1. VIRGIN GROUP’S PROFILE
VIRGIN GROUP’ S PROFILEVirgin Group is one of the leading organizations in UK. The
company provides a dizzying range of commodities and services throughout its numerous
business units. Indeed, from a small business operation to a multi-national organization that
operates across the world, Branson and the executive committee have undertaken realistic
and effective transformation in the company’ s operations. Currently, the organization is
involved in various operations including nightclubs, food and drinks services, record label,
among others. With such immense operations, Branson has focused on planning as a core
factor that necessitates smooth flow of operations across the organization (Jones, 2004).
The company is undertaking strategies, either marketing or production, that will enable it to
conquer the economy in the next three or four decades.2.0 Richard Branson’ s Profile and
Entrepreneurial SkillsRichard Branson is a renowned entrepreneur who initiated the
operations of Virgin Group to a world class level. Born in 1950, he attended Stowe School
where he incorporated a school magazine at the tender age of 16. Towards the end of 1970,
Branson founded a retailer of mail order record known as Virgin. His entrepreneurial skills
were manifested in every activity and operation he undertook and, two years later, he built
a recording studio that was situated in Oxfordshire. With the signing of Sex Pistols, Virgin
commemorated the greatest achievement that marked the start of the organization’ s
success. He signed numerous household names to be included in the Rolling Stones, majorly
from Culture Club, thereby enabling Virgin Music to be recognized as the best operating
companies in the industry. Currently, the Virgin Group incorporates more than 200
companies across the globe, and its expansion has been attributed to the skills and
dedication of one Richard Branson. The operations of the company include travel, mobile,
tourism, health, finance, leisure, radio, broadband, TV, and Music festivals (Jaray,
2006).Kitchen and Proctor (2001) posits that the success of Virgin Group has been achieved
through dedication of its CEO and the managerial team. As a non-profit making
organization, the focus is to harness entrepreneurial skills on its members in an attempt to
realize strategic goals. Some of these skills that were fostered by Branson include Vision and
leadership in the workplace, focus, and execution of services, persistence, and passion in
doing chores, technical skills, and flexibility. In the case of vision and leadership, Branson
has visualized where Virgin Group would be in the next few decades. In realizing the
organization’ s vision, Branson ensured that the vision statement is clearly communicate to
the employees, as they are the pillars for the company’ s success (Strauss, 2010). Secondly,
the CEO ensured that his team was focused and executed its services at the required
2. timeframe. The company made sure that customers’ satisfaction is realized, goals are
attained at the right time, and motivation of employees is undertaken by the superiors.
Thirdly, the success was realized due to passion and persistence that characterized the
managerial team. Being led by hardworking and reliable CEO, the staff demonstrated their
passion through accomplishing their tasks and, in turn, the management rewarded them for
their activities. Fourth, the technical skills portrayed by the firm ensured the overall success
of the enterprise. Though not the whole managerial team is technically skilled, the
management needs to have a fervent foundation on technical skills in order to make well-
versed decisions. Finally, flexibility denoted the success of Virgin Group. With the changes in
the economic endowment, flexibility in the operations of the management ensures that it
can undertake activities in diversified economic conditions.3.0 Marketing StrategiesThe
combination of product, price, place, and promotion make up the marketing mix used in the
marketing strategy for Virgin Group. Virgin Group provides innovative products and quality
services at convenient locations for its customers. Virgin Group, because of its big size, has
distribution channel that is very extensive. The organization, being a global company, resort
to using direct distribution when it becomes impossible for the product to be sold in
physical stores (Isik-Vanelli, 2004). Nonetheless, it at times uses indirect distribution in
order to place the product at a convenient place for the customers. It uses “ middle men”
who are also called distributors, such as websites like Expedia where customers can get
information about flights without necessarily going directly to Virgin Atlantic websites.The
products and services provided by the organization serve the customer needs and demands.
The approach applied in marketing is monolithic branding, meaning that the organization
has a family name which is followed by the actual range of products such as Virgin Mobile,
Virgin Atlantic, and Virgin Trains (Hoskisson, 2008). The nature of its size makes many
people to have trust and believe on its various products and services it offers. The logo on
Virgin Group products has similar style and design, with red color being a common
theme.The pricing strategy implemented has the tendency of offering flexibility to its
customers. Price varieties offered allow its customers to experience the feeling of affordable
depending on their choice. Irrespective of the prices being expensive or cheaper than its
competitors, customers buy their products and services because of the value they get for
their money.Advertising constitute a big part of promotion for the organization. It uses TV
advertising campaigns in influencing customers to buy its products and services. This was
the case in their 2011 thirty second piece where there were images and scenes exhibiting a
sense of luxury, glamour, and erudition. In youtube videos, Richard Branson is seen in
several of them trying to explore parts of the organization. His presence on such videos
conveys a message to the customers that the organization is very personal and caring.4.0
Organizational CultureIn most of the organizations across the globe, diversity and culture
have shaped the operations of the organizations, and virgin Group is no exception. The
success of Virgin Group is also attributed to their modern culture of undertaking operations.
