I was recently offered the opportunity to review Richard Branson’s new book, Business Stripped Bare, and as a fan of Branson’s, I jumped at the chance. I’m usually very busy, so its rare I’ll make time for a book. However, I was curious to discover Branson’s style of business that had helped him to become successful.

I won’t waste time describing the different chapters in the book, you can read the table of contents for yourself using the gadgets below. However, I will focus on the messages that are screamed loud and clear from this book. Branson boils down success in business to these 4 things; an eye for opportunity, the ability to weigh up risk, the ability to protect against risk, and most importantly of all, luck!

If you’re ever going to read any “business book”, this should be it. The book is filled with anecdotal examples of why bold principles such as integrity, honesty and hard work have led to success. Branson places huge emphasis on value to the customer, striving to be the best service the customer can receive from anyone in that market sector. He believes that by giving the customer what they want, you stay profitable and in business.

The Virgin brand has been created to encapsulate the people who work for Virgin and their mindset; lively, fun and intelligent. Virgin actively encourages individuals to take ownership of their work, often by giving them a slice of the business they work for. This breeds motivated employees who want the company to succeed. Oh, and Virgin have parties. Life is for living surely? This enthusiasm for keeping the workforce is very rare (never had it where I’ve worked). It’s a simple model for retaining the best staff.

It’s worth mentioning that the Virgin group is made up of several hundred limited companies, so that the failure of one company never hurts another company. A fantastic example of mitigating risk. Virgin refuse to make redundancies where possible, and tries to relocate individuals within the Virgin group. This keeps morale as high as possible, whist stating from the outset that the company has the needs of the business and the employees at heart.

Richard openly admits his mistakes and explains how you should always learn from your mistakes, admit what went wrong, and never run away. Using innovation to work around problems is his forte and some great examples are covered in the book. Problems are a great resource for innovation.

The book mentions stories of how Richard started, as well stories about Virgin Atlantic, Virgin Blue, Virgin Media, Virgin Mobile Northern Rock, the credit crunch and more. This is a book using recent examples that should be familiar to the reader. You’ll also probably have “Ahhh” type moments, when the penny drops about things you heard in the news and what actually happened.

I strongly recommend this book to anyone serious about business. It’s such an easy read, and there’s no doubt you’ll learn something from it. Once you’ve read it, you’ll be recommending it to your business friends too.

If you want to preview the book, you can use the widget below, or visit the book preview gadget. The book is pretty cheap on Amazon. You can ‘interact’ with Richard via his blog too.