My Journey To Necker February 25th, 2010

It would be a great deal easier just to explain that I hopped on a plane and flew there, after all I am currently flying on the smallest plane I have ever been in that we have chartered to take us from Barbados to Beef Island. But in real terms the journey started way before. And if Richard Branson has taught me anything, the brand experience is truly transferrable between Virgin businesses. My first encounter of Virgin was Culture Cub. A great band in the 80’s. They wrote a song called Victims, which has truly the best piano introduction of any pop song. I went on to approach Virgin Records years later with a demo after recording a song called “Whenever the Leaves Fall” on… Read the Rest »

A really BA Experience Destroys Brand Value February 22nd, 2010

Jim Collins recently sent me his latest book, How The Mighty Fall, which I have not managed to prise off my wife yet. If he’d written a British version of this book, it would have to feature BA. British Airways. How on earth has the greatest British brand fallen out of the skies to such depths of despair? I asked a couple of members of the BA staff, does BA stand for Bloody Awful, after the worst experience I have ever encountered of substandard behaviour by representatives of BA. I was checking in proudly to my first class seats at the BA counter in Manchester, when I met the second rudest woman I have ever had the misfortune to meet. We had telephoned the night… Read the Rest »