Business Ethics: A Stakeholder and Issues Management Approach - Assignment Example

? Sir Richard Branson, Chairman, Virgin Group, LTD Strayer November 27, Dr. Lila Jordan This document describes the success dimensions of the famous world entrepreneur, Sir Richard Branson. It elaborates his initial steps in childhood and how his business skills emerged after struggling with studies. From the idea formation and implementation, business nurturing and early management, to a venture in music labels that went international. Branson appears to be flexible through evolution of his businesses, from humble beginnings to international level, branding enterprise products for the wider market acceptance. The entrepreneur is described to be a risk taker, but also with ability to turn the impossible into business opportunities. More on his mass investment in entertainment, transport, telephone services, and financial sector is elaborated. He also demonstrates his leadership skills, while dealing with his employees, customers, society, and his different businesses by close association, partnerships, and participation. Keywords: Business, Enterprise, Entrepreneur, Leadership Skills, Ideas, Motivation, Investment, Opportunities, Evolution, Virgin Atlantic Airlines, Virgin Mobile, Music Label, Employees, Global Warming Introduction The ability to be a successful individual in society is viewed differently according to individuals, or a collective perception of people. Today everyone associates success with education, learning and gathering information, but opposing, excelling and living a satisfactory life needs the basics of wisdom, understanding and hard work, if not working smart. Sir Richard Branson’s history exists to confirm this. People tend to strain in life, as they force themselves in situations where they do not fit; it is not really the sharpness of a student in class that determines his or her future. The idea is that, ‘people are totally different, with diverse abilities and interests’. One may excel in an area than the other because of these distinguished capabilities. Looking back, Sir Richard’s life as a child showed little interest in education. He was just an average student, who rose up through his skills, interest and ability as a young individual to the current prominent figure, admired by many today. He possesses the qualities of a great leader, which most businesses in the world lack, leading to their failure. Interest, Idea and Ambition in Business Different nations have various ways to nurture the young population in paths of their careers. At least academicians are now concentrating on this, unlike in the past where education was so generalized. Branson’s venture into business occurred in his childhood, at the age of 15 years, he began producing and selling magazines in his school, before dropping out at 17 years of age to fully participate in his business (Mills et al., 2007, p. 485). His entrepreneurial skills outweighed the impact of education in his life, but on the bright side he began nurturing his career early in life. He turned the business idea into a fact, hence bringing an impact into the market through his innovation and creativity. According to Schmidt and Ludlow, “Starting a magazine for young people, Student, he already had the idea that the concept could cover many other products and services for young people: a student travel service, perhaps a bank” (2002, p. 130). His business venture in school was strategic, not that other individuals could not come up with another proposal, but because he took advantage of the market niche, combined with his wisdom and tactics to flourish at young age. Earlier on, he seemed to struggle with his studies especially with the rigid school rules, which most students also have to tolerate in the education systems. Convinced on his entrepreneurial step, he only got to begin with 4 dollars as his capital, with Jonny James as the only supporter, before his head teacher finally accepted his successful progress (“The success story,” 2008). His venture in business was humble, and perhaps the reason why people in the society fail just in the beginning of the business. Whether high or low capital budget, it all depends on the entrepreneur’s ability to manage and nurture the business. Business Evolution His business after initiation evolved taking different forms from a local instigation to a world wide extent. The success of his venture in students’ magazine business was his strength-hold in taking another level of business. Initially, he was able to target the market and sold 50000 copies of the magazines which show his prosperity in the students’ population (Mills et al., 2007, p. 485). It seems quite unexpected for someone like him to handle a business and develop it in such little time, considering that he was a young school drop out without enough knowledge. However, intelligence is what varies