What an irresistibly charming guy that Sir Richard Branson is, but then I guess that is what you might expect from one of the world's most recognizable businessperson/celebrities. Branson was in Toronto again recently, as Virgin Atlantic Airways lavishly wined and dined several hundred guests from the travel industry (with cocktails with names like Sex on a Plane) to promote the launch of Virgin Atlantic's daily non-stop Toronto-to-London service on June 12.
It was hard not to smile during the presentation, however hokey and self-serving it may have been. For example, Branson's straight man and sidekick, Virgin executive vice-president for North America David Tait, mentioned the free, on-flight massages and then flashed on the screen an ad for competitor British Airways that read: "BA doesn't give a shiatsu." And there's nothing like offering those in attendance free massages on the spot, from a bevy of smartly uniformed and noticeably attractive hostesses, stationed around the edges of the crowd.
Despite the banter, there was a serious purpose to the gathering: to sell Virgin to travel agents. "No caps,'' said Sir Richard, to applause, as he put on a cap and told his listeners it was the only cap they would ever see on Virgin. Of course caps, or limits on commissions, are the bane of the travel business; Air Canada raised the hackles of agents when it capped its commissions in 1999. Virgin announced it would offer agents from 5% to 8%, with no caps.
But there was more to come. At the end of the evening, Branson drew the business cards of several in attendance and handed out some free flights and hotel stays in London. He then announced that he was feeling good-I'd be surprised if this was the first time he had done this-and would like to give away more flights. As four uniformed air hostesses pretended to egg him on, he raised the number from 2 to 9 to 19 to 99, finally announcing that "everyone here tonight'' would get a free flight, "so we'll fill three jumbo jets.'' (Regrettably, my job prevented me from accepting.) Stunned silence was followed by thunderous applause.
"See you in London,'' Branson said, as he waded into the grateful crowd. It may have been stagy, but it worked.
I predict that Sir Richard Branson will quickly show Air Canada how to sell transatlantic seats. The pricing is aggressive, the perks considerable and the flights sound like fun.
When we sat down this year to plan our coverage of the Top 40 Under 40 (page 62), we asked ourselves if there was an innovative way to profile the country's top achievers who are under 40 years of age. After all, the program founded and led by Toronto-based executive search firm Caldwell Partners International is now in its seventh year. We decided to ask each of the Top 40 to answer seven questions, from the serious (one piece of free advice to the Prime Minister), to the frivolous (What kind of car do you drive?). My guess was that the responses would reveal a competitive group, almost all of whom wanted the PM to cut taxes and reduce the size of government. I was only partly right.
Certainly most of the Top 40 were competitive-obsessively competitive. Asked to rate their competitiveness on a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being the most competitive, Jo Mark Zurel, senior vice-president and chief financial officer of CHC Helicopter in St. John's, Nfld., replied: "I'd say 1. At least, that's what I tell my competitors before driving them into the ground.''
The Top 40 are not exactly keen on losing or failing, and give short shrift to the cliché that it's not important whether you win or lose, it's how you play the game. After rating himself an 11, François Rainville, CEO of Elix Inc. of Nun's Island, Que., added that "The most important thing is not to participate, it's to win.'' Not that Mr. Rainville was the only respondent who thought their competitive instinct could not be contained by a scale that stopped at 10. "I'm a 10, but in metric,'' replied 34-year-old, Waterloo, Ont.-based Greta Podleski, co-author of several bestselling cookbooks. "That makes me about a 22 in imperial.''
The group's advice to the Prime Minister was less concentrated on lowering taxes and cutting government than I had predicted. Many of the Top 40 advised Mr. Chrétien to spend more money on research-at least those who wanted him to do anything at all.
"It's time for him to plan a graceful exit,'' advised David Park of TrueNorth Energy in Calgary. "Give the Finance guy [Paul Martin]a turn,'' urged Karen Basian of 724 Solutions of Toronto. The most direct advice to the Prime Minister came from Joanne Dunbar, a partner at Ernst & Young in Toronto, with her single-word answer: "Next!''
Konrad Yakabuski's cover story on John Weaver, Abitibi's tough CEO, is perfectly timed, since the company's annual meeting was scheduled to take place April 26. Weaver was in the headlines late last year as he fought and won a high-stakes boardroom battle against forces led by Quebecor's hard-driving chief Pierre Karl Péladeau, whose Donohue Inc. was taken over by Abitibi. Yakabuski is the first writer to give the behind-the-scenes details of that dramatic story.
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