Meet Holly Branson, Chief Purpose and Vision Officer at Virgin

Rupert Dean, CEO and Co-Founder of x+why sat down with member, Holly Branson. Holly is the chief purpose and vision officer at Virgin, working across all Virgin companies and prospective new companies to spearhead innovative people, purpose and culture related projects. Holly is also chair of Virgin Unite and founder and Trustee of Big Change and patron of Virgin Money Giving. And if that wasn't enough, Holly has also written a book the WEconomy, has broken several world records, and like the rest of the Branson team, loves nothing more than a challenge.

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They talk about the challenges of the past 12 months, and in particular Holly’s thoughts on, and experiences of, the pandemic period,  what it means for the future of work, and why putting people, purpose and culture at the heart of your business is a killer strategy for success.

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Rupert:
Holly, first of all, what we like to do with all our guests is start off by discussing how you have fared during the pandemic - i’m sure you have had ups and downs just like everybody else.  But how have you coped and maintained your mental health during this tricky period?

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Holly:
So it has been tough. I think it's been tough for everyone, and everyone's had their different issues. I know mine were particularly having three young children, I've got two six year olds and a two year old. And that was really difficult at times. I know you probably felt the same with your three as well. Trying to juggle homeschool, full-time working, entertaining children, and just sort of the day-to-day of life was really, really difficult to begin with. And I have to say that I definitely called on friends and family just to talk to. That was my way of getting through it, just to realise, we're not alone. There were loads and loads of people in the same sort of boat. You could learn tips and tricks from other people about how to entertain a two year old while you're trying to homeschool.

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So I think that was my main issue. And I think my other one to begin with was fear. I think we all had this unknown heading towards us, and there was that massive fear of whether our family or our friends going to be all right. And I know for me I got quite addicted to the news cycle. Sitting at home all day, with the TV on in the background, once the kids were out the room or in bed. I know that got me really down. So, I ended up putting a sort of rule in place where I wasn't allowed to just watch the news every evening because it was getting quite upsetting to watch. Fortunately, I was really lucky, most of my friends and family all got through, if they did get COVID, they all got through it. And I think you suddenly realised that health is really the most important thing in life. My grandmother sadly died of it, but she had lived the most amazing life and was 96, and it was a really sad time. But fortunately, everybody else I've known has pulled through.

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And finally, I think the other thing was just working out how to do this all day long Zoom calling without getting burnt out. At the very beginning, it was literally back to back to back to back with no break. I wasn't finding the time to leave the house. You'd suddenly get up four days later and you'd be like, oh my God, I haven't walked out my front door in four days, this is crazy. Now, I've got very good at putting the boundaries in.

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Rupert:
And did you (and are you still) just put tracksuit bottoms on, with makeup and a smart jumper, or do you actually fully wake up, and get into the spirit, smartly dressed?

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Holly:
I'm in tracky bottoms always normally anyway, so that didn't change much! I'm quite into my casual look.  So, no, that didn't change much at all. But I do think there was some positives, and actually, I love thinking about positives. There were a lot of positives that came out of the situation. Once you got into the routine of it all, I loved having breakfast, lunch and dinner with Freddy and the kids every day. That was something that I hadn't done. I loved not traipsing across London to loads of meetings that could be done on the phone or now I've learned that can be done online. There are definitely positives that we've got to try and take away from it that we don't sort of all slip back into the old way of doing things because there are definitely some bits that I've really enjoyed.

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Rupert:

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I think you're absolutely right about appreciating being able to spend time with your kids that you never normally would. It can sometimes feel like quite a long day, surrounded by your partner and kids - but overall it’s great!  I think what you said about social media is so true - it’s too easy to fall into total overload on information real time, in particular Twitter.  Another challenge knowing what to believe and what to take with a pinch of salt I guess?

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Holly:

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I agree, We had a lot of businesses that were really struggling at the beginning of COVID.  And so hearing everyone's personal opinion playing out over that time, whilst we were trying so hard to save a business, was really difficult.  Especially as you were looking at these people, talking their truth, but also saying things that simply weren’t true - with social media playing the role of spreading all these untruths. But again, you've got to work out ways to mitigate your exposure, you have to put yourself first when it comes to stuff like that, and I just started to stop looking at it all.

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Rupert:

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Yeah, I think that's true. So you've touched on Virgin there and I guess negative media coverage, but as a highly progressive brand, that thinks about its employees a lot, I’m guessing Virgin also fared better than many other companies during this period. How did Virgin go about ensuring the mental wellbeing of their employees?

