Screw Business As Usual, by Richard Branson

Richard Branson is the serial entrepreneur of genius behind Virgin. Having studied him in my management classes at Audencia back to 2006, I have to say that I really wanted to read his latest book, Screw Business As Usual.

Having read it in a couple of days, I have to say that it is highly motivating as Sir Richard explains how so many people around the world are currently changing the world away from Business as Usual to a new, better, greener way to do business.

This has a name : Capitalism 24902, for the 24902 miles – 40,000 kilometers – that make the equatorial circumference of our beautiful Planet.

It is a way of making money that is going away from a model that prefers short term financial returns to a more sustainable vision based on long term plans, improving the society at large as well as the environment.

This paradigm shift is in the right direction and is gaining momentum.

Let’s hope this won’t stop anytime soon as we really have to do much more to combat increasing disparities between nations and among people within the same nations as well as countless other threats : resource depletion, environmental plundering and destruction and so on and so forth.

Keeping on doing business as we have been doing for the past decades will lead to the destruction of our Environment and thus, of our Societies. An alternative is needed if we are to survive.

Lucky us, as this book shows, a tidal change is coming…

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With the mantra that ” doing good is good for business “, Mr. Branson introduces throughout his book dozens and dozens of great people that have started their own companies around the world to improve their lives and the lives of the many people around them.

Having founded is first company at age 16, the author is indeed a strong believer in entrepreneurship and how it can create jobs and a better world.

From the young entrepreneurs in South Africa trying to get out of poverty to the powerful executives of multinational companies embedding sustainability and corporate social responsibility at the core of their business, this book is replete with great examples.

Tackling many various topics such as environmental issues, climate change, the War on Drugs, HIV/AIDS, Mr. Branson appears not only as a social entrepreneur but also an environmentalist at ease to write about bees, sharks and lemurs.

And this is a great thing about this book : Richard Branson travels a lot, making you travel as well and earning much as well. On a sidenote, it gave me ideas of people to contact for my current quest.

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To conclude, this book gave me a lot of hope : reading about so many people doing so many things in the right direction to help their fellow humans motivates me and makes me believe that we may perhaps screw business as usual and create a better, more sustainable world.

Grade : 18/20. A must read !