During recent TV News bulletins we have predictably seen one so called ‘expert’ after another being wheeled in front of the cameras to make their pronouncements on the global financial crisis. Surely one of the most bizarre this week has been Virgin boss Sir Richard Branson being asked his views of the rescue package announced on Wednesday in London.
As an admirer of some* aspects of his life I think it was an event he may live to regret; did he ask to appear or was he invited I wonder? Either way, why would they expect his views to be any more valid than if they had dragged the next passing taxi driver off the street into the studio. Sure, Sir Richard is a colourful character and has a billion or three, at least on paper, but as a risk taker of some extreme, his views on getting a stable economy are hardly likely to be taken seriously. Aside from his failed round the world balloon attempts, several of his businesses have failed or just bump along inefficiently; Virgin Vodka anyone? Virgin Cola? His “bring back the Concorde campaign” while patriotic was hardly a great business proposition either.
Gordon Browne remarked last week, this is not a time for novices to be in charge, I’d add it’s not a time for virgin views on the economy either.
*Here’s an aspect that isn’t so great though, Virgin offered a measly $25 to take the virgin fuels .org domain name off of a 55 year old female American blogger – http://gaiacapitalist.squarespace.com/virgin-notes/ Obviously some Virgin executives would rather waste hours of their very highly paid time threatening legal action against a well meaning and enterprising individual, instead of simply making a sensible commercial offer of a few thousand dollars. As Sir Richard should have learnt by now, some things come back to haunt you.
