Firms have to get over fear of failure

Companies need to ditch the fear of failure in order to drive forward innovation and disrupt existing markets, Sir Richard Branson's former right-hand man told a business audience in Leeds.
years of experience: Will Whitehorn was the former president of Virgin Galactic and spent decades working alongside Richard Branson. Picture: daniel oxtobyyears of experience: Will Whitehorn was the former president of Virgin Galactic and spent decades working alongside Richard Branson. Picture: daniel oxtoby
years of experience: Will Whitehorn was the former president of Virgin Galactic and spent decades working alongside Richard Branson. Picture: daniel oxtoby

Will Whitehorn, the former president of Virgin Galactic, spent decades working alongside the high profile entrepreneur.

Speaking at a KPMG Enterprise event, Mr Whitehorn urged businesses to take a bold approach when it comes to innovation.

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He said that while innovation and disruption had become buzzwords in recent years, neither concept is new citing historical examples ranging from Isambard Kingdom Brunel to Adam Smith’s interpretation of the concept.

“Innovation and disruption in their own right have nothing to do with technology,” the non-executive director at online estate agents Purplebricks said. “They have a lot to do with the idea of a business plan, the idea of a business.”

However, the pace of innovation has changed, Mr Whitehorn told the audience, especially with developments in space technology pushing the boundaries of innovation.

Mr Whitehorn said: “There’s nothing new about innovation, there’s nothing new about disruption.

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“What has changed is the pace of it and the pace of it is becoming frightening and very difficult for a lot of organisations to cope with it.”

The Scottish born executive joined Virgin in the 80s and he recollected his experiences of seeing Sir Richard build the mega brand that is globally recognised today.

He said not fearing failure played a key role in the company’s success.

“If there’s a constant fear of failure in any company it is not going to be innovative or disruptive,” Mr Whitehorn said. “You’ve got to try and get over a fear of failure and turn fear of failure into management of risk.

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“That doesn’t mean to say you should take stupid risks. That doesn’t mean to say a company should do stupid things.

“Whenever you want to innovate in any culture, in any business you have to think about being able to take that leap beyond your own imagination.”

Innovation needs infrastructure to succeed and there has never been an idea lacking precedence.

Mr Whitehorn said that the origins of Virgin Galactic’s spacecraft design could be traced back to the X-15 in the 1960s.

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He said: “One of the things that’s interesting about any innovation that you do is the fact there’s always a precedent for it.

“Every idea has been invented before. It’s just usually been done at a time when it didn’t work the first time round, usually because the infrastructure doesn’t work for the idea.”

Innovation exists within business plans he added. Mr Whitehorn said the success of Purplebricks was down to its business plan.

He said: “I joined this business when the two entrepreneurs who thought of the idea were in their infancy in terms of getting it going.

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“They’d built a hugely exciting platform for selling houses.

“We got a couple of marketeers and ex-Virgin people who built a marketing plan around it.”

The company has gone from start-up in 2014 to listing on the stock exchange in December 2015.

Mr Whitehorn said: “It’s all down to an incredibly innovative business plan. There’s nothing new about the technology.”

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AI and automation are the big things that people will be talking about over the next five years, Mr Whitehorn said.

“The revolution is absolutely upon us now,” he said. “You’re going to see in almost every new car you’re buying within two years the option to be virtually driverless.

“Volvo are leading it, Tesla are leading it, Land Rover are about to lead it and it will be something that increases the safety of our roads.”

Will Whitehorn’s talk was part of the Inspiring Speakers series hosted by KPMG Enterprise. The next event will feature Jo Fairley, co-founder of chocolate brand, Green & Black’s.

From helicopters to spaceships

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Will Whitehorn worked flying helicopters over the North Sea as a search and rescue crewman.

He became a graduate trainee with Thomas Cook.

“I had sat in the great and glamorous Thomas Cook branch in Croydon selling Virgin Atlantic tickets,” he said.

He ended up becoming the president of Virgin Galactic. But left the company in 2010 due to relocation of the testing area.

Mr Whitehorn said: “I left Virgin in 2010 just after we’d completed the spaceship, there was two reasons why I left. One was I didn’t want to go the United States, have to get a Green Card, become a US citizen and do the job full time and I wanted to do other things.

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“The things that came up were often related to things I’d done before.”

Mr Whitehorn is running a space satellite company called Clyde Space in Glasgow building 80 satellites a year.

“Britain is one of the world’s largest manufacturers of satellites, we have the second largest space industry in the world despite the fact we don’t launch any rockets at all in this country.”

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