Britain's best-known businessman brought out another book last month. Does it tell readers anything they didn't know already?

Why does he keep writing books? If he is short of a bob or two, book royalties won't save him. If he needs publicity, he should do something simpler, like launch a private space shot. It is difficult to find anything new and insightful to say about business. Even the title of his book, Business Stripped Bare, pays homage to Management Stripped Bare, which I wrote several years ago. Imitation is the highest form of flattery. Let's hope we do not see Sir Richard stripped bare for the launch.

In the book, Sir Richard recalls countless stories from his business empire. They illustrate many basic truths of business life. They may be obvious, but they are worth saying. At least he does the reader a service by saying them well. Business Stripped Bare entertains more than informs and it doesn't need to be insightful to work. It needs the bearded one on the front cover and the Branson PR machine behind it. It will succeed, but not enough to pay for his space shot.

The real test for a business book is whether it can be put into practice. Long suffering users of Virgin Trains understand the gap between theory and practice. A train ticket from London to Birmingham? No problem, after you have worked your way through 30 screens on your computer. Buying a train ticket should be short and simple. But it's easy to find yourself in the never-never land of not being able to get into the Virgin Trains booking system as either a new or existing user. Writing about how to do things well is clearly easier than doing them.

Sir Richard starts by urging us to "find good people" and "set them free". He then inundates us with anecdotes on this theme. This sets the tone for the book. It is fast-paced, anecdotal, inspirational and remarkably short of practical detail around how to do all the things he urges. He reports that managers need "a modest amount of psychological insight" and that "people come and go". This may be true, but does not help us know what to do, or how to do it.

His people rules include: employees are number one; think small to grow big; manage in the good times for the bad times; irreverence is OK; it's OK to be yourself; and have fun at work.

This is all good stuff, backed up with inspiring anecdotes. A practising manager might wonder how to have irreverent fun when doing the year-end tax return, and whether the tax man will join in.

The section on branding shows how Sir Richard thinks of the Virgin brand as: "a guarantee that you will be treated well, that you will get a high quality product which won't dent your bank balance and you'll get more fun out of your purchase than you expected". This is his cue for more anecdotes about how his different businesses have achieved success. The closest the reader gets to seeing how you can do this is his observation that "publicity is absolutely critical". Given he's the master of PR stunts, this is a bit like telling us the Pope is a Catholic.

The section on delivery starts with him name dropping Christina Aguilera, Raymond Blanc, the French president and his engagements with Swedish television and big shots in Japan and India. Perish the thought that he might be promoting himself in this book. The section then turns into another procession of anecdotes around the successes of his trains, mobile phones and airlines, with a brief rant about the Lottery. His advice on delivery is that it is "best approached steadily, and with fortitude".  There is not much about selling train tickets competently and not much about how practising managers can improve delivery.

Fortunately, the eulogy to his own success is interrupted by a section on Learning from mistakes and setbacks. He provides a personal view on an early tax scam on records, a train crash, Virgin cola, going public and the Northern Rock saga. There is some learning and much self-justification. Self-doubt is not part of his success formula.

From here on, the pattern is established. Chapters around innovation, entrepreneurs and leadership and social responsibility are used as vehicles for more anecdotes from his career. As the whirl around his business empire becomes a blur, one thing is obvious. For most managers, career is a noun. For Branson, career is a verb that describes his frenetic charge from one enterprise to the next.

Business Stripped Bare will leave you breathless as you try to follow the rampage across global business. There is no great system to the book. Chapters merely provide a theme for the anecdotes.

Overall, the book is an entertaining, if disjointed, ramble through a remarkable business career. It does not strip business bare, and will be more inspirational than practical help to most managers.

Publisher: Virgin Books