Its success is being driven by people’ s aggressiveness, orientation, risk taking, and
innovative culture. In the case of aggressiveness culture of employees, the organization
ensures that its performance is superior to the operations of other rival companies in the
organization and markets the brand under the name of Virgins. Aggressiveness implies the
3. degree in which the workforce is characterized by competitiveness and aggressive nature
rather than cooperating with rival companies. The aggressiveness was demonstrated by the
employees of Virgin Blue, which is an airline of Australia, when it expanded its operations to
New Zealand, United States and, finally, to South Africa. Its main objective was to realize its
strategic goal and competitiveness in the economy. In addition, Virgin Active, one of the
health club chains of Virgin Group, was rescued in South Africa after it had undergone a
financial crisis, and, currently, South Africa has more than 100 health clubs (Adair,
2007).Employee’ s orientation is another culture demonstrated by Virgin Group in its
operation. By employee orientation it means the degree in which the decisions of the
management are put in practice in order to effect the operation of the employees. One of the
key strategies that Richard Branson was using was employee motivation where he
emphasized on the need to have cordial relationship with the workforce in order to realize
success. The management set up parties that ensured there was bonding in all levels of
employees in the organization. Such events ensured that employees build cordial
relationship with each other; thereby, sharing opinions that are relevant to the
competitiveness of the organization (Henry, 2008). Finally, risk taking and innovative
culture ensures that employees are allowed to take certain level of risks and to be creative
when undertaking their activities. With the change in economic activities, creativity and
innovativeness is a key to success for every organization. In acquisition and merging
process, Virgin Group ensures that only the like-minded organizations, which will steer up
the operations of the company, are incorporated into the organization.5.0 Employees’
MotivationAccording to Curlee and Gordon (2010), the success of the organization is not
only been achieved through stringent activities and marketing strategies, but through
motivating employees in the workplace. The management understands the diversified
needs of its employees. Each employee is characterized by unique needs from other
employee, thus, when the management understand the need for each employee, it will
motivate the workforce with ease (Nelson and Campbell, 2007). Some of the strategies that
Virgin Group deployed in harnessing employees’ motivation included assigning proper
tasks to employees. The human Resource management has ensured that the job is assigned
to the right employee at the right place in order to achieve comfortability when performing
their operations. In addition, Branson ensured that the employees appraised as this is the
best way of rewarding employees’ performance. However, appraisal should only be done
when the management ahs ascertained the needs of various employees in the organization.
In the case where employee had expected to be rewarded immensely but in the long run,
he/she does not achieve it, the employee may lose his/her motivation in the workplace
(Robbins, 2009). As such, Virgin Group ensured that all the employees were provided with
relevant and adequate information on the reward process in order to satisfy them. Finally,
the CEO allowed lower-level employees to set their goals that they may perceive to be
attainable. Employees are motivated when they realize that they are moving towards
achieving the set goals and objective sin the organization.6.0 ConclusionThe success of
Virgin Group has been attributed to the skillful nature of Richard Branson. Since the
foundation of the company, the organization is currently operating in more than 31
countries, and its vision and mission statement has enabled the management to realize
4. competitive advantage over its rival companies. The CEO enacted marketing strategies that
facilitated the development of new markets, necessitated product development, and
attracted new customers into the organization. With diversified organizational culture and
varied employee’ s needs, the management, with the help of Branson, has instituted
measures to support and reward its employees based on their performances and needs. It is
believed that, in the next 3 decades, Virgin Group will be the leading non-profit making
organization in the world.ReferencesAdair, J. 2007. Leadership and Motivation: The Fifty-
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London: John Wiley & Sons.Henry, A. 2008. Understanding Strategic Management, Oxford:
Oxford University Press.Hoskisson, R. 2008. Competing for Advantage, London: Cengage
Learning.Isik-Vanelli, H. 2004. Marketing Plan for Virgin Blue 2, London: GRIN Verlag.Jaray,
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Economics and Managerial decision making, London: John Wiley & Sons.Kitchen, P. &
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EMEA.Nelson, D. & Campbell, J. 2007. Understanding Organizational Behavior, London:
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Southern African perspectives, London: Pearson Education.Strauss, R. 2010. Marketing
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