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Holly:

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I think what really stood us in good stead to begin with is that our people always come first, and it's always been like that even pre-pandemic. So when this pandemic hit back in March last year, we knew first and foremost, we had to be thinking how to help people get through this. Overnight, everyone was pretty much working from home. So there were the little things, very vitally important things, like making sure people had a setup that they could work with - the right computer, the right chairs so they weren't going to get injured. And then just also really putting the mental wellbeing of our people right at the top of the agenda.

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We put in lots of different mental wellbeing programs on our intranet to make sure people could access those. We were checking in, and in fact everyone was checking in on each other, and not just about the person that is employed by Virgin, but their family members, do they have anyone that's unwell with COVID? How are they coping with children at home? Are they caring for people that they didn't used to have to care for now? I think you just had to get the real full picture of what was happening in everyone's lives. And then we really looked at all our policies. It sounds really boring but your people policies are really important. We had to sort of make sure that our bereavement policy was up to scratch. I mean, really sadly, we knew quite quickly that people were going to lose loved ones.  We wanted to ensure we had policies in place which really put the person first and foremost.

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“I think what really stood us in good stead to begin with is that our people always come first, and it’s always been like that even pre-pandemic. So when this pandemic hit back in March last year, we knew first and foremost, we had to be thinking how to help people get through this. ”

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— Holly Branson

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I know a lot of companies’ people policies can be really dry and really boring, but they're so important because you have just got to make sure that everyone knows where to access them, everyone knows what they're entitled to. And if you support families first and foremost when the worst is happening, I think then it'll be a bit easier to get through it all. They're the main things, but the big one as always is put your people absolutely first.

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Rupert:

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And how much do you think there'll be some permanent changes at Virgin from that perspective? Do you think those changes will last?

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Holly:

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Yeah, I do actually. I think quite a lot of the stuff that's come out of this will stay. We're working out the detail at the moment. We don't want to make any hard and fast rules before life gets a bit more back to normal, but we would just love all of our people to be able to work from where they think they can do their best work. And there's sort of different types of work, there's the sort of teamwork stuff where you have to be with others, and then there's the much more sort of head down focused work that you can do from home. But we've always been a really flexible company, we've really believed in fully flexible working. If you want to drop your kid off from school, absolutely. If you want to go to the gym, do it in your own time during working hours and then come back, we've always been like that, really flexible.

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So I don't think there's going to be a huge amount of change when it comes to where people work from because we've always believed that you don't have your work life and your home life, we've always wanted people to have just life, and that's really important. But what I do think might happen is those people that never used to think that they could do it, those people that used to always come to the office five days a week because they didn't think it would work for them, they might now be a bit more flexible with the way that they work.

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And then the other thing that I really hope is I'm a big believer in shared parental leave, where a husband can take some of the wife's maternity leave and be at home with kids. But that's a really cultural nut to crack - lots of men don't feel that they should be doing it, could be doing it. And I'm hoping after this time with everyone being at home for so long, that men have got much more into the shared aspect of bringing up kids and realise how rewarding it is, and realise how special it is. I just hope many more men will take shared parental leave now. And I think that would be so amazing for workplace culture, would be so amazing for female equity in the workplace. I just think it would be so amazing for men's mental wellbeing as well.

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Rupert:
Yes I agree with that. I think it's becoming increasingly normal, isn't it?  It's definitely always written up in the handbooks that I've seen, it's now just a case of ensuring fathers want to do it, and there is no, as you say, negative cultural feedback.

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Holly:
We've definitely got a culture where we fully promote it. We really try really hard at Virgin. And I really think most people would look at us and think, yeah, it must be a company where you've got a really high uptake. But we don't, and it's something that I'm really trying to push. The men that do take it, we make sure that they write about it, talk about it, and they come back and they just share how positive the experience has been.

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Rupert:
And what other changes did you see over the past year, that you hope will stick around?

