TEDRichard BransonLife at 30000 feet中英.docx

1、TEDRichard BransonLife at 30000 feet中英Richard Branson: Life at 30,000 feetChris Anderson: Welcome to TED.Richard Branson: Thank you very much. The first TED has been great.CA: Have you met anyone interesting?RB: Well, the nice thing about TED is everybodys interesting. I was very glad to see Goldie

2、Hawn, because I had an apology to make to her. Id had dinner with her about two years ago and Id - she had this big wedding ring and I put it on my finger and I couldnt get it off. And I went home to my wife that night and she wanted to know why I had another womans big, massive, big wedding ring on

3、 my finger. And, anyway, the next morning we had to go along to the jeweler and get it cut off. So - (Laughter) - so apologies to Goldie.CA: Thats pretty good. So, were going to put up some slides of some of your companies here. Youve started one or two in your time. So, you know, Virgin Atlantic, V

4、irgin Records - I guess it all started with a magazine called Student. And then, yes, all these other ones as well. I mean, how do you do this?RB: I read all these sort of TED instructions: you must not talk about your own business, and this, and now you ask me. So I suppose youre not going to be ab

5、le to kick me off the stage, since you asked the question. (Laughter)CA: It depends what the answer is though.RB: No, I mean, I think I learned early on that if you can run one company, you can really run any companies. I mean, companies are all about finding the right people, inspiring those people

6、, you know, drawing out the best in people. And I just love learning and Im incredibly inquisitive and I love taking on, you know, the status quo and trying to turn it upside down. So Ive seen life as one long learning process. And if I see - you know, if I fly on somebody elses airline and find the

7、 experience is not a pleasant one, which it wasnt, 21 years ago, then Id think, well, you know, maybe I can create the kind of airline that Id like to fly on. And so, you know, so got one secondhand 747 from Boeing and gave it a go.CA: Well, that was a bizarre thing, because you made this move that

8、a lot of people advised you was crazy. And in fact, in a way, it almost took down your empire at one point. I had a conversation with one of the investment bankers who, at the time when you basically sold Virgin Records and invested heavily in Virgin Atlantic, and his view was that you were trading,

9、 you know, the worlds fourth biggest record company for the twenty-fifth biggest airline and that you were out of your mind. Why did you do that?RB: Well, I think that theres a very thin dividing line between success and failure. And I think if you start a business without financial backing, youre l

10、ikely to go the wrong side of that dividing line. We had - we were being attacked by British Airways. They were trying to put our airline out of business, and they launched whats become known as the dirty tricks campaign. And I realized that the whole empire was likely to come crashing down unless I

11、 chipped in a chip. And in order to protect the jobs of the people who worked for the airline, and protect the jobs of the people who worked for the record company, I had to sell the family jewelry to protect the airline.CA: Post-Napster, youre looking like a bit of a genius, actually, for that as w

12、ell.RB: Yeah, as it turned out, it proved to be the right move. But, yeah, it was sad at the time, but we moved on.CA: Now, you use the Virgin brand a lot and it seems like youre getting synergy from one thing to the other. What does the brand stand for in your head?RB: Well, I like to think it stan

13、ds for quality, that you know, if somebody comes across a Virgin company, they -CA: They are quality, Richard. Come on now, everyone says quality. Spirit?RB: No, but I was going to move on this. We have a lot of fun and I think the people who work for it enjoy it. As I say, we go in and shake up oth

14、er industries, and I think, you know, we do it differently and I think that industries are not quite the same as a result of Virgin attacking the market.CA: I mean, there are a few launches youve done where the brand maybe hasnt worked quite as well. I mean, Virgin Brides - what happened there? (Lau

15、ghter)RB: We couldnt find any customers. (Laughter) (Applause)CA: I was actually also curious why - I think you missed an opportunity with your condoms launch. You called it Mates. I mean, couldnt you have used the Virgin brand for that as well? Aint virgin no longer, or something.RB: Again, we may

16、have had problems finding customers. I mean, we had - often, when you launch a company and you get customer complaints, you know, you can deal with them. But about three months after the launch of the condom company, I had a letter, a complaint, and I sat down and wrote a long letter back to this la

17、dy apologizing profusely. But obviously, there wasnt a lot I could do about it. And then six months later, or nine months after the problem had taken, I got this delightful letter with a picture of the baby asking if Id be godfather, which I became. So, it all worked out well.CA: Really? You should

