10-win value multiplication is the benchmark for transparent leadership in service and knowledge-networking economies. The aim is to multiply 5 primary sources of productivity and 5 of value demands by stakeholders so that the whole value dynamics of the human relationship system grows in each others’ interests. Such an organisational network is designed with sufficient communal trust and interpersonal learning to compound the most human value for everybody over time. This is a natural state whenever organisations grow fast and in a sustainable way, but one that also gets harder to achieve the longer and the bigger an organisation gets.

Finding a well known organisation that has lived up to 10-win multiplication over many years can be quite hard (please send in nominations for us to co-publish in our case library of world’s most inspiring organisations). Meanwhile, because Richard Branson’s Virgin company is quite openly known –and a company I have never consulted to - I will attempt to demonstrate how close Virgin got to 10-win multiplication

Let’s start with the 5-win of value demands:

V1) Employees. There seems little doubt Virgin employees value their airline more than any other international carrier. This is achieved through such human identification as careful employee brand selection procedures and strong conversational support by Branson -employee suggestion correspondence is always priority 1 for management communications.

V2) Customers. Over 20 years, I can testify to the fact that the employee-customer service interface has been more memorably enjoyable than any comparable service organisation.

V3) Owners. One of Branson’s biggest mistakes was to take Virgin public for a short time. He quickly learnt from the conflicts that short-term ownership demands started to make and took the company private again. Consequently, for most of Virgin Atlantic’s existence, the investment interests of Virgin have been wholly in tune with every other stakeholder.

V4) Business Partners. Branson has described his model as a sort of Western Keiretsu (the Japanese name for networks of organisations). Doubtless, we can imagine that Branson has infuriated some prospective partners who did not plan value in the same way that he did, but his model has always been attract others who have a greater value-delivering competence than the fat guys.

V5) Society. For most of the last 20 years, British society has rated Virgin as one of its 10 favourite and most responsible businesses

K1) Knowledge Worker. The individual is encouraged to make a difference within the purpose and values walked and talked by Virgin.

K2) Workgroups. One of Branson’s greatest open secrets is that his organisation is primarily run as a team based model. He has specifically said that he tries to ensure that no manager is ever responsible for more than 60 employees in any part of the organisation. Overall, this makes 360 degree learning appraisals relatively natural and we can be sure that the whole organisational design of Virgin would fall apart if it wasn’t excellent and multiplying learnings and behaviours across teams.

K3) Organisation. Virgin corporate identity is designed around the values of fun, youthful spirit of inquiry, service accomplishment and let’s sustain something better on cost and quality than less innovative companies. This make for an open culture which is both value transparent with stakeholder demands and emotionally intelligent in multiplying each productivity level.

K4) Network of organisations. Clearly partners fairly quickly find they have to match the Virgin pattern of values or look for a different network to participate in because this is a values set that is authenticated by doing. At the same time, Branson has enjoyed extending his bon viveur personality to allying with some niche brands (eg as partners in the top customer award schemes) of unusual individual dedication in their own right.

K5) Society’s Productivity. I know that modesty is a charge that is rarely made of Richard, yet I am not aware of him fully beating the drum on how much a great airline impacts the societies that it most intimately connects. At least he has been as vociferous on this recently as the CEOs of South West Airlines and RyanAir have done to name but two of the other airlines that have made my working day a little bit better. The productivity of modern society does depend hugely on safe, friendly, low cost transport systems - Virgin has played an honourable role in this enhancer of social and economic productivity.


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