Richard Bransons Leadership Style - Research Paper Example

Richard Branson’s Leadership Style The Virgin Group Preceding the first ever company operating under the Virgin brand name, Virgin Records, was a magazine initiative started by Richard Branson along with a friend in high school. Branson and his friend, Nick Powell operated the Student- title of the magazine from this basement at home and a year later Virgin Records came into being as a mail-order record company. Subsequently, two years later, Virgin Records grew into a recording company and over time Branson established Virgin Atlantic Airlines, Virgin Airship and Balloon Company, Virgin Company, Virgin Hotels, Virgin Holidays and Virgin Broadcasting. In total, there are over 60 companies operating under the Virgin brand name with the most recent being Virgin Galactic that was created in September 2004. Virgin Galactic illustrates Branson’s high-risk appetite where he signed a 21 million dollars deal that would see the company carry out space tourism. Primarily, the Virgin Group operates in three main areas lifestyle, entertainment and travel where Branson has been cited as saying that his business model has been found on starting businesses in new countries and markets as opposed to expanding the current businesses as this affords him a global presence. Notably also, the coming up of the business name Virgin where one of Branson’s associates stated that this signified their commercial innocence as every business they got into they were a virgin (Pfister & Tierney, 2008). In the 1970s, Richard Branson came up with principles that have long since defined the Virgin Group as they are its brand values; these are value for money, good quality, innovation, competitively challenging and fun. There being over 200 firms and foundations, the Virgin Group is not a single object but a congeries of firms and institutes that are mostly based in the United Kingdom. A distinguishing characteristic of the Virgin Group is the fact that the companies are all run separately and the only thing connecting them is finance and the brand name. Prior to being listed in the stock exchange in 1986, the Virgin Group was privately managed. This corporate structure, however, was not prosperous and as such it was made private again and this saw the market crash in 1987. Thereafter, Branson and other shareholders bought back all the shares at their original price of offer. In the subsequent years, Branson got into business ventures where customers were underserved and the Virgin brand name was only given to companies that had certain characteristics- innovation or high quality. The Virgin Group has been seen to grow organically rather than through acquisitions and this is their slogan where Branson and his team prefer re-establishments, not takeovers (Morschett, Shramm-Klein & Zentes, 2011). Richard Branson’s Leadership style One of the key characteristics of the Virgin Group is the minimal management layers where there is a small board and no bureaucracy. The idea of a huge global headquarters is strongly opposed as companies are encouraged to carry out their operations independently. Because of this, the Virgin Group is cited as an example of management through empowerment where a high level of flexibility is bestowed upon each company. This is emphasized as a feeling that has each company feeling like part of a family instead of a hierarchy. Organizing such a wide composition of hundreds of companies located in different parts of the world calls for having a sure instinct and communications that are run smoothly among employees as well as between employees and management. The same goes for customers where the Virgin Group aims to have barrier-free communication. This kind of communication among employees and between employees and management reflects the coordination mechanism that sees employees being given the highest priority. This defines the corporate culture of the Virgin Group where Branson’s disregard for bureaucracy and hierarchy is the main component as this encourages employees to approach the chairman and management when they have new ideas; moreover, it depicts Branson’s commitment to his employees (Morschett, Shramm-Klein & Zentes, 2011). In addition, adopting a hands-off leadership style describes Richard Branson as a venture capitalist and entrepreneur where this fits in with the Virgin Group’s over 200 companies as it would be impossible to have a hand in each and every one of them. By granting managers the freedom to operate their companies independently, Branson is seen to highly motivate them. The companies do not spend time having meetings or producing reports for corporate headquarters. This allows Branson to take a back seat and spend his efforts firing up his employees to keep them vibrant and dedicated to their work. He considers greatly noticeable media-catching adventures as a strategy in making the brand name globally recognized as he is the face behind the Virgin Group. He is able to generate publicity and promote all the companies under the group. Another aspect related to his hands-off leadership style is his upholding of values that make his employees want to work for him and remain dedicated, although it is difficult to pinpoint what exactly these values are where it comes out as running a business with a purpose not just for profit (Dearlove, 2007). Branson is contrasted