Richard Branson's Background and His Rise to Success in the Business World - Essay Example

Profile of Richard Branson Richard Branson is a living legend. Almost everyone has heard of him and this is not surprising because he has done some unusual things and taken unusual risks as well. He is an inspiration to many people, also for me, because of his self-confidence and he is so keen to try new things. Most of all, I like him because he is a great humanitarian who supports charities and the ecology, but he is also still a very good businessman. The reason I decided to do his profile is because of his support of charities and his concern for the earth. I feel that if more business people took this approach then the world would be a better place, because people would be giving back and not just taking something for themselves. In this paper I will talk about Branson’s entrepreneurial gift and great personality and how this explains my admiration for him. Childhood and background Richard Branson was born in England in July 1950 (virgin.com) and he is 58 years old now. He was educated at Stowe School but he did not go on to tertiary education. He was always more interested in sports or business (Branson, 1999). His mother tried to teach him to have stamina and not to be afraid but to be independent, and she sometimes set him physical challenges or tasks to build up these qualities in him. Some of them were very frightening but he overcame them, like the time he thought that he may drown but learned to swim instead, and won a bet that way (virgin.com). His father was a lawyer who was fairly quiet in personality but was very supportive and Branson’s family was always very loving of each other. His mother worked in theatre and on airlines (Branson, 1999). The family never had much money. But the children were taught to have their own opinions and not to be afraid of expressing them. His mother was always trying to think up new ways of making money (Branson, 2002) and I think this had a strong influence on Richard as he was growing up. When he was still a teenager he tried growing trees and keeping birds, but these businesses eventually failed (Branson, 2002). His first successful business was to run a magazine for students, which shows his personality because many people would be afraid of doing something like this if they did not get very good marks in school. He also started up a student advice centre (virgin.com) by the age of seventeen. So he was already finding ways of helping other people, looking for new opportunities. It seems he was born an entrepreneur, or maybe he grew up to become one from an early age. His mother trained him and his sisters to always work to help other people, never to be selfish or idle (Branson, 2002). When he was twenty, which is still very young, he started up a company called Virgin, doing mail orders. Two years later Virgin Records made Mike Oldfield’s “Tubular Bells” and it sold more than five million copies, which was his first very big success. Branson showed his gifts at using intuition plus marketing and business methods. He also produced music by The Sex Pistols, which no-one else wanted to produce, and this earned him success and reputation, and he went on to produce music by many other artists who are now famous (BBC website). From here we can examine his adult life and the businesses he has started, even those which failed. I believe that Branson is better than most people at dealing with failure. When it happens, he just picks himself up and carries on and tries something else. This is his strength and persistence. Because of this, Virgin today has more than 200 companies in more than thirty countries (virgin.com). Branson still lives in England. Star signs The astrological signs of Branson’s birthday are Cancer in the Western system and Tiger in the Chinese system. These two signs have a different energy, with the Cancer being a soft emotional and intuitive sign, very nurturing and with good intuition, quite feminine. The Tiger has a very strong energy, lots of physical stamina and a powerful personality that influences other people easily and is a good leader. This is a more masculine sign. Both of these signs are seen in Branson’s character, the caring and humanitarian Cancer, and the fierce business-like Tiger. He has achieved a good balance within himself and this accounts for his success. Virgin businesses Because the Virgin label is so much a part of Richard Branson, I will discuss it here. The Virgin businesses show many of Branson’s own personal strengths, his sense of humour and fun, and they also show his value system. According to Virgin.com and the BBC website, the Virgin businesses cover a wide range of fields from mobile telephones, travel and transport, music, leisure and holidays (including Virgin Active clubs), wines, energy sources, financial services, retailing (megastores), and publishing. There are some beliefs that run through all of these different businesses. According to the Virgin.com site, whenever a new Virgin business is formed, first there is a lot of market research and they try to find out if there is a niche for the market, or consumer demand. The business must also be innovative, fun, good value for money, and competitive. Quality of a product, as well as customer service, are also very important in the Virgin industries and this accounts for their good reputation. In terms of staff and personnel policies, the Virgin group hires talented people who have been very carefully selected. The organisational structure is very flat, in other words it is not a complicated hierarchy, but rather people are treated mostly as equals. This allows everyone to make their greatest contribution as nobody is stifled under a boss. The staff see themselves as families and a community, where everyone has an important contribution and is treated creatively. The Virgin companies have one speciality and that is to go into markets where the consumers have been messed around or badly serviced. Branson has got a name for himself as someone who challenges those kinds of monopolies and comes in with a great new way of doing things for customers who never used to have any choice, as there was only one service provider and it was ripping them off. In this way we see that Branson’s policy is not divided into business versus charities. The one just leads into the other, because of his sense of business ethics. This is what makes for a culture of both the Virgin staff and the customers as being treated as important individuals. But at the same time, Branson does not run a “cheap and nasty” business. His prices are not always the lowest of all, because he does not compromise on quality. So the Virgin group’s prices may be middle range rather than the cheapest end of the market, but you can be sure that you will be getting good value for money. An example is the airline Virgin Blue Australia, where the fares are not only low but are also transparent to the consumer. There is also Virgin Trains, which is innovative and unconventional (virgin.com). The excellent customer service offered by the Virgin group is shown in the fact that Virgin Mobile UK has won awards for its customer service and care. The Virgin group takes some risks with its advertising, and they sometimes offend certain people with sexualised advertisements, or competitive advertising which insults their competition. Even the name of Virgin has some sexual tones but the name was actually