Whether that entails chatting up the person beside him on an airplane or taking his staff out for a roundofdrinks after work, getting out and hearing from people--what they like and, more important, what they don't like--has proved enormously valuable for Branson.
Many now use elegant long spoons made only in Japan for mixing drinks, and several have even adopted the Japanese practice of carving perfectly round ice balls.
Soft drinks won't be the last of the usual suspects that Mayor May I will round up in his crusade to dictate his choices and eliminate everyone else's.