How Richard Branson's Leadership of Virgin Group Has Changed in a Globalized Environment over Time - Case Study Example

Student’s Name Instructor’s Name: Course: Date of Submission: A Discussion on the way Richard Branson’s leadership of Virgin group has changed within the context of a globalized environment over time. Introduction The world in the 21st century has witnessed rapid changes within different spheres of lives be it social political or economic dimensions. In this age people are more informed, people have interacted a lot and many people and organizations engage in extensive economic, social and political engagement in regions where they are not originally from (Cohen, 2010; Narasaiah, 2005). It is imperative then, that leaders have to look for ways to manage their organizations in the wake of an opened up global economy and several other implications of a rapidly globalizing world (Cohen, 2010). Richard Branson leadership This paper will seek to analyze the leadership style of Richard Branson. Richard Branson is a British entrepreneur who is perhaps well known as the founder of the virgin group which comprises more than 400 companies (Fertig, 2013). Virgin currently has more than 50,000 employees around the world in over 50 countries. In 2012 it raked in revenues of $24 billion. Branson’s companies are scattered all over the world with some operating as multinationals such the virgin airlines (Virgin Group, 2013). Richard Branson is known for his adventurous spirit and passion for business evidenced by his serial entrepreneurship tendencies where he has personally engaged in the opening up of the more than 400 virgin group companies (Fertig, 2013). Leadership has been defined as the ability of an individual to motivate and inspire his/her followers towards the attainment of set goal. The leader is a visionary who focuses ahead on where he/she intends to take his group and formulates a strategy on how to go about the whole process. Leadership is also bound to encounter opposition and challenges along the way and it is these negative forces that define the real character and intelligence of a leader. Leadership may present itself in different forms; an example of these is servant leaders who typically seek to serve their followers by enabling them achieve their objectives. The group’s objectives come before individual ambitions and passions (de-Vries & Treacy, 1999). There are also different theories meant to define the concept of leadership. One famous theory is the big man’s syndrome which postulates that a leader is born, not made. This is in the view that leaders have some inborn intuition not present in the ordinary mortals. However others may wish to protest with the notion that leaders are molded by the environment. This presents the classic debate of nature versus nurture. The point of agreement however is that all things rise and fall with leadership; poor leadership will result in poor growth and development of a group and vice versa for good leadership (de-Vries & Treacy, 1999). Each leader has a particular if not unique leadership style that they adopt to lead their groups. This may be informed by the character and construct of the leader or the environment within which the leader is leading the group (Schein E. M., 2004). Richard Branson’s own style of leadership is a charismatic and transformational leadership. He is very determined at establishing and maintaining close working relations with his team of managers and employees. Branson style of leadership mirrors his bias towards entrepreneurial management of businesses where managers and leaders usually disregard the hierarchical kind of relationship to favor an open-door kind of leadership where the leader is very close to his followers so as to empower them Branson cannot manage all his 400 companies by his own and as such has to rely on the skills and capability of his team which he actively selects and helps in fitting into the groups interests (Fertig, 2013). The paper has chosen to specifically focus on the leadership of Richard Branson as he is an example of how transformational leadership which focuses on building self sustaining systems clan be established. Branson has been able to put a successful brand in the world majoring in different sectors. He has achieved this by making his management team and employees believe in his dream and vision. It is challenging to have a single brand name in different sectors just like virgin has done. Failure in one sector would mean the other group members risk being associated with the bad publicity. As such it is a major achievement for Branson to use a single brand name associated with quality in all the sectors that the brand virgin operates in (Fertig, 2013). Despite having amassed all this success, Branson dropped out of high school at the age of 15. He struggled with dyslexia for quite some time before he learned it was actually strength he could exploit to become one of the most renowned entrepreneurs in the 21st century. It is admirable how with this little education Branson became a master in spotting opportunities and rallying managers behind him towards his goals and vision for his group. It’s also admirable how customers have regarded his brand in all sectors as high quality brand to be associated with (de-Vries & Treacy, 1999). This is a true example of transformational leadership which has also been exhibited by Steve Jobs of Apple Inc who also dropped from college to found one of the greatest technology companies in the 20th and 21st century. The thing with these leaders is that they approach leadership holistically by inspiring passion in their employees to love whatever they do. The employees consider themselve a family and actually own the success of the brand in various ways. They also feel the loss when their brands fail to succeed in the market (Fertig, 2013). Globalization and Virgin Group The virgin group of companies is comprised of different companies operating in different sectors. The virgin airline business is perhaps the most popular. The virgin airline operates in several routes offering high quality services to clients (Virgin Group, 2013). The business has however come face to face with some of the global challenges such as inconsistent fuel prices. The escalation in fuel prices has caused the airline to close in destinations such as East Africa over the past few years. The airline has also experienced unfair competition practices such as a case