Like a Virgin collects Branson’s syndicated advice columns. The format means it covers a lot of ground shallowly, and its best material is on branding — the subject where Virgin’s practice is genuinely unusual.
The argument worth the book
“In business schools, brand values are often discussed in terms of marketing, as though they are an end result of a scientific process, rather than embedded in a business’s soul. Thankfully, I’ve learned that in the real world of business it’s better to rely on creativity, intuition and empathy.”
— Richard Branson, Like a Virgin The claim underneath is structural: Virgin’s brand stretches across airlines, trains, telecoms and space because it signals a disposition rather than a product category. That only works if the disposition is real, which is why Branson treats brand as an operating question rather than a marketing one.
Where to be sceptical
The column format removes the conditions under which advice applies — every answer is confident, none is contingent, and a reader gets no sense of when the opposite would be right.
It is also worth knowing that this title attracts misattribution. Several passages circulated in this archive as Like a Virgin quotes and turned out to be from Screw It, Let’s Do It or nowhere at all. If you see a punchy Branson line credited to this book, check it.
