There are a number of books about Branson, and they all underline that he's "not a detail person." As in, he literally doesn't understand what he's doing a lot of the time.
He's good at surrounding himself with competent people who make things happen. He's also good at sales - talking a good game, being charming and optimistic in front of the cameras, and getting people to put up money.
But after some early successes - especially the record company and recording studios - his record of delivery is mediocre, with not a few expensive failures.
With Branson everything is a front and not as solid as it appears to be, and he has a long list of former associates, clients, and partners who are not as impressed as they were initially.
That's not ideal for a conventional business. But when you're dealing with experimental aircraft full of rich people having a very risky adventure, the potential for disaster is spectacular.
People have already died on this project, and it looks as if it's only a matter of time before it literally blows up in someone's face in an extremely expensive way.
Mostly setup and then portions sold off, with Virgin licensing their name to the business.
Even before Covid, Virgin Atlantic is a real shit show financially with virtually everything (planes, landing slots etc) pledged as security for debt to some lender
Sorry, I don't have anything substantial to add to this. But I just had to react with a smiley :-).
It irks me people like Branson are blasé about faking something they don’t have to fake. He’s probably dedicated to the environment even if his activities and businesses aren’t friendly to the environment.
But just faking it like he really did it, he carried on with the ruse during his little speech too. Like, why?