Sir Richard Branson, founder of the Virgin Group and ambassador for the GREAT Britain campaign, tells us what he thinks is great about doing business in the UK.
Self-study activity:
Watch the video clip and complete the blanks in the transcript with the missing words. The activity is suitable for intermediate students.
I think it’s important to love what you’re doing, and therefore if you’re (1) ... a music company, it’s important to love music. If you’re (1) ... , you know, an arts company, it’s important to love the arts. There’s no point in just (1) ... businesses in order to make money or the business saying.
If you go back in history, you know, from Sir Francis Drake (2) ... , you know, we’ve had great explorers, great adventurers, in what British people have been good at is going and (3) ... globally, you know, it’s rare for European countries to have more than one airline. We’ve got, you know, quite a few airlines, whether it’s British Airways or Virgin Atlantic or Easy Jet. Mobile phones, we’ve done brilliantly in them, you know, (4) ... it’s Vodafone or little Virgin Mobile. Most motor sports companies are (5) ... in Britain, you know, they choose to be (5) ... here because we have the best engineers. You know, with the right team of people you can (6) ... pretty well anything and I think Britain has got that to offer.
I think a sense of humour is extremely important not to take yourself too seriously, not try to spend the lifetime trying to get these snipping ties of people and try to get them to relax a bit and let the (7) ... a bit because I think, you know, that’s appreciated.
One of the most important things about doing business in Britain is its (8) ... . It’s a society that people don’t feel very fortunate to have been born in and to live in and it’s got the right (9) ... to build the business in a secure way.
I’m very proud of being British, you know, I think there’s a lot to be proud about.
Richard Branson is also featured in this funny biographical ad on this blog.
Key:
1 setting up 2 onwards 3 trading 4 whether 5 based 6 achieve 7 hair down 8 integrity 9 environment
