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something about the state of business when people are surprised that I walk into a room and eat a sandwich with them.

The best Virgin manager is someone who cares about people and who is genuinely interested and wants to bring out the best in them. A manager should basically be a considerate person who is as interested in the switchboard operator and the person who cleans the lavatories as he or she is in the fellow managers . In my view, a boss who is willing to party with all of their people – and pay attention to their personal concerns – has the makings of a great leader.

They will earn their colleagues' loyalty and trust, for a start. But just as important, they will make friends. Remember what I said earlier, about business being, first and foremost, about concern? Business is not something you can stand away from. So it hardly surprises me that, over the years, I've befriended the people I've worked with, and found business to do with my friends.

It saddens me how rare it is that people want to go on holiday with the people they work with. When I work with people, I really want to get to know them personally. I want to meet their families, their children, I want to know their weaknesses and their strengths, and above all I want them to know mine. That way, we can do more together.

It can go wrong. I remember there was one situation many, many years ago when a very close friend came to run a division of Virgin. We were both so happy about it. Then, a little while later, his life was thrown into turmoil and some of the other managers were coming to me to say that he wasn't working out. I had to persuade him that he was trying to deal with too much and that he should step down. It was a really difficult moment, and it put a massive strain on our friendship. But the fact is we were friends, we dealt with the problem the way friends do, and we stayed close. Attending the twenty-first birthday of his triplets, I felt thankful that, at Virgin, we had found a way to factor friendship and decency into our internal dealings, which had saved this friendship. I know it makes us happier; and I believe strongly that it benefits our work.

Across the whole Virgin Group, we encourage people to take ownership of the issues that they confront in their working lives. In a service-led industry especially, this kind of attitude pays huge dividends. I think if people are properly and regularly recognised for their initiative, then the business has to flourish. Why? Because it's their business; an extension of their personality. They have a stake in its success .

Herb Kelleher of Southwest Airlines in the US once said: 'It's difficult to change someone's attitude – so hire for attitude and train for skill.' I've talked a little bit about what I look for in people, but there's one key quality I haven't mentioned yet, and this might surprise some people: it's discipline.

In his book Good to Great , the business guru Jim Collins says all companies have a culture but few have 'a culture of discipline'. This doesn't mean that people are tied to a tree and whipped if they don't work well, or have their wages docked if they're five minutes late. It's not that kind of discipline I'm talking about. It is to do with having disciplined people. And we have disciplined people right across our Virgin businesses. After all, if you're going to let people get on with and even develop their jobs, you need people you can trust.

Some people are a bit startled when I sing the praises of self-discipline, and I think it's because they associate self-discipline with formality, with rigid thinking – with a slave-like, machine-like devotion to duty.

They have in mind an airline pilot. The pilot sits down in the cockpit surrounded by an array of complicated computers and gauges. Step by step, the pilot and his co-pilot begin their preflight checks. It is disciplined and methodical. Then, before take-off, the pilot speaks to air traffic control, and,