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Holly:
I don't know about you, but with online or Zoom or and Teams calls, at the beginning, we were seeing hour long meetings back to back to back. We now make sure that everyone only does a 45 minute meeting. So at least you've got 15 minutes to go to the loo and get a cup of tea and do all those

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Rupert:
Does that work? I find like my time-keeping on meetings has gotten worse! I always find that online calls seem to drag…

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Holly:
We are strict with it. We have a strict 45 minutes. Everyone needs that 15 minutes to either sum up the meeting or prepare for the next or go to the loo, get a cup of tea, give their little toddler a cuddle, all those things that are just needed, you can't sit at your desk all day. I hope that stays when we go back to a more normal working life. I really hope meetings don't need to be an hour long. You also don't need to traipse to so many different places if you're meeting external people. I think we've all learned that actually time management is so vitally important. Doing stuff that makes you feel great, going to the gym, spending time with your family, going for a walk, meeting friends for a coffee, - you can gain so much more time if you're not commuting across London.

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Rupert:
That’s so true. I think someone coined it as ‘asymptomatic working’, which is this idea that you don't need to sit at a desk from 8:30 to 5:30, that actually you can go to the gym when you want, you can drop the kids off at school.  Thankfully work has become output driven now, and so long as you are able to join various phone calls when you need to, no-one really cares that much about when or where you do your work.  At x+why we are really supporting the idea that there's no need to go to the office just to sit at a desk either, that actually you go in for a reason, for intentional working, whether that's collaboration or project work or fun or mentorship, or anything like that. I think that's one of the biggest changes.

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I think that Virgin has always been one of the standard bearers in this respect -  The idea of coming into the office for a reason, taking holiday when you need it, shared parental leave, all of that sort of stuff, you guys have always been at the forefront of it. It's very impressive.

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“We have, but it’s all about, again, just putting your people first. If you put your people first and make sure you’re thinking about them as a whole person, them as a human, not them as your office worker, then these policies come really easily, and you can really think of some great things that make life much more enjoyable for people.”

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— Holly Branson

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Holly:
People were properly burning out at the beginning of the pandemic as all office workers were sitting at home on computers all day and crunching a lot of numbers because things were not going well. And so, we've now instigated Friday afternoons off to just give everybody that time to just breathe

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Rupert:
So no calls on a Friday afternoon?

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Holly:
Hopefully no work on a Friday afternoon.

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Rupert:
So no work at all, all Friday afternoons off?

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Holly:
Friday afternoons off, to say a big thank you for all the hard work that everyone put in the last year. And that's been going well. Obviously, things crop up sometimes, people have to continue working a bit, but we've really tried to put it in everyone's diary. Block it out so everyone can see that, they should hopefully be doing what they want to be doing that time.

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Rupert:
It's really interesting, isn't it? You get your culture right, you put people first, put people in purpose at the heart of what you do. You just end up succeeding - your people are much happy, you get the best people, I suppose productivity improves, morale is better. When you talk about it, it's a lot easier than sometimes the practical realities of it.

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From a business perspective you've spoken to lots of really interesting people during this period, I know that you've done a lot of podcasts yourself and you've interviewed a lot of interesting people, and particularly voices of leadership. What would have been some of the observations and discussions you've had on people and businesses over this period?

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Holly:
Yeah, I've been really lucky. I've gotten to speak to loads of people. I took on a new role last October, chief purpose and vision officer. I've been on a bit of a learning journey talking to Virgin companies and non-Virgin companies and leaders and startups, founders of startups, like lots of people from Virgin Startup are not-for-profit. So I've been really lucky. I've loved it. I've learned and listened to loads of people. And what's been really interesting is that everyone's had really similar challenges, no matter if you are a big global company or you're startup. You've had really similar issues over the last 12 months just at slightly different scales.

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And what's really come through and what's been so amazing to see is that the UK is just built on entrepreneurship. We knew that beforehand, but I've just seen it now, how we have the most amazing founders and startups and businesses that keep this country going. And it's been difficult for them. They've had to be innovative, they've had to pivot, they've had to think about different ways of doing things. But lots of people who did that quickly have really thrived. You've had pubs and restaurants and bars going online, new ways of doing takeout. You've had gyms doing their online classes. You've had airlines having to think about how they can do cargo routes. I know at Virgin Atlantic, that was one of their big things - upping their cargo because there were no passengers.  And also, something that made me feel so proud, was transporting PPE and all the different essentials that different countries needed at different points in the pandemic.

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It’s all been so heart-warming to see and to hear. I'm sure you might have seen it at x+why, your startups having to think of different things to do with their factories, like making hand sanitiser or something instead of the main thing that they were doing before.

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Rupert:
We've seen a lot of people ‘pivoting’,  lots of business plans changing, lots of people doing it so fast as well, which is always the impressive thing.

