Non-fiction: Screw Business as Usual

Overview
Richard Branson’s Screw Business as Usual is a manifesto-memoir that argues business should put solving social and environmental problems at the center of strategy. Drawing on decades of building Virgin and on ventures sparked through the foundation Virgin Unite, he maps a shift from old-school, shareholder-first capitalism to a model where doing good drives innovation, loyalty, and profit. The tone is energetic and anecdotal, blending boardroom stories with field notes from projects tackling poverty, climate change, and health.

Core Idea
The book’s central claim is that purpose is not a charitable add-on but the engine of durable advantage. Branson urges leaders to move beyond bolt-on corporate social responsibility toward embedding the “people, planet, profit” lens in products, operations, and culture. He contends markets can direct talent and capital toward solutions if entrepreneurs attack broken incentives, expose hidden costs, and make better choices simpler and cheaper. The provocation “screw business as usual” is a call to question habits, short-termism, extractive supply chains, and box-ticking philanthropy, and to replace them with transparent, stakeholder-minded practices that compound returns over time.

Stories and Examples
Branson structures the argument around stories of businesses and social enterprises that turned constraints into innovations. He highlights companies that reduce waste and pollution and win on cost and brand, and retailers that link growth to fairer sourcing. He points to micro-entrepreneurs creating jobs with small amounts of capital and to founders who redesign entire categories by aligning product value with social value. From energy efficiency to fair trade, the examples show advantage flowing to those who internalize impacts and treat communities and suppliers as long-term partners.

His own initiatives illustrate the approach. Virgin Unite convenes unlikely allies, entrepreneurs, investors, nonprofits, scientists, to remove barriers that keep proven solutions from scaling. The Carbon War Room focuses on market failures that slow decarbonization and seeks to unlock investment by improving data, standards, and incentives in sectors such as shipping and buildings. Branson also recounts Virgin’s experiments to cut footprint in travel and aviation, positioning sustainability as an innovation challenge rather than a compliance cost.

Putting Purpose to Work
A recurring theme is practicality. Branson urges leaders to start where they have leverage: product design, procurement, logistics, and customer experience. He favors measurable, systemic changes, smarter energy use, circular materials, ethical sourcing, inclusive hiring, over glossy campaigns. He champions “intrapreneurs” who hack bureaucracy to launch new social-impact products inside large firms, and he encourages partnerships that cross the usual borders between business, government, and civil society to align incentives and scale what works.

Leadership and Culture
Culture, he argues, is the multiplier. Empowered teams, tolerance for smart risk, and a habit of listening to frontline employees create the agility required to solve tough problems. Treating staff and suppliers well builds resilience and reputational capital that marketing budgets cannot buy. Branson ties purpose to brand, noting that customers increasingly reward companies whose actions match their claims, and he stresses transparency to guard against greenwashing and to keep learning loops honest.

Impact and Takeaways
The book blends optimism with urgency. The challenges, climate risk, inequality, fragile trust, are real, but so are the tools: entrepreneurial speed, open collaboration, and finance that prices long-term value. Branson closes with a pragmatic ethos: start small, measure relentlessly, scale what works, and keep asking how each decision can create shared benefit. The result is a readable blueprint for leaders and would-be founders who want to compete by solving problems and to prove, case by case, that doing good and doing well are the same game.