18、have brought a picture. Thats wonderful.RB: I should have.CA: So, just help us with some of the numbers. I mean, what are the numbers on this? I mean, how big is the group overall? How much - whats the total revenue?RB: Its about 25 billion dollars now, in total.CA: And how many employees?RB: About

19、55,000.CA: So, youve been photographed in various ways at various times and never worrying about putting your dignity on the line or anything like that. What was that? Was that real?RB: Yeah. We were launching a megastore in Los Angeles, I think. No, I mean, I think - CA: But is that your hair? RB:

20、No. CA: What was that one?RB: Dropping in for tea.CA: OK. (Laughter)RB: Ah, that was quite fun. That was a wonderful car-boat in which -CA: Oh, that car that we - actually we - it was a TEDster event there, I think. Is that - could you still pause on that one actually, for a minute? (Laughter)RB: It

21、s a tough job, isnt it?CA: I mean, it is a tough job. (Laughter) When I first came to America, I used to try this with employees as well and they kind of - they have these different rules over here, its very strange.RB: I know, I have - the lawyers say you mustnt do things like that, but -CA: I mean

22、, speaking of which, tell us about -RB: Pammy we launched, you know - mistakenly thought we could take on Coca-Cola, and we launched a cola bottle called The Pammy and it was shaped a bit like Pamela Anderson. But the trouble is, it kept on tipping over, but - (Laughter)CA: Designed by Philippe Star

23、ck perhaps?RB: Of course.CA: So, well just run a couple more pictures here. Virgin Brides. Very nice. And, OK, so stop there. This was - you had some award I think?RB: Yeah, well, 25 years earlier, wed launched the Sex Pistols God Save The Queen, and Id certainly never expected that 25 years later -

24、 that shed actually knight us. But somehow, she must have had a forgetful memory, I think.CA: Well, God saved her and you got your just reward. Do you like to be called Sir Richard, or how?RB: Nobodys ever called me Sir Richard. Occasionally in America, I hear people saying Sir Richard and think the

25、res some Shakespearean play taking place. But nowhere else anyway.CA: OK. So can you use your knighthood for anything or is it just .RB: No. I suppose if youre having problems getting a booking in a restaurant or something, that might be worth using it.CA: You know, its not Richard Branson. Its Sir

26、Richard Branson.RB: Ill go get the secretary to use it.CA: OK. So lets look at the space thing. I think, with us, weve got a video that shows what youre up to, and Virgin Galactic up in the air. (Video) So thats the Bert Rutan designed spaceship?RB: Yeah, itll be ready in - well, ready in 12 months

27、and then we do 12 months extensive testing. And then 24 months from now, people will be able to take a ride into space.CA: So this interior is Philippe Starcke designed?RB: Philippe has done the - yeah, quite a bit of it: the logos and hes building the space station in New Mexico. And basically, hes

28、 just taken an eye and the space station will be one giant eye, so when youre in space, you ought to be able to see this massive eye looking up at you. And when you land, youll be able to go back into this giant eye. But hes an absolute genius when it comes to design.CA: But you didnt have him desig

29、n the engine?RB: Philippe is quite erratic, so I think that he wouldnt be the best person to design the engine, no.CA: He gave a wonderful talk here two days ago.RB: Yeah? No, he is a -CA: Well, some people found it wonderful, some people found it completely bizarre. But, I personally found it wonde

30、rful.RB: Hes a wonderful enthusiast, which is why I love him. But .CA: So, now, youve always had this exploration bug in you. Have you ever regretted that?RB: Many times. I mean, I think with the ballooning and boating expeditions weve done in the past. Well, I got pulled out of the sea I think six

31、times by helicopters, so - and each time, I didnt expect to come home to tell the tale. So in those moments, you certainly wonder what youre doing up there or -CA: What was the closest you got to - when did you think, this is it, I might be on my way out?RB: Well, I think the balloon adventures were

32、 - each one was, each one, actually, I think we came close. And, I mean, first of all we - nobody had actually crossed the Atlantic in a hot air balloon before, so we had to build a hot air balloon that was capable of flying in the jet stream, and we werent quite sure, when a balloon actually got into the jet stream, whether it would actually survive the 200, 220 miles an hour winds that you can find up there. And so, just the initial lift off from Sugarloaf to