Leadership in Virgin Group

Leadership in Virgin Group
Company History:
Virgin Group is a diversified grouping of more than 200 privately held companies. The
largest of these are Virgin Atlantic Airways, the number two airline in the United Kingdom;
Virgin Holidays, a vacation tour operator; Virgin Rail, the second largest U.K. train operator;
the Virgin Retail Group, which operates numerous Virgin Megastores, a retail concept
featuring videos, music CDs, and computer games; and Virgin Direct, which offers financial
services. Other Virgin businesses include beverage maker Virgin Cola, a record label, book
and music publishing operations, hotels, an Internet service provider, movie theaters, a
radio station, cosmetics and bridal retailing concepts, and a line of clothing. Holding this
disparate group of companies together is the combination of Richard Branson and the
Virgin brand name. British entrepreneur Branson dropped out of boarding school at the
age of 17, in 1967, to start his own magazine. That venture was an immediate success,
establishing the foundation for what would become a multibillion-dollar conglomerate
during the 1990s. Along the way, Branson would attain cult status in his home country--the
result of his business exploits quests for adventure, and unique personal style. The Virgin
brand had meantime become, according to the company, one of the top 50 brands in the
world by the late 1990s; a poll of British consumers at that time showed that 96 percent
had heard of Virgin.
Key Questions
Q1. Given the freewheeling style of Branson and his managers, do you
think that the virgin enterprises can be classified as a TQ organization?
Why or why not?
Yes I believe that virgin enterprises can be classified as a TQ organization because virgin is
very successful group, their products are of high quality they focus on improving the
quality all the time as improvement is the continuous process. Virgin has expanded their
business a lot. Virgin has a great team of management they are very passionate and
devoting to their work. Branson’s moves reflected the immense growth and complexity of
Virgin Group. Branson always focus on caring people he do not have hard and fast rules but
still he possess a large number of brands under one group Virgin.
Q2.How well do you think that Branson and his managers perform the
strategic planning process? What are some indicators that they do or
not do strategic planning?
Branson and his managers are performing strategic planning very well.they are fulfilling
their objectives as their objectives were
 Expansion internationally
 To lead the entertainment industry
 Increase the profit and for the sake of good reputation
 Quality improvement
 Competitive edge
 Utilization of new technology
 Loyalty among customers
Virgin group have used diversification as their business is expanding very quickly and
they are entering into new diversified markets.
Some indications are
 Virgin Atlantic air line is the good indicator as Branson was having a competitive
edge because they were offering a luxury package and at low price while the
competitors were charging high price with poor quality.
 Management was focusing on innovative plans so that they can meet customer
expectations and satisfaction.
Q.3How well do you think that Branson and his managers perform
managerial and leadership tasks? How might these tasks be better
balance?
Richard Branson is very famous for his innovative, competitive and risky style of
leadership. He adds value to his products in order to diversify his business. His leadership
style is charismatic he creates the very friendly environment over work place and avoids
strictness. Everybody was the part of organization and any one can participate in order to
bring innovativeness rather just to follow orders. Top management encourages and
motivates employees to obtain the best of their abilities and the best reward for the
company. As the company benefit in other words is individual benefit.Benifits are meant
for all members of organization so that everyone is motivated to do their jobs and tasks
then be better balanced. The idea behind this is to promote the philosophy that the overall
benefit of the company will lead to individual benefits for each person involved. Group
contribution will eventually lead to rewards for executives, managers, employees,
shareholders, and customers alike.
Q4.What leadership theory do you think best fits the senior

leadership of the virgin company? What theory best fit the Branson as
leader? Why might there be a difference?
Richard Branson is the born leader he is charismatic leadership style because he can
influence any one very easily. Transformational leadership comes from the top managers
and executives within the company.
Leading is perhaps the most interesting and important function of management to the
Virgin Group. The leadership dynamics start with Chairman Richard Branson. He is a very
vocal and flamboyant leader. His mission is to inspire those who work below him to work
to the best of their abilities for the good of the company. He often pushes his belief that by
contributing to the good of the company it will increase the rewards for everybody
involved. He has stated that he tries to bring the best out of people and does this for
workers at the lowest levels as well as the top ranking executives. This philosophy is
encouraged to all managers within the company. Management is expected to embrace this
principle and pass it on to the employees that they are managing. Another aspect of
Branson’s leadership style is that he tends to give people a high level of freedom in their
work .It is his goal to first give them direction in their work, and then let them take control
of the situation there after. Freedom in their work allows them to excel without the need
for micromanagement. Richard Branson’s leadership style and vision for the company has
made him the center of attention within many business and management discussions
throughout the world.

Leadership in Virgin Group

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Leadership in Virgin Group

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Leadership in Virgin Group

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Leadership in Virgin Group

Some indications are

Q4.What leadership theory do you think best fits the senior

You might also like