In Praise of Richard Branson

Shortly after traversing that low, snow swept ridge in northern Tennessee (see Trail Epic), I embarked on a weeklong trip to London to attend the London Book Fair, an annual April event. My assistant is a wonderful person, but when it comes to booking flights, I sometimes get the impression that she is worried about the expense of the airfare ticket interfering with my ability to pay back my college loans. I try to tell her to stop projecting, but to no avail.

So when I discovered that I had been booked on Virgin Atlantic for the seven hour flight to England, I had no choice but to fear the worst. You see, I have never flown on Virgin and I figured that with a name like that I would be forced into the company of a whole host of aging hipsters. Of course, I do not know Richard Branson, the owner of Virgin Atlantic, but I had formed a fixed idea about him, and so, I approached JFK with much fear and trembling.

And my initial fears seemed to be confirmed when I stepped up to the check in counter and found that no seat in steerage (economy) had been assigned to me. “Oh boy,” I mused, “talk about prophecy fulfilled!” Yet the lady manning the computer persisted in her search, even as other passengers behind me began to shuffle impatiently. I half expected her to say, “Well, Mr. Kampmann, we have nothing in the cabin but we do have some extra space on the wing. Would that do?”

But she didn’t say that. Instead, she called a manager over and together they found a nice big comfortable seat in Premium Economy which is equivalent to Business Class. I was shocked (and delighted). But the real shock came when I entered the cabin and buckled in for the trip across the Atlantic. It has been a long, long time since I could say the experience of flying was as fun and worthwhile as the trip itself. Clearly, this is an airline with very high standards. I thought about my remarkable reversal of expectations and I finally had to conclude that Richard Branson must be responsible for the superior quality of service provided by the people working for his airline.

Branson is a very successful businessman and he is successful for a reason. He is that rare entrepreneur that adheres to high standards and, as a result, passengers benefit in countless ways. American enterprise was built by people like Richard Branson. Unfortunately, too many of our great corporate leaders have been replaced by either pirates with an itch to pocket as much from the corporate coffers as possible, or men and women in grey flannel suits with endless advance degrees in this or that. Often the goods and services these faux leaders provide are as poor as the murky vision that guides them. So a toast to Richard Branson and to all entrepreneurs of vision: May the future belong to you.