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I'm also really excited about, and you mentioned it there, the birth of so many new startups that are coming up out of this. I guess that's as a result of changes to society as a result of the pandemic, but perhaps also, I wonder whether it's things like furlough and the fact that people have had more time and motivation to put their energy into a job or an idea or.a business that they have been thinking about for a while. Thinking '“I've always had this idea and now I'm going to put it into a business plan and I'm going to go to places like Virgin Startup and try and get involved in those sorts of communities.”

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And I think those virtual communities of startups and new businesses are really flourishing now. They are huge. Virgin Startups is a massive community, isn't it?. And they're all just incredible.

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Holly:
We've just supported our 4000th founder, which is just phenomenal. And they are a community and they will stick together and they will talk with each other, and it's so great they have each other to lean on.

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Rupert:
And I love the way there's common themes as well with all of that - thinking about people, but also planet and purpose and what it means, and having a reason for being beyond pure profit. And some of those ideas are genuinely really inspiring. Whenever I speak to you, you've always sort of come across an interesting business and I always love talking to you about the latest one that's popped up, they're always great.

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Holly:
When you talk about purpose, I think that's another thing that's really shone through - A lot of the businesses that are founded now are starting with a purpose, a ‘why’, why is that business being set up? And I think it has really helped people through the pandemic because yes, the product that you were originally creating might not necessarily be connecting with people now, but if you think about your purpose and can pivot, as you say, that lovely word, if you stick with why you're doing something, the purpose of why you're doing it, it really helps you get through these really difficult times.

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“I think that also businesses are realising they’re part of a bigger ecosystem, it’s not just the business, it’s not just your product, but what can you do for your community, what can you do for the planet at the same time. And how cool if every company in the world was trying to solve big issues, there might not be any more issues left.”

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— Holly Branson

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Rupert:
One of the things that Digby, CEO of a company called Feast It, spoke to me about was the best bit of advice that he got during the pandemic.  Now he runs a catering events business, so, not great during a global pandemic and lockdown, but he was saying that the most important question that his chairman asked him right at the beginning was, ‘will there still be a market for your product at the end of this? If the answer is yes, then you’ve just got to do what you can to survive, and then you'll bounce back better and bigger and stronger and more inspired than ever’. I thought that was a really interesting piece of advice. Is it still relevant to business today?

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Holly:
I absolutely hope it will be. And I think that's the thing, there were companies that were able to pivot, and then there were ones that just weren't like festivals, entertainment spaces, that sort of stuff that, I mean, really difficult for them to keep going. But I think now hopefully when everything unlocks at the end of July, I think all of us have an obligation to try and go and help those people out. They've always been there when we needed escapism, when we needed to go and go to a gig or go and do stuff with our friends. And I think now we need to all make an effort to put some money back into those businesses.

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Rupert:
Yeah, I totally agree. I don't think there's any issues coming from my side on that. Hollz, just talking about some of those changes, what do you hope are the permanent changes? Do you hope that companies consider their ‘why’ and consider people and planet? Do you think that's going to take off and do you think that's a permanent change? Any other kind of permanent changes from a business perspective that you predict? Hopefully, we're not going to be on Zoom calls all the time!

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Holly:
I think you know the answer to that. I absolutely do believe that businesses will thrive if they think about their purpose and their ‘why’ and what they can do for their people and the community and the planet. I think that's the future of business, I really do. It's been bubbling up for the last 15 years, well, longer than that. I generally think my dad started Virgin 50 years ago with purpose at its heart. But it's become much more formalised in the last 15 years and people are actually writing down their purpose and working how they can drive towards it. And also in teaching everyone that works for their companies, how they individually can make a difference.  There’s no point having a big, overarching purpose that no one understands. You've got to really make sure that every individual knows how they can personally make a difference.

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I do think that's going to happen. I do think it's happening already. So many of our startups and Virgin startup are all purpose-driven. And as I said, it's helped them during the pandemic.

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I have a good example of when you actually really think about your community instead of just your people and your customers and your shareholders, how important that can be, and actually how fundamental it can be for creating really good relationships with your people and your customers.

