Re‐storying and visualizing the changing entrepreneurial identities of Bill Gates and Richard Branson

Abstract

The storytelling in textual and visual re‐constructions of Bill Gates and Richard Branson by their organizations produces entrepreneurial identities bound into particular social power–knowledge relations. Our purpose is to examine how these organizations, and their critics, mobilize storytelling in acts of re‐storying (enlivening) or re‐narrating (branding a monologic) practices using Internet technologies to invite viewers to frame the world of entrepreneurship. We use visual discourse and storytelling methods to analyze how Microsoft and Virgin Group use various kinds of entrepreneurial images and textual narratives to re‐narrate and produce particular brands of capitalism. These organizations’ scoptic regimes of representation are contested in counter‐visualizing and counterstory practices of external stakeholders. We suggest that the image and textual practices of storytelling have changed as both entrepreneurs court philanthropic and social entrepreneur identity markers. Our contribution to entrepreneurial identity is to apply double and multiple narrations, the appropriation of another’s narrative words (or images) into another’s narrative, and relate such storytelling moves to visuality.

Keywords:

• narrative
• organizational storytelling
• re‐storying
• entrepreneurship
• entrepreneurial identity
• social entrepreneurship

Notes

1. There are times when the retired CEO badmouths the corporation and its product; this occurred in the case of Col. Sanders who did not appreciate the way the new owners interpreted quality and service.

2. Bill Gates, Chairman, Microsoft Corp. Published 30 May 2002. Updated 30 July 2007. http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/exec/billg/bio.mspx.

3. In this photo released by Virgin America, Pamela Anderson and Sir Richard Branson attend the celebration party for Virgin America’s first flight from San Francisco, CA, to Las Vegas, NV, 10 October 2007. www.thestar.com/printArticle/266348.

4. http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/exec/billg/gallery/default.mspx#EX

5. Branson Virgin Group bio photo. http://www.virgin.com/aboutvirgin/allaboutvirgin/whosrichardbranson/default.asp (accessed August 20, 2004).

6. The Billionaire (May 27, 2004). From FOX: ‘THE BILLIONAIRE’. http://www.realitytvcalendar.com/shows/richardsbigadventure.html (accessed August 21, 2004).

7. Storytelling about Bill Gates on Microsoft website: http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/exec/billg/bio.mspx

8. Scott S. Smith article in Entrepreneur Magazine – December 1999. http://www.entrepreneur.com/magazine/entrepreneur/1999/december/issue116936.html

9. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lists_of_billionaires

10. http://www.evancarmichael.com/Famous-Entrepreneurs/556/Launching-A-Revolution-The-Start-of-Microsoft.html

11. http://www.evancarmichael.com/Famous-Entrepreneurs/556/Launching-A-Revolution-The-Start-of-Microsoft.html

12. http://entrepreneurs.about.com/od/famousentrepreneurs/p/billgates.htm

13. Shenk, David (January 26, 1998). Slamming Gates. The New Republic. http://davidshenk.com/webimages/THENEWREPUBLIC.PDF; Findings of Fact. United States v. Microsoft (1998). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_v._Microsoft

14. See innovation critique. http://www.icmrindia.org/casestudies/catalogue/Leadership%20and%20Entrepreneurship/Leadership%20the%20Bill%20Gates%20Way-Leadership%20and%20Entrepreneurship-Case%20StudiesExcp.htm

15. http://voteview.ucsd.edu/gates.htm

16. See Wikipedia website on Bill Gates http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Gates

17. Microsoft Museum excerpts. http://www.microsoft.com/mscorp/museum/ (accessed August 20, 2004).

18. All Bill Gates official Microsoft biography excerpts. http://www.microsoft.com/billgates/bio.asp (accessed August 20, 2004).

19. Microsoft document: Key Events in Microsoft History. http://addressof.com/blog/articles/300.aspx (accessed August 20, 2004).

20. Virgin Group storytelling about Richard Branson. http://www.virgin.com/AboutVirgin/RichardBranson/WhosRichardBranson.aspx

21. http://www.virgin.com/AboutVirgin/WhatWeAreAbout/WhatWeAreAbout.aspx

22. Virgin Atlantic history at Branson and VIRGIN ATLANTIC. http://www.virgin-atlantic.com/en/gb/corporateandtrade/index.jsp (accessed August 20, 2004).

23. Who We Are, Microsoft. http://www.microsoft.com/careers/mslife/whoweare/default.mspx (accessed August 20, 2004).

24. Microsoft ‘Meet Our People’. http://www.microsoft.com/careers/mslife/meetpeople/ (accessed August 20, 2004).

25. A Virgin Person. http://virgincola.com/aboutvirgin/howitallworks/virginequalspeople/default.asp (accessed August 20, 2004).

26. http://www.virgin.com/AboutVirgin/RichardBranson/RichardReplies.aspx?L3_GenericContent_NavigateToPage=4

27. American Museum of Natural History. http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/a/american_museum_of_natural_history/index.html?inline=nyt-org

28. http://www.forbes.com/corporatecitizenship/2006/11/26/leadership-branson-virgin-lead-citizen-cx_tw_1128branson.html

29. Rovia Conspiracy blog (2008). http://www.rovianconspiracy.com/2008/01/bill-gates-is-idiot.html

30. The books were mentioned in a Wall Street Journal article. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120113473219511791.html?mod=djemalertTECH

31. Guardian 2006. http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2006/sep/21/globalwarmingclimatechange

32. Making the turn: Entrepreneurial Capitalism and its European promise, by Carl J. Schramm. http://www.kauffman.org/pdf/schramm_eu_finance_0406_final.pdf