Great Business Stories

I would say more than anyone else, Richard Branson was the guy who inspired me to become an entrepreneur- I have a terrible memory but I remember so vividly Branson’s first appearance on the Late Late Show- that was Ireland’s biggest talk show - and it was 1986 - and it was the first time I’d ever seen a businessman who didn’t act like a businessman- woolly jumper and jeans, big hair, big teeth and when he talked he just made business sound like fun, an adventure- which for most of us who love business, that’s exactly how we see it - yeah it’s tough, it’s challenging but that’s all part of the fun and adventure.

And the story I’m going to tell today where Branson leaves school at 16 to set up an anti-establishment magazine, gets arrested for cheating the tax man, signs the Sex Pistols when no one else would touch them, starts a transatlantic airline, using his hair-raising escapades on boats and hot air balloons to publicise his businesses, brings the mighty British Airways to its knees- it makes for a cracking story- enjoy.

I had heard about General Magic over the years- and it was always held up as this almost mythical startup- the company that more or less developed the smartphone but was years too early, and then just 2 weeks ago I came across a documentary on it- it’s simply called General Magic- and it’s really good- well worth watching. So i did a b it more digging, found great articles and additional interviews with the founders. This is the story of how 1 guy had this vision for a new handheld device, how he got the top talent from Apple to join him, how they got the biggest tech and telecom companies in the world to join them, how they were stabbed in the back by John Skulley, the Apple CEO, and how it all fell apart- this is a cracking story, enjoy.

I have a very clear memory of this story because it became public 15 years ago in 2011, and I remember watching the news and seeing Michael Woodford, the whistleblower being mobbed by the media in Tokyo after he had found out and exposed a 20 year $1.7 billion dollar fraud in Olympus the company where he had just been promoted to the CEO role.
And what I love about this story is that it gives us a great insight into Japanese corporate life, how saving face was, and maybe still is prioritised over everything else. This story has drama, strong characters and even the hint organised crime in the form of the Yazuka- it’s a brilliant story- enjoy

Griffin has been on my list from day 1- like he’s the 32nd richest person in the world with a net worth of $60 billion, but I was in no real rush to cover him, until about 2 weeks ago when I finally got round to watching Dumb Money- the movie about the GameStop short squeeze-and it’s a pretty good movie.

But in the film the 2 or 3 times when Griffin's name is mentioned, it’s followed by the word “prick”- so that got me really interested- is he that bad or is it simply jealously as a result of his success because, even compared to the other Masters of Universe on Wall, Griffin is seriously successful- his hedge fund is the most successful hedge fund ever in history, but even more than that he has a second separate business, a securities business, and it trades more than $170 trillion worth of securities a year making it one of the biggest trading businesses in the world- how did he get to where he is -  this is a fascinating story- enjoy

The RIP part, well you’ll see what I’m getting at by the end of the episode. I wanted to dig into this story for a while now because like most of you, I knew the outline -you know, 2 hippy type guys who did things a bit differently, who were never really interested in money or success and yet they built one of the biggest and best known ice cream brands in the world. 

But the details of how they did this- through just being totally authentic, following their sense of fun, getting a lucky break, and then when they become successful they do everything they can to spread the wealth, to develop a different type of business but eventually big business catches up with them and while the ending is sad for Ben and Jerry, I just love this story for so many different reasons- enjoy.