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Branson
 
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Branson (Hardcover)

by Tom Bower (Author)
4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (14 customer reviews)

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Product details

  • Hardcover: 320 pages
  • Publisher: Fourth Estate Ltd; First Edition, First Impression edition (21 Sep 2000)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 1841153869
  • ISBN-13: 978-1841153865
  • Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 117,753 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

    Popular in these categories:

    #78 in  Books > Business, Finance & Law > Reference & Education > Business Studies
    #85 in  Books > Business, Finance & Law > Careers > Entrepreneurship

Product Description

Product Description
No British tycoon is more popular, few claim to be richer and none has masterminded a more recognizable brand than Richard Branson. What is behind the success of the buccaneering balloonist, the tabloids' favourite celebrity nude, the "grinning jumper" and the scourge of corporate goliaths? Helped by eyewitness accounts of more than 250 people with direct experience of Branson, Tom Bower has a uncovered a different tale to the one so eagerly promoted by Virgin's publicists. Here is the full story of Branson: his businesses, his friendships, his ambition, his law-breaking, his drug-taking, his bullying. From the cockpit of a balloon in the clouds to the centre of Branson's operations in his Holland Park home, the book is an intimate scrutiny of exactly how Richard Branson created himself and sold himself. Tom Bower's biography reveals Branson to be a single-minded profiteer who, while occasionally generous to others, has a fixed purpose to enhance his family's wealth in secret off-shore trust funds. Instead of a glittering saint, Branson emerges as a devious actor, proud of plucking for his own profit the good ideas of others. Now 50, Branson finds himself battling for survival. The man who so wanted to run the nation's lottery is, up close, something of a lottery himself.

From the Publisher
Review
'Bower's book is a devastating indictment.' The Sunday Times

'Bower has written a fascinating book that displays its heart on its sleeve: that Branson is style above substance.' The Irish Times

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Customer Reviews

14 Reviews
5 star:
 (9)
4 star:
 (1)
3 star:
 (1)
2 star:
 (1)
1 star:
 (2)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
4.0 out of 5 stars (14 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars brilliant!, 13 Oct 2000
By Duncan Harvey (Lichfield, UK) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
A tremendous book

For all those carping that Bowyer is knocking a successful businessman - read the book - where are the successes outside highly regulated "competition free" zones?

This is an excellent book and completely demolishes the image fed to the British public by Virgin and friendly journalists.

Highly recommended!

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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Interesting read and I thoroughly recommend it!, 20 April 2007
By Khalid Aziz "Khalid Aziz" (Winchester, Hampshire, UK) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
Tom Bower is a former colleague of mine in the BBC and is noted for his painstaking
research. His unauthorised biography of business wunderkind Richard Branson is by any
standards a tour de force. It is also guaranteed to continue to be controversial as
according to the preface an article published in the Evening Standard in December 1999
about Branson's bid for the National Lottery is scheduled to become the subject of a libel
trial. Bower is also scathingly cynical about Branson's profile (one of Aziz Corporation
survey had the Virgin boss as the best known British businessman a clear 39 points ahead
of his nearest rival Sir John Harvey-Jones) averring that sound business decision-making
comes a very poor second to publicity seeking.
Whatever you feel about Richard Branson and his business activities, Bower's book
provides an interesting perspective and in particular an insight into some of the pitfalls of
dealing with the media even if you have been a media darling for decades. It is an
interesting read and I thoroughly recommend it.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Branson A New View, 29 April 2005
This book, which is carefully authenticated and utterly independent of its subject, gives an apparently devastating account of both Branson and the Virgin empire. Here we find a business that seems to live on the edge of disaster, and which has little apparent place for education and planning. Late to the Internet revolution and mobile phone, yet touted as modern and fun. A biography that reads like a thriller.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Negative?
I found this book thoroughly entertaining to read, however I was slightly disappointed in the rather negative tone of the book. Read more
Published on 6 Aug 2005

5.0 out of 5 stars Superb!
There is part of me that is upset at the details revealed in this book (like finding out that Father Christmas isn't real! Read more
Published on 2 Oct 2001 by richard.pepper@designerbrands....

5.0 out of 5 stars excellent read
this is a brilliant book in all respects the author tells it as it is i say buy this book now and enjoy oh and send a copy to richard too
Published on 4 Dec 2000 by a1oscar@haamer.fsnet.co.uk

5.0 out of 5 stars You will either love it or hate it. I loved it.
Virgin Music was a huge moneymaker for Branson, though not for his employees. But even that was someone else's idea and its success due to the talents of his associates. Read more
Published on 17 Nov 2000

1.0 out of 5 stars Pretty trashy
I suppose that you could look on this as an antidote to the 'approved' biographies and autobiography, if it were not so appallingly written and if the author's prejudices were not... Read more
Published on 16 Oct 2000 by jonathan.reynolds@templeton.ox...

1.0 out of 5 stars No starred, no brainer
The most irritating thing about this book is that it is like reading a 400 page News of the World "exclusive". Mr. Read more
Published on 9 Oct 2000

5.0 out of 5 stars Five star character assination of a folk hero.
First we had the official Hollywood version of Branson's rise to fame and fortune, and now we have Tim Bower's re-make. Read more
Published on 4 Oct 2000

4.0 out of 5 stars Depressing reading for Rail Travellers
There seem to be a lot of parallels with Bower's Maxwell epic. The book is written in an easy to understand, middle-tabloid style. Read more
Published on 30 Sep 2000 by R. Bard Sweet Ltd

2.0 out of 5 stars Why run him down?
Strange how in the UK we try and belittle the success stories that we create. Branson is probably one of the most successful business men we've ever seen in the UK - particularly... Read more
Published on 29 Sep 2000

5.0 out of 5 stars THE CAT IS OUT THE BAG FINALLY
What a great read. I could not put the book down and read it right through from start to finish. At long last the general public are given the opportunity to find out really what... Read more
Published on 28 Sep 2000

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