Report comparing and contrasting two entrepreneurs: Richard Branson vs. Elon Musk

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Report comparing and contrasting two
entrepreneurs: Richard Branson vs. Elon Musk

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Contents
Introduction.......................................................................................................................................3
Entrepreneurial Profiles of Richard Branson and Elon Musk..................................................................3
Sir Richard Branson vs. Elon Musk.......................................................................................................4
Life Journey....................................................................................................................................4
Approach to Business; Success as entrepreneurs..............................................................................6
Conclusion.........................................................................................................................................9
References....................................................................................................................................... 10
Appendix A ...................................................................................................................................... 12
Appendix B ...................................................................................................................................... 16

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Introduction
Potential entrepreneurs face different challenges and unknown situations when they lack
experience or patterns of behaviour to follow while playing the role of 'entrepreneur', thus it
might be useful to learn from the biography of other prominent entrepreneurs, their
personalities and reasons for success. Another difficulty is that that the concept of
entrepreneurship is very broad and has different meanings (Gedeon, 2010).
Entrepreneurs can be described in how they manage and benefit from risks using the risk
theory, how they manage and lead people using own personality and skills (traits approach),
how they behave themselves during the establishment and management of business
(behavioural approach), how they innovate (dynamic theory) and challenge the status quo
(Austrian School) (Gedeon, 2010). The Appendix A part describes these approaches and shows
the major works that contributed to each of the theoretical frameworks.
This essay will discuss the entrepreneurs’ journey of sir Richard Branson and Elon Musk and
then compare the personalities and background using different theories of entrepreneurship to
find the reasons for their entrepreneurial success. The greater emphasis would be done on
Richard Branson as the point of reference.
Entrepreneurial Profiles of RichardBransonand ElonMusk
The following Table 1 summarises the Entrepreneurial Profile of Richard Branson and Elon Musk

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Table 1. Entrepreneurial Profile of RichardBransonandElonMusk
Sir RichardBranson vs. ElonMusk
Life Journey
Sir Richard Branson was born in 1950, his father was a barrister and his mother was a flight
attendant; he was from a prominent and a rather wealthy family as his grandfather was a judge
of the High Court of Justice. (Biography.com, 2016). He had serious problems related to
academic performance because of dyslexia (ibid). Since childhood, he showed his interest in
entrepreneurship and business deals, and his parents raised him as an open-minded person and
supported him during his first unsuccessful ‘ventures’ in his early adolescence, such as breeding
budgerigars or selling Christmas trees as they saw his 'entrepreneurial giftedness' (Shavinina,
2006; Levine, 2011). His first successful venture was the Student, youth-culture magazine that
earned the money with the help of advertisement, which he managed to start at 16, after the
left the private school, three years later his interest in music and drug scene led him to the

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creation of mail-order record company called Virgin and then the Virgin Records company
(Biography.com, 2016). His intuition helped him to make Virgin Music one of the largest record
labels in the world (Shavinina, 2011).
After the success of the musical business has established a number of different ventures in
hotel and travel industry, airlines industry, telecommunication and finances, many of the
venture were not successful or were purchased later by the competitors (Milmo, 2012). The
examples of some of the failures are Virgin Cola, Virgin Vodka and Virgin Brides. Virgin Group
was established in 1970 to manage the wide portfolio of Richard Branson's investments, it
currently employs more than 50 thousand people in more than fifty countries, with the
revenues of about $25 billion (Virgin, 2016a). Gordon (2014) states that currently Branson does
not manage any of the prominent companies owned by the Virgin Group Holdings as he is more
interested in “investment portfolio” and the major part of the revenues comes from the brand
royalties and minority shareholding.
The strengths of Virgin brand, which is directly associated with Richard Branson, is crucial for
the success of the group, a poor approach to brand licencing might result in huge financial
damages (Boje and Smith, 2010). Virgin has high brand awareness in Britain, which achieves
the level of 96% as for 2004 and more than 94% were aware the founder of the brand
(Palgrave, 2008). Richard Branson is often cited as the major example of a serial entrepreneur,
with a number of ventures that are supported by the Virgin brand identity that was created by
a number of events that gripped the attention of media, the examples are the attempts to
establish new world records or famous bets, including the “flight attendant bet” (Lindgren and
Packendorff, 2003; Ankeny, 2012). He received the knighthood in 1999 for his “services to
entrepreneurship” (Bowerman and Wart, 2014). Branson (2015a) stated that his family, five,
two children and three grandchildren are crucial for him and they are an important source of
inspiration in his life.
On the other hand, Elon Musk was born in South Africa in 1971 in the wealthy family and did
not have any problems with academic performance; instead, he was among the most
prominent students in each of the place of education he studied at (Halpern, 2015). He also had
the entrepreneurial journey that started from early adolescence as he sold his first software at
the age of 12. However, he also dropped out, but during his pursue of Ph.D. in energy physics at
Stanford to benefit from Internet boom as he started his Zip2 Corporation, an online city guide

