blue_In_AK]

4. I've always really liked that guy.

He's just cool. :)

[silverweb]

10. I've always liked him, too.

There's something down-to-earth and unpretentious about him. I always felt that he was one of the few really decent 1-percenters.

Those he names as his greatest influences offer a peek inside Sir Richard, too, i.e. Nelson Mandela, Al Gore, and James Lovelock.

[Huey P. Long]

5. Good OP.

[FarCenter]

6. Branson is definitely part of the 1%

[NashVegas]

9. As Far As I'm Concerned, He Got There the Right Way

Branson got his start selling albums out of his basement, pretty much, and unlike today's "entrepreneur" hipsters, didn't start up businesses just to try to sell them off to the highest bidder as soon as it was possible to flip them.

[CreekDog]

13. Yes he is and what about that?

:shrug:

[progressoid]

7. Says the guy with his own island

[snagglepuss]

8. Pure spin to brand himself as the outsider. Anyone who believes this needs to

read Commodify Disent.

[nadinbrzezinski]

11. CRACK... now that is a bigger one

no longer hair line fractures.

[hifiguy]

12. Branson made his money going where no one went before.

When he started Virgin Records (the label) there was a kid who hung around the studio and did freelance engineering for bands using the facilities. He asked Branson if he could use the studio when no paying customers were booked and Branson agreed. So the kid spent hundreds of hours recording his music during studio downtime. The finished product was released in 1973

The kid was Mike Oldfield. The composition he recorded was "Tubular Bells" known to most people as the theme from "The Exorcist." It made both Branson and Oldfield millionaires.

The rest, as they say, is history.

[TBF]

14. "Lost it's way"??

An inherently unequal system that only encourages greed, hoarding, and putting profits before all else has "lost it's way"? I beg to differ. It is functioning just as it is designed to, only folks are not liking it as much now that there are not so many controls on it.

[No Elephants]

16. No, lost its way A BIT is what he said.

[PETRUS]

20. +1

He's not the first person to come out with this kind of crap lately. It's a defensive response and it's intended to keep people from looking into things too deeply.

[No Elephants]

15. If you want a series of talks on capitalism's losing its way, call Chris Hedges.

Branson is not your man. Whatever he may have been when he started, he's not that now.

Capitalism has lost its way A BIT, says the multi-billionaire who owns a gorgeous private island, and many other things?

Think I'll have to miss his series of talks on what's slightly wrong with capitalism.

[tabatha]

17. Any person who understands what the occupiers are about should be welcomed.

I especially liked this "about the important long-term role they have in taking care of people and the planet" - much like the philosophy of "seventh generation".

And if he owns a private island and keeps it from environmental degradation, then I support that. I know of environmentalists who purchased land for that reason only - to make sure it is never developed and it is restored.

[Buns_of_Fire]

27. "A bit..." Well, sure. British people, in my experience, aren't given to using a lot of hyperbole.

The ones I've known even tend to understate things a little, unlike we fractious types in the colonies. I like Sir Richard. I've added him to my "Do Not Eat" list.

[AntiFascist]

18. Divide and conquer the 1% n/t

[freshwest]

19. Nice, see if he can get through to the mocking traders and champagne sippers at the NYSE.

But one wonders how all the slaughter from 'unbridled capitalism' managed to get past his radar for all these decades. However now that he's 'got his,' many times over for so long, he has the leisure to look down upon the masses.

Maybe he has affected by the OWS movement after all these years of wearing blinders. Maybe he's wondering if the majority of souls should not be treated as the royals and randians say they should, as nothing more than 'worthless mouths, little people and parasites.' We are dealing with a lot of characters for whom the end justifies the means, no matter how many people die. Literally.

Branson has always had the persona of a starry-eyed, smiling success story, but his buying out a nationalized bank doesn't seem to be respecting the commons to me. Could be, though. And I won't make the claim I can see the heart of the man.

But there is no one to save us from among the 1% for us. We have to take care of each other. Easier said than done.

Nice, hopeful thread. May others come to the same conclusions that he appears to have made.

[Duppers]

21. Yet, over the pond, he's supporting the Tories

Go figure.

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/2856915/Sir-Richard-Branson-gives-Tory-campaign-his-backing.html

[blindpig]

22. What horseshit

Capitalism is what Capitalism does. It has not 'lost it's way', it's getting down to basics. The 'light touch' of 1936 thru about 1973 was a tactical necessity. It is no coincidence that the capitalists have put on the coals, that US imperialism has gone feral, hardly a minute after the dissolution of the Soviet Union. They feared socialism and now they don't, fools.

[Hydra]

24. There's still a large contingent of people who think Capitalism is the greatest thing ever

And they want OWS to accept that meme and stop when mild controls are put back in place.

I hope that doesn't work. Capitalism is a monster that eats everything alive. The fact that some people view it as Holy is quite disturbing.

[cyberpj]

23. As a Fortune 500 corporate employee from the 70's -- I remember when having a bad quarter wasn't a

reason to lay off employees in order to make it 'better' for the stock market. We had stable or slightly off quarters all the time over the years and it wasn't a catastrophe.

The philosophy that businesses MUST make a profit every quarter only started in the 80's; around the same time the business-speak term "global competition" came into being.

Only fools didn't understand that meant our standard of living was going to go down --because they certainly never intended to bring the rest of the 'globe' up to US standards.

[TheKentuckian]

25. Nope, it is on its natural progression.

The pretending that todays behavior is some strange mutation is silly and dishonest and/or ignorant.

[sarcasmo]

26. Financial profit should be taxed. Corporate profits should be taxed.