Richard Branson is the most shameless name-dropper I've come across in the history of this column (and this writer has come across a fair number of this type, business gurus being the way they are).
That said, Branson does poke fun at himself for this tendency, albeit in the manner of an aristocrat who might comically yell 'Get orrf my land!' across a field - bellowed in an exaggerated yokel-farmer accent, to both humour and impress visitors to his country mansion. The message is clear - it's still his land, and he wants you to know it. And so it is with Branson. He'll get his hubris across, even with the pretence of having his tongue in his cheek.
In this amorphous and somewhat autobiographical proposal for a new world economic order, he name-checks most of his high-profile friends, including actress Kate Winslet, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Queen Elizabeth II, the Dalai Lama, singers Mick Jagger and Phil Collins, and US President Barack Obama.
Well, two can play at that game. When I interviewed Britain's most famous entrepreneur for a Japanese publication a few years ago, I found him to be a gracious, kind and funny soul. It's almost impossible to dislike Branson. And, person-to-person, I also learned what his secret is.
I noticed that he treated everyone with respect and courtesy. And I mean everyone. The hack (me), the photographer, his flunkies, the Virgin airlines staff at Chek Lap Kok airport. Rival British Airways staff, too. By the time the interview was over, I was so awed by his charisma and charm that I contemplated asking Branson for a job with the Virgin Group then and there.
Unfortunately, the magic of Branson does not translate well onto the printed page. Principally, this is because he's not much of a writer. His prose is repetitive and inelegant. As for the message of this book, it's a basic and well-timed manifesto for a more ethical way of doing business.
Branson enthusiastically endorses socially responsible business practices - and in a way that would engage even the stoniest-hearted exploiter of child-labour. It's palpably New Age in its appeal to end the self-destructive behaviours that consumers and businesses are engaged in today.