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that was later bought by three hundred millions of dollars by Compaq. The money helped him
to open an online financial service company X.com that later resulted in the creation of PayPal
that was purchased by eBay for $1.5 billion (Halpern, 2015). The money helped him to pursue
his dreams of creative electric cars and private space company with Tesla Motors and SpaceX
respectively (Halpern, 2015).
Approach to Business; Success as entrepreneurs
 Risk theory Approach – Entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial success is related to the
effective management and benefits from risks related to the unpredictability of the
market demand and other business environment factors – Full Correlation
The LinkedIn blog post by Branson states that since the start of his entrepreneurial journey
when he was 16 there were four major aspects of his success, first is proper delegation, second
is the ability of finding the best talents and manage it as a team, third is passion and believe in
his business and four (crucial) is a proper risk-taking and he notices different risky decisions
during his start of the entrepreneurial career, as the signed controversial or “risky” artists, such
as Sex Pistols or entered the Airlines industry, the unsafe industry with low margins (Branson,
2013). He notes that the major risk is not to try, and he does not afraid of taking the risk and
failing (Branson, 2015b). On the other hand, he notices that the risk should be managed
properly with the help of “strategic judgements” to avoid “blind gambles”, and the
management team helps him to calculate all the risks. Branson is well known for strict cost
management and focus on efficiency in marketing and operations (Thomspon, 2011). Even the
best risk management techniques do not guarantee the absence of failures (Thompson, 1999).
Branson had a number of failures, as mentioned earlier, the most notable are Virgin Student
social networks, Virgin Cola and Vodka, and Virgin Brides, his famous Virgin Airlines was not
profitable during the first years of operations either (Russel, 2013).
Similarly, Elon Musk is regarded as very effective risk taker and, taking into account his three
latest ventures (Tesla, SolarCity and SpaceX) he is described as the “most risk-taking
entrepreneur” in the Silicon Valley; however he states all three ventures are risk free as he
believes in his predictions about the future of the industries and calculates all the risks

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(EconomyTrivia, 2015; Berman, 2016). The analysis his biography shows he had no any major
failure in his entrepreneurial career.
 Traits approach – successful entrepreneurs have some straits, skills and characteristics
unlike ordinary people. Vivid correlation.
Branson states that personality is often more important the skills and experience in most of his
businesses (Bort, 2013). The visualisation of Richard Branson Mindset by IQ Matrix (2016) helps
to understand his personality (Appendix B).
Branson states that personality is often more important the skills and experience in most of his
businesses (Bort, 2013). The visualisation of Richard Branson Mindset by IQ Matrix (2016) helps
to understand his personality (Appendix B). The “next Richard Branson” would have
determination and ability to continue his work despite the failures, passion, perseverance,
flexibility and good personality that would help in communication and provide the trusted
relationship with people (Preston, 2012). He has the I(+E)SFP personality type according to
Myers-Briggs Type Indicator. Despite being an introverted child, his parents encouraged his
communication with others, and while he might be extraverted he maintains the delicacy and
kindness in his talks. Branson believes in aesthetics and loyalty (Sensing), passion and intuition
(Feeling) and Flexibility (Perceiving). The analysis shows that he has all the 9 characteristics of
successful entrepreneur described by Timmons (Heller, 2006).
For Musk, the major skills that helped him to start his businesses are his prominent technical
skills. His often cited major characteristics is “Relentless innovator”, his four major
entrepreneurial traits are described as imagination, persistence, system disruption and
commitment with his employees (Calhoun, 2015).
 Behavioural approach – entrepreneurs are generally those to establish new business. Full
Correlation. Best example.
The biography of Richard Branson shows he is the best example of the entrepreneur as he
participated in the establishment of hundreds of business, many of which are not owned by

