After having had the opportunity to visit Sir Richard Branson at his Necker Island home previously, Stuart and I were delighted to be invited by Virgin Australia to welcome him to our own home town of Brisbane this week.
Richard was in town to launch the new Virgin lounge facilities at Brisbane Airport, a location that feels almost like a second home to us with one or both of us passing through it on average at least once a week. With his schedule running like clockwork and a large media contingent – not to mention the Queensland Premier – awaiting him, it was a very brief catch up and certainly didn’t allow time for he and Stuart to defend their unbroken run of victorious doubles partnerships, but it was lovely to see him before he took the stage to participate in the formalities.
Notwithstanding our admiration for the man we consider to be the ultimate inspiration for entrepreneurs, this isn’t the only reason we’ve chosen Virgin Australia as our airline of choice.
I’m sure by now regular readers would be well aware of just how important business culture is to Stuart and I, and we are really passionate about working with and supporting other businesses that we feel best align with our cultural values. This saw us make the switch to flying with Virgin many years ago, long before we had the opportunity to meet Richard himself, with the Epic leadership team all joining us in that transition.
We’ve recently taken this a step further, with the remainder of the businesses within the Icon Consolidated Holdings group also making the jump across. Working with the Virgin Australia team, whether it be our Account Managers in their corporate office or any of the friendly faces we encounter in airports and on planes as we travel around Australia feels really similar to our interactions with our own team members, reinforcing that feeling of cultural alignment.
I think it’s important to clarify that while we obviously do have a commercial relationship with Virgin Australia, this is an unsolicited and non-remunerated post, just as all my other posts are. I use this space to write about the things and topics that I’m passionate about, and to share the back story behind why we do the things we do and why we make the decisions that we make.
We’re incredibly happy to be Virgins, and look forward to logging many more air miles with them in our travels around the country and internationally as the group’s footprint continues to grow.