chosen when Branson and his colleagues formed the group, as they were all new to business (Branson, 2002). But it is this sort of playful or cheeky double meaning that is found in the Virgin image. Branson’s family life Richard Branson has two younger sisters. He has been married twice and his second wife is Joan Templeman. They had a daughter, Holly, who is now a doctor, and a son called Sam. Richard and Joan got married quite late in their relationship and they only did so when Holly, who was eight years old then, suggested it (Branson, 1999, 2002). In 1999 Branson was given a knighthood because of his contribution to entrepreneurship. This means his formal name is now Sir Richard Branson. Adventures In 1985 Branson and his team tried to cross the Atlantic by boat as they hoped to set a new record. They were about 100 miles away from the starting point in New York when their boat sank and they had to be rescued. This actually made Branson even more famous because now everyone in America was talking about him. He did then afterwards cross the Atlantic by boat in the fastest time ever. Then he also tried to cross the Atlantic by hot air balloon, but the balloon lost control and Branson and his crew jumped into the sea and again had to be rescued. He also then started dealing in businesses involving trains and railways in the UK. His interest in travel and breaking speed records continued when he crossed the English Channel in record time in 2004, and he helped to develop a plane that can fly around the world without refuelling. The ultimate plan is still happening, because he has paid to have five “spaceliners” built in the US and these are due to become operational any time now, and will take passengers into outer space (BBC website). Whenever Branson creates these kinds of adventures, he puts a large Virgin banner and logo onto the hot air balloon or whatever craft he is using. In this way he gets massive advertising for his brand. In February 2008 Virgin Atlantic flew a passenger plane using some biofuels as well as normal fuels (woopidoo.com). Charities which Branson supports Branson is listed as one of the world’s richest people in the Forbes list of billionaires, at about number 245 on the Forbes list. The UK Sunday Times Rich List says he is the 11th richest person in the UK and is worth about £3.1 million. One of Branson’s biggest charity investments was in 2006 when he pledged $3 billion towards renewable energy. By doing this he inspired some other companies to also make their own pledges and a huge amount of money was raised for the environmental effort (renewableenergyworld.com). The Virgin.com website has a section that shows the charities which Virgin supports, called Virgin Unite. Brason is very aware of the needs of Africa and several charities are supporting Africans. There is the African Partners Programme, which uses entrepreneurial skills, and there is the Branson School of Entrepreneurship in South Africa. There is also Heaven’s Angels, a programme for improving rural health care in Africa by sending health workers out on motorbikes. There is also a charity called End Fistula which aims to help women in Africa and Asia with birth complications, and Branson is a member of “The Elders”, which is a group of international peacemakers. This group was founded in 2007 in South Africa and includes some African leaders including the famous Nelson Mandela. They aim to smooth out international conflicts and support human rights across the world (theelders.org). Branson has also started up charities called the RE Generation UK and the RE Generation USA, which help marginalised youth in both of these countries. The Australian Partners Programme does the same thing in Australia. There is also the Music Movement, a group of musicians who together with Virgin help to raise awareness of social and environmental issues. The Green Spot project is also involved with environmental concerns, and it was through this project that Branson made his $3 billion pledge to sustainable fuels. Quotes by Richard Branson I feel that a good way of showing the personality and character of Branson is by his quotes. These are things which he has said publicly and has become famous for. He once said, “Sometimes I do wake up in the mornings and feel like I’ve just had the most incredible dream. I’ve just dreamt my life”. He has also said, “Ridiculous yachts and private planes and big limousines won’t make people enjoy life more, and it sends out terrible messages to the people who work for them. It would be so much better if that money was spent in Africa—and it’s about getting a balance.” This quote I believe really shows why Branson has become such a well-known and loved personality. Despite his great success as a business person, he has not lost his awareness that other people are suffering. When he talks about balance, it is something that he practices in his own life. He realizes that individuals can help people like Africans, and he is not afraid to speak out to tell them to do this. The fact that Virgin runs several charity projects in Africa shows that Branson puts his money where his mouth is. He has also set up these projects so that others are able to contribute financially too, and it isn’t all just up to him and his own money. So he is able to work collectively and inspire others to do the same. His unusual approach to business is shown in this quote from him: “A business has to be involving, it has to be fun, and it has to exercise your creative instincts”. It is also interesting that when he talks about his younger days and the Student magazine he ran, he says that he did not want to be an entrepreneur, he wanted to be an editor and journalist. However, “I soon found I had to become an entrepreneur in order to keep my magazine going.” Most people do not realize this about Branson. They think he set out to be an entrepreneur, but actually he was just responding to things that needed to happen. He has always done this. He also uses the same idea when he starts up a new business. So he will see an area where the consumer is being harmed and that is where he will try to respond by creating something new. He said, “I never get the accountants in before I start up a business. It's done on gut feeling, especially if I can see that they are taking the mickey out of the consumer.” (woopidoo.com). Conclusion In this essay I have discussed Richard Branson’s background and his rise to success in the business world. I have also discussed his personal and business beliefs and the fact that he is a great humanitarian who is concerned for the environment and for vulnerable people. All of this goes to show why I admire Branson and chose to do his profile, as an example of someone who is successful on many levels, from financial to emotional and social. References 1. BBC news Branson profile: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/3693588.stm 2. Branson, Richard. Losing My Virginity: How I've Survived, Had Fun, And Made a Fortune Doing Business My Way, 1999, Three Rivers Press. 3. Branson, Sir Richard. Sir Richard Branson, the Autobiography, 2002, Longman. 4. The Elders website www.theelders.org 5. http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/news/story?id=46071 6. Virgin website http://www.virgin.com and Virginunite.com 7. Woopidoo.com http://www.woopidoo.com/business_quotes/authors/richard-branson-quotes.htm and http://www.woopidoo.com/biography/richard_branson.htm Read More