Richard's Blog - September 2012

Meet our Air-prentice

Meet our first ever Air-prentice! Billy won the chance to explore one Virgin Atlantic's newly refurbished 747s for a day at Gatwick Airport, before submitting a full report to me.As a child i was mad about planes, the feeling of adventure and excitement of being in the sky. We wanted to find someone who feels the same way i still do about flying and Billy was the perfect young man for the job. As my blog last week on getting a grilling from kids showed, children often look at the world in an …

How to get to Mars

As how to guides go, this one is a bit special! Watch NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Mission from its inception to its successful landing on the Red Planet – the video is spectacular. The mission is exploring the Martian surface and geology, and is fascinating for anyone interested in the current Curiosity mission - or hoping to go to Mars one day!…

My favourite night of the year

My favourite night of the year, bringing together 31 of our people from around the Virgin world to celebrate them as our Stars of the Year. We had more than 1,500 nominations from our companies and it was an incredibly hard task to select just 31 who have gone the extra mile. This year we hosted it at Sam and Holly's house in Kidlington near Oxford and I was joined by my wife Joan, Holly and her husband Freddie, Sam and his fiancé Isabella and a number of our CEOS. We were lucky to have …

Business is what concerns us

Business is what concerns us. If you care about something enough to do something about it, you're in business.

Swimming with tiger sharks

"There's really nothing dangerous about swimming with sharks. In the unlikely event that they attack you all you have to do is poke them in the eye with your finger. And if that fails then just poke them in the eye again - with your stump." A friend shared this helpful advice with perfect timing. We're off to swim with tiger sharks and bull sharks today! Wish us luck.

The tortoises & the lemur

Here's one of our lemurs feeding some fruit to two of our giant tortoises on Necker! Necker animals - Scarlet Ibis nest Necker animals - Babe hanging on Necker animals - Scarlet Ibis success Necker animals - Feeding time! Necker animals - Mort, our baby lemur Necker animals - another baby lemur born on Necker Necker animals - Crested Anole Necker animals - first Flamingo egg of the season Necker animals - White-Cheeked Pintail Necker animals - Flamingos Necker animals - Stout Iguana …

Rules for being a good negotiator

Roger Fisher, a great conflict negotiator and peacemaker, died last month aged 90. His rules for being a good negotiator were pointed out in the Economist: "'In any negotiation,  he wrote - even with the terrorists - it was vital to separate the people from the problem; to focus on the underlying interests of both sides, rather than stake out unwavering positions; and to explore all possible options before making a decision. "The parties should try to build a rapport, check each other out,…

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