During the GEC (Mentioning Sir Richard also allows me to gratuitously include this picture of me and him at the event) he talked about how throughout his career as an entrepreneur he had maintained a policy of hiring people who were "better than me" and then trusting them to try out their own ideas.

This, he said, had allowed him the freedom to diversify his Virgin business empire.

And, for me, the best piece of advice he gave out to entrepreneurs and people running businesses was: "Never lose your temper."

This week, the latest series of BBC TV's The Apprentice gets under way and already we're being promised snarling and confrontation from the contestants - supposedly the business leaders of the future - all encouraged by that grumpy old badger, Lord Sugar.

Out of the two, I think I prefer Sir Richard's approach. I've written in this blog before how there's far too much aggression, too much anger, too much stress in the workplace.

In May, something called The De-Stress Show comes to Liverpool.

Keynote speaker will be Carl Honoré, author of "In Praise of Slow", who will be showing businesses how slowing down' can actually boost productivity and help reduce stress.

He will be demonstrating how organisations use the principles of "slow" to help employees live and work better and how it has boosted the fortunes of businesses across the world.

Mr Honoré said: "In a world obsessed with speed, the best way to get ahead is not always to go faster. Sometimes it pays to slow down."

Jo Howarth, director of The De-Stress Show, added: "Evidence now cites stress as the number one cause of long-term sickness absence in the workplace.

"Understanding ways in which organisations can make small adjustments to engage staff and achieve a more conducive work environment is vital for reducing absenteeism, improving productivity and ultimately having a positive effect on the bottom line.

"For every £1 a business invests in staff wellbeing, they will see a return of between £3 and £6 in improved efficiency and productivity and so taking that step to find out what will work for their business is absolutely worthwhile."

I don't know how accurate that equation is but I do like the sound of it.

There are too may workplaces where the accepted culture seems to be long hours, aggression, confrontation - where "a good bollocking" is seen as an appropriate tool to motivate.

The biggest responses I ever had to this blog was when I wrote about workplace stress and bullying and the effect that can have on peoples' health and wellbeing.

Even the Germans are ahead of us on this. It seems their reputation as dour, robotic workaholics is something of a myth.

Apparently they work fewer hours a week than we do and take on average 40 days holiday a year.

The German media has also recently taken part in a national debate on what they call Burnout-Syndrom - or work-related exhaustion.

And companies there are taking the concept on board. Auto giant Volkswagen has decided to disable employees' BlackBerrys outside of office hours so they are free to enjoy their own time without work issues rudely interrupting.

Virgin has had its ups and downs over the years but it is now a hugely successful, multi-faceted business empire that is continuing to diversify and grow.

If that's where staying calm and not shouting can get you, maybe it's not a bad lead to follow.