from other leaders such as Bill Gates of Microsoft and Andy Grove of Intel who are visionary and known for their strategizing, where he is a prospector known for panning out several business ideas. Branson is renowned for firing up people for a particular business idea and letting them run with it. He inspires his employee, in a kind of buy-in tactic, where he is able to get them on board with regards to a new business and motivates them to achieve seemingly impossible goals. This denotes his charismatic personality that makes him relatable to people and an important factor that contributes to effective organizational leadership which is personal attribute of persons in managerial roles (Mills et al 2011). Branson attributes his ability to see beyond specific details and have a broader vision to his dyslexia saying it made him more intuitive; and has helped him with business creativity. Besides dyslexia, Branson was near-sighted and by the age of eight he could not read and this made academics challenging for him as such he dropped out at the age of sixteen with his headmaster telling him he would either end up in prison or become a millionaire. This drove him to entrepreneurship where he tried out various business ventures including selling Christmas trees and these experiences have greatly shaped the businessman he is today (Finkle, 2011). Moreover, Branson is depicted as a talent scout owing to the fact he lacks any kind of formal training with regards to business skills or even IT. He is good at marketing and publicity but even with these he lacks any kind of training and he expresses no interest in learning the theories, instead he opts to things his own way. This brings out his talent scout ability where he finds people to carry out operations of his companies and keeps them motivated through intrinsic ways that is, offering them job satisfaction by making them do their jobs purposefully and not just for profit. Branson has been seen to define employees as being entrepreneurs in their own right, not merely managerial pawns in a big chess game. He is good at getting exceptionally talented people to join his team and ensuring they flourish. Due to the fact that there is no bureaucracy and management layers are minimal, the Virgin Group is essentially chaotic where Branson is seen as an orchestrator able to conduct through the chaos and get his employees to work for the benefit of the Virgin Group (Dearlove, 2007). Branson possesses an architectural skill that has allowed him to structure his management in such a way that a creative, entrepreneurial spirit is manifested. This has ensured that companies under the Virgin Group can use their expertise and flair to generate profitability and growth. This coupled with his commitment to staff has allowed the Virgin Group to take on established industries and be a facilitator of change in the companies. He values speed in decision making thus he disregards board meetings and encourages employees who have new ideas to go ahead and implement them (Henry, 2011). Branson has been able to incorporate his outdoor experience and knowledge into a business venture. Another characteristic of Branson that defines his leadership style is passion where this sparks a creative, inspiring and fulfilling force that gives purpose to everything he does and is in turn infectious to his employees (Pfister & Tierney, 2008). Conclusion All in all, Branson is seen as an out-of-the-ordinary leader as he encompasses unconventional practices in business. A large part of his success as an entrepreneur is attributable to his personality which provides a learning framework for effective organizational leadership. This is because he illustrates the importance of having personal charm and being able to influence people especially being a person that did not do well in academics and lacks any kind of formal training in business, IT among other skills essential in business. His personal charm has allowed him to attract talent into his team and keep them working for the benefit of the Virgin Group and being influential has made him able to fire up his employees to be creative. Notably also, he has a high risk nature that saw him venture into already established industries for example with Virgin Airlines and Virgin Cola. His priorities as a leader are to his staff, customers and then the board. His high commitment to staff has allowed them to feel part of the family that is the Virgin Group and as such work together as a community that is, irrespective of working for different companies in different industries in different parts of the world. References Dearlove. D. (2007). Business The Richard Branson Way: 10 Secrets of the World’s Greatest Brand Builder. Minnesota: Capstone Publishing Ltd. Finkle, T. (2011). Richard Branson and Virgin, Inc. Journal of the International Academy for Case Studies. Volume 17, Number 5. Henry, A. (2011). Understanding Strategic Management. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Mills, J., Bratton, J. & Forshaw, C. (2007). Organizational Behavior in Global Context. Ontario: Broadview Press. Morschett, D., Shramm-Klein, H. & Zentes, J. (2011). Strategic International Management: Texts and Cases. New York City: Springer Publishers. Pfister, R. & Tierney, P. (2008). Recreation, Event and Tourism Businesses: Start-up and Sustainable Operations. Illinois: Human Kinetics. Read More