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him but these ventures use his brand image and entrepreneurial skills and vision (Wachman,
2012). Virgin Group Holding is the huge business empire towards with hundreds of companies
under the control, and shared team of employees who work on marketing and operations
(Vinnedge, 2009).
Elon Musk has created less than a handful of prominent ventures, but all of them were very
successful and can be regarded as the landmarks in business history.
 Dynamic theory – entrepreneurship comes from the establishment and marketing
innovative services and products. Fully correlates.
The example of Elon Musk is the quintessence of the innovative entrepreneur as he not only
changed the approaches to operations and marketing but also changed at least three major
global industries.
On the other hand, Richard Branson is innovator in terms of business processes and marketing.
He focuses on providing the innovative services in the uncontested space (Virgin Galactic –
suborbital space tourism) or create new combination of offerings that helps Virgin-branded
companies to find their niche.
 Schumpeter and/or Austrian school – entrepreneurs are those who undermine existing
situation on the market or offer something focused on unsatisfied needs. Fully Correlates
for Elon Musk
The innovativeness of the ventures of Elon Mask makes him the good example to illustrate the
approach by Schumpeter and/or Austrian school.
Meanwhile, all of the ventures by Branson are focused on rivalry with the help of unique value
they offer to the market. Virgin Records in many revolutionised the record business, while
Virgin Atlantic was created to fight for the market share with well-established British Airways,
the same can be said about the number of Virgin-branded businesses in travel, tourism and
finance sectors.

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Conclusion
In conclusion, Richard Branson and Elon Musk, while having many similarities, are the
entrepreneurs of very different kind. Elon Musk is the true innovator and disruptor who
already changed the history of human development. However, in my opinion, the example of
Richard Branson is more inspiring.
He is not a true innovator, but he did not change the history. Moreover, his status of a wealthy
billionaire is doubtful, as it was already mentioned in his autobiography that his image of
billionaire helped him to deal with the creditors when he was a near-bankrupt. He uses his
brand image and “celebrity” status to find the investors for new ventures and attract best
talents. Dissimilar to many examples, he is not an expert in any industry, though he created
more than two hundred of venture in different sectors using different process and business
models. He does not possess any extraordinary talent in engineering or any other area like Elon
Musk. Moreover, he might not be described as intelligent and smart person with his IQ that is
allegedly 99 because of dyslexia.
However, Richard Branson is good in searching for talents to manage Virgin-branded
companies, he effectively uses PR and his image to promote different businesses, he is good in
benefiting from the new trends in external environment. Unlike Elon Musk, Branson cannot be
even described as successful entrepreneur, as half of his ventures were to profitable to did not
result in expected outcomes, but still, he managed to create his business empire. He is shy and
has huge problems with his speech, but connects with people using his warm and delicate
manner of communication. Thus, as a true entrepreneur, he uses his strong characteristics to
compensate and downplay his numerous weaknesses as an entrepreneur to create new
ventures that offer value to customers and change the world around us. He is food managing
people and not business, and his employees help him to create and sustain the huge Virgin
Group Holding.

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References
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Halpern, S. (2015). Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future.
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Appendix A
Major schools and theoretical frameworks define entrepreneurship and reasons for
entrepreneurial success.

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Appendix B