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Virgin Media was starting up a new partnership with another charity. And so they went out to their people and their customers and said, what do you think is really important for us as a business? And they came back to saying loneliness and community. And what they did is a little bit of research, which showed that one in five of their customers was an unpaid carer, and that amounted to 1.2 million people, and 58% of those were lonely. So they decided to go to Carers UK and form a five-year partnership with Carers UK, which is going to be absolutely amazing. They're trying to get one million more connections between carers. And they've also given every one of their employees five paid volunteer days a year. And so, that amounts to 450,000 working hours.

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And this is just one company, a big company, but one company who is making a massive difference to the community in the areas that they work across the whole of the UK. And I just think if you're a small company, go small, what's in your community, what works well with your own personal business, how can you help? And if you're a bigger company, go big. And by doing that, we can make such a difference.

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Rupert:
Totally agree.  Holly, you're super busy. You've got this new role at Virgin, you're a mum and full time adventurer, what's going on next? What's the next thing, you've always got something kind of tucked up your sleeve that always gets announced, and then we just call you crazy, and then you go ahead and do it anyway. What's next?

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Holly:
Sadly, lots of our big events have been cancelled, like the big Strive events that we do for charities, our foundation. That's been quite sad because we were meant to go off to Bhutan in October to go and do a 10 day hike all through the mountains there, and also because they've got some amazing well-being policies for their country in Bhutan. So we were going to go and learn about those. It's not completely cancelled,  we're going to do it again next year, but that was my big event that I had been focusing on for this year, which is a shame. So I am actually going to have to come up with some others. I have to say, I'm a little bit swamped with kids and work.

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Rupert:
Yeah. Yeah, it's enough for most, it's enough for most!  And so, just talk a little bit about Strive though, because I think it’s been just outrageously successful.  You're still planning for the next Strive event all the time, right?

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Holly:
Absolutely. They're brilliant. So my brother and myself, Princess Beatrice, and some friends set up Big Change in the UK about 10 years ago now.

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Rupert:
Following a very successful marathon challenge, wasn't it?

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Holly:
It very much was. We broke the world record for the most amount of people tied together to do a marathon, which was just incredible. So, after that, we decided that we wanted to do more. We set up Big Change, which focuses on helping young people in the UK thrive in life, not just in exams, because our education system at the moment I think is a bit broken, where we put much emphasis on standardised testing, and we don't put emphasis on the whole child. It's a bit like in the office, you've got to put an emphasis on the whole person, not just your employee. And I think children really need to be thought of as whole people, not just their academic self.

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So, we do lots of different projects in the UK. We have a part of Big Change, which is all about re-imagining education. So we bring in thought leaders across all areas from business to politics to education itself on how we could do things differently. But the main way we raise money is through our Strives. So we put people in quite difficult situations, whether that be cycling the length of Italy, whether that be swimming from Italy to Sicily, just amazing big challenges that we do because we think that the life skills you learn during those challenges and the life skills we want kids to learn at school. And then people fundraise. And we've raised a lot of money, millions of pounds over the years from doing these events. And they're great, and anyone can sign up to them.

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So we've got one coming up in Bhutan, as I just said, and there's a few others that are in the pipeline too. The most difficult one I did, I did the core team and I went from the peak of Italy to Sicily all under human power. It was like a three and a half week physical trip. It's the most difficult thing I've ever done, but just you come away just loving it. You're like that success at the end when you've completed something you never thought you'd be able to compete. And I also felt so fit. It was amazing. I want to get back to that fitness again, it was just so great feeling that.

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Rupert:
That sense of accomplishment, and then the kids at the finish line, and you just think, wow, yeah, I've done it. I've done it. Hollz, you're an inspiration. And thank you so much for coming for chatting to me, I really, really appreciate it. It's so inspiring to hear what Virgin are doing and what you're up to. So thank you, and we'll speak soon.
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Holly:
Yeah, we'll speak soon. I really enjoyed it. Thank you very much. I just want to have one last thing is that, like permanent changes, I have to say I think lots of people will not be in big offices, but they might be in co-working spaces from now on. I think that could be on the up. You know quite a lot about that, don't you?

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Rupert:
Hopefully I know, I know more than most! Thanks, Holly. We'll see you soon. You're a legend. Bye.

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If you would like to hear the live interview check out the podcast below

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2.3. The power of putting people and purpose at the heart of your business, with Holly BransonRupert talks to Chief Purpose and Vision Officer at Virgin about the challenges of the past 12 months, covering Holly’s experiences of the pandemic period, what it means for the future of work, and why putting people, purpose and culture at the heart of your business is a killer strategy for success.

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