About 10 years ago, while I was working for English Heritage as head of operations for London, I spotted this book when shopping one Sunday morning. Although I have always enjoyed reading business articles, I had never been able to get stuck into a business book.
That night I started reading it and could not put it down. Branson explains his business philosophies in an easy and fun way.
How did this change my work life? At the time I was hesitant about trying new things, wanting to see business cases first. But on reading the book, it became clear that trialling a new idea could be the best way to actually test it.
So my team at English Heritage put into action the book’s theory: make the trial the business case, start small and see what happens. It worked – we opened new shops and cafes, tried fresh ways of working and essentially, and importantly, had fun. As a result we built a tight-knit and supportive team.
When I moved to the Mary Rose Museum I continued this philosophy and have seen similar success here by following the “screw it, let’s do it” mantra. Before I started writing this I read a couple of key sections of the book to my team without telling them what I was doing. I asked if they felt we were worked like that and to my delight they said yes – so thanks Sir Richard.
Paul Griffiths is the head of operations at the Mary Rose Museum, Portsmouth
That night I started reading it and could not put it down. Branson explains his business philosophies in an easy and fun way.
How did this change my work life? At the time I was hesitant about trying new things, wanting to see business cases first. But on reading the book, it became clear that trialling a new idea could be the best way to actually test it.
So my team at English Heritage put into action the book’s theory: make the trial the business case, start small and see what happens. It worked – we opened new shops and cafes, tried fresh ways of working and essentially, and importantly, had fun. As a result we built a tight-knit and supportive team.
When I moved to the Mary Rose Museum I continued this philosophy and have seen similar success here by following the “screw it, let’s do it” mantra. Before I started writing this I read a couple of key sections of the book to my team without telling them what I was doing. I asked if they felt we were worked like that and to my delight they said yes – so thanks Sir Richard.
Paul Griffiths is the head of operations at the Mary Rose Museum, Portsmouth
