The garish orange livery of Stelios Haji-Ioannou is spreading over Europe like a virus--and his competitors haven't found a cure. This natural-born salesman, a 34-year-old combination of the cerebral and the showman, of rich kid and hustler, has a knack for presenting the consumer with a cheap service that's free of the hassle and headache usually associated with discounts. He's applying the idea liberally across a growing number of businesses under the umbrella of easy--as in easyJet, easyRentacar and easyEverything.
Everyone calls him Stelios. It's part of a strategy inspired by Richard Branson, founder of Virgin. The idea is to become...