Companies Stifle Intrapreneurs At Their Own Risk

 Companies Stifle Intrapreneurs At Their Own Risk

Company CEO Holds Drawing for His Salary

For most people, a salary is a number negotiated at the start of their career. The amount is specific to what they can do for the company, how hard they work and negotiate, and how much value that person brings to the company. For Richard Branson of Virgin Group, he is not so lucky on this front. In his latest blog post he reveals that he has agreed to let his employees determine his yearly earnings by holding a “lottery” of sorts.

The salary will be determined by an American lottery held annually in Las Vegas called “The World Lottery Association” that Mr. Branson has been involved with for quite some time. For three years, he has negotiated to allow his employees to determine his lottery number that is used in the annual drawing.

The result? He will earn whatever dollar amount comes up on the wheel for the next year. The only stipulation is that he is allowed to cap his loss and winnings at a total of $45,000.

He admits the process may seem bizarre, but it actually helps him streamline a number of other things that might cause him problems throughout the year, and certainly helps keep him from making impulsive or irresponsible decisions throughout the year.

The lottery drawing is held in Las Vegas by Mr. Branson, who runs the Virgin Group out of Sir Richard’s House in England and Virgin Hotels & Resorts worldwide. The results are then pooled to determine his next year’s pay.

Mr. Branson goes on to explain that he is not only opening up his personal life for employee scrutiny, but is also doing so with the expectation that there will be some backlash as well. He admits this as a way for him to gauge employee sentiment before making decisions regarding Virgin’s future direction, knowing full well that there will be plenty of people upset if their CEO wins the lottery again by another huge amount of money.

So far the annual lottery has served him well. In 2013, he won $390,000. That was out of a possible $1 million dollar win in March 2014 during the company’s holiday party in Vegas. The money was used to buy new games for Virgin hotels and offset his previous losses over the course of that year’s lottery drawing.

While some might suggest such a lottery is foolish and reckless, others are taking note of this novel way to better understand corporate employees’ opinion on a variety of pressing issues. In fact, it seems that Mr. Branson is actually using the lottery as a way to help him better understand employee’s grievances, while also giving them the chance to win cash prizes or other items at Virgin Hotels & Resorts worldwide.

While others might criticize such a process, Mr. Branson seems to embrace it as his way of understanding his company and employees better. In an industry where keeping staff is a huge challenge, having such access to employee opinions and sentiments has its merits. And having an “outside the box” approach like this might allow you to stay ahead of the curve in understanding how your employees feel about your company, your decision making and more importantly, about their own workplace happiness.

Sources: http://www.virgin.com/richardbransononline/2013/12/13/annual-lotto-drawing-win-salary-company-ceo

http://news.virgingroup.com/?p=137926

http://news.virgingroup. com/?p=157733

http://news.virgingroup.com/?p=157736

https://www.linkedin.com/company-beta/1070044?trk=tyah&trkInfo=idx:1-1-29,tarId:14524077651074355888,tas:virgin-hotels&trk=tyah&trkInfo=tarIdList%3A14524077651074355888%2Ctas%3Avirgin-hotels

http://www.virgin .com/richardbransononline/2014/05/18/lotto-win-annual-drawing

http://www.virgin.com/richardbransononline/2014/02/19/win-1million

http://www.virgin.com

https://www.linkedin

Conclusion: I think that the CEO of a company should be able to say what he wants, but unless he's doing it in a "mature" fashion, or if he is an owner of the company (the same as Richard Branson) then I think that it would be impolite for him to do so. But yet good for him for having this idea and making it work out according to his liking.

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http://www.virgingroup...