in peoples’ minds, whether knowledgeable or not. Most businesses hit the booming period then begin declining in performance; for such a business, it either lacks proper control and planning or performing under poor advisory systems. Sir Branson took the second step of setting up a mail order business which sold audio records, before expanding into a string of virgin record stores in 1971 (Mills et al., 2007, p. 485). To make the progress and target the wider scope of the market, express his ambitions of the future and how he intended to connect distinguished societies around the globe. Sir Richard’s chain of virgin records store was able to market his brand and him as an entrepreneur, which expanded his web in marketing. A very calculated target, which expanded the profit margin as the business penetrated different markets. The society being the consumer has to understand and accept the product in the market. Hence, the relationship and the wide scope involvement in the chains of virgin records made it easier for the music label to go international, because the consumers were familiar with it and held a high reputation of the brand. As one of the top record labels of the time, Virgin Music often had to restructure itself as a means of survival in the competing market, without loosing trend in music. Schmidt and Ludlow state that, “Virgin has grown from a music business - retailing and recording popular music - into a venture capital business that invests in virgin branded business with strategic business partners” (2002, p. 130). Although the company has succeeded a lot, its development took a unique format of been designed, rather than ordinary business evolution. The business saw a drift from musical background to transport enterprise, which was a radical departure from a well oriented market into airlines. Branson could probably be the man who currently waits for the results, but he has the full comprehension of what hard works means. Enterprises use a formal procedure of venturing into business and working with the flow of customers to balance the workload as the business grows. According to Dransfield et al, Branson’s plan of the airline took a different structure where he designed from scratch the evolution process on a paper as a plan, before assigning employees to the job positions that he had created (2004, p. 71). The act was an exact demonstration of managerial engagement, knowledge, and directive in the way to formulate a plan that could be followed by employees in performance. Business Investments If enough attention is paid, it is possible to realize that Virgin’s vision under Branson does not take a rigid stand, instead, it is flexible to adapt to new global changes. The world has many opportunities exhibiting different potential areas of investment. Sir Richard Branson is a man considered to venture into shattered industries, which show no sign in development, he turns the negative into positive energy, creating business scene where many view as impossible. After his humble instigation, he invested in international music labels and later in Virgin Atlantic airline in 1984 and Virgin mobiles in late 1990s (Solomon, 2008, p. 46). He bought the airline as British Atlantic airways, which had been performing on a single route with unpleasing performance, and renamed it into Virgin Atlantic airways, beginning with one plane to run a business. Considering the monopoly structure of the Airlines industries, the airline investment would be termed as a risky venture to compete with other established airlines. The entrepreneur sees every challenge as an investment opportunity, from leisure activities to financial sector, focusing on offering best quality before contributing to mass production. He further expanded airline service in 1992 after selling his Virgin music record to Thorn EMI for $1 billion, to fully invest in Virgin Atlantic Airline (Manning, Salter & Tuinzing, 2005, p. 3). The airline operation observed strict guidelines and discipline to compete with other rivals in the industry The entrepreneur’s business rapid growth has wide market acceptance among private and government organizations. His boom in international airways was felt after establishing a partnership with the Singapore airlines in 1999, by agreeing to sell 49 percent of the shares, which valued Virgin Atlantic at a minimum of ?1.225billion. The move empowered the airlines financial ability to offer services worldwide in the competing market (“Virgin Atlantic Airways,” n.d). As a leader, Sir Richard expresses business skills moving away from privatization to partnership. Today it serves as one of Britain’s largest carriers connecting different cities in the world using Heathrow, Gatwick and Manchester as the main hubs; it makes over ?60 million profits and uses Boeing and Airbus aircrafts, but recently intended to purchase 15 of 787-9 Dreamliners model to increase the services (“Virgin Atlantic Airways,” n.d). He also invested in mobile telephone services early 2000, although he substantially sold most of his shares to other companies across the globe. The Entrepreneur also delights in sports and adventures, where he heavily invested in Virgin clothing company, Virgin Atlantic flyer (dealing with adventurers investment of hot air balloons) and boat races across the Atlantic ocean, attempting to break records in air, land and distance records of all times. Mobile Airline Entertainment Financial Services Mobile phones Virgin Atlantic Virgin Active Virgin Biz.net Balloon flights Virgin Megastores Virgin direct Virgin bikes V2 Music Virgin Money Virgin blue Virgin. net Virgin Incentives Virgin express Virgin Music Virgin cars Virgin wine Virgin holidays Virgin free radio Virgin travel store Virgin books Virgin trains Virgin space Note. Spread out of Sir Richard investments in different industries. Adapted from “Virgin Atlantic Marketing Case Study,” by Manning, Salter & Tuinzing, 2005, p. 4. Copyright © 2005 SalterQuest.com. Adapted with permission. Concern in Environment Investment for Richard Branson correlates with environmental concern within which his aircraft enterprise operates. Due to global warming problems, he made progress by contributing $3 billion to invest in alternative fuel, despite the minimal greenhouse gaseous emissions of less than 3 percent: with regard to this, Branson began another business venture concentrating on building an ethanol plant in mid 2006, which would release virgin fuel product (Weiss, 2009, p.144). He portrays leadership skill of leading by example to the society and the entire globe towards safeguarding health and nature. Employees’ Management Branson’s business success is attributed to his employees, whom he gives priority so that together, they take the businesses to the next level. Just as he enjoys doing his work with flexibility, he is concerned about their welfare, and ensures measurable satisfaction in the working environment to motivate them in work. He understands one of the ways to success as having motivated support behind him to implement the ideas. Basically, when employees are motivated, they attend to customers efficiently, establishing a loyal customer relationship, which protects the business’s future market, and increases the flow of profits. According to Rifkin, Branson’s close association to his employees and the customers allow him understand their grievances, and to record items that need immediate attention (n.d, p.4). While most executives would avoid been involved in ground work, he uses the opportunity to participate, which means he gets to understand major steps and actions within the enterprise. Not that challenges are not there, but wise decisions and strategic actions have to be made. Conclusion Looking at Branson’s successful enterprises, it is obvious that he is an entrepreneur passionate of every business endeavor, and works purposefully to deliver satisfaction to the society. He is an inspiration to many who have not been lucky in educational plans, but have skills, talents and creative minds to prosper. His definition of leadership stands out as an example, in work delegation, employee management, risk taking, investments, ability to implement ideas, global environment concern, and privatization and partnerships towards organization support and performance. He takes the form of an entrepreneur who relishes not only in the value for money, but also in innovation, quality and fun. Reference List Dransfield, R., Fox, E., Guy, P., Needham, D., & Wilde, J. (2004). Business for Foundation Degrees and Higher Awards. Oxford: Heinemann Educational Publishers Manning, D., Salter, J. E., & Tuinzing, A. (2005). Virgin Atlantic Marketing Case Study. Retrieved from http://safarigraphics.com/salterquest/portfolioPDFs/ws_Virgin_Atlantic_Marketing_Case_Study.pdf Mills, A. J., C, J., Mills, H., Bratton, J., & Forshaw, C. (2007). Organizational Behavior in a Global Context. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. Rifkin, G. (n.d). How Richard Branson Works Magic. Retrieved from http://www.startupjunkies.org/Branson%20Case%20Study.pdf Schmidt, K. &Ludlow, C. (2002). Inclusive Branding: The Why and How of a Holistic Approach to Brands. New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan Solomon, L. D. (2008). The Privatization of Space Exploration: Business, Technology, Law and Policy. New Jersey: Transaction Publishers. The Success Story of Sir Richard Branson. (2008, July 21). Retrieved from http://en.articlesgratuits.com/article.php?id_article=3170 Virgin Atlantic Airways-Company Overview (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.virgin-atlantic.com/tridion/images/companyoverviewnov_tcm19-426059.pdf Weiss, J. W. (2009). Business Ethics: A Stakeholder and Issues Management Approach. Ohio: South-Western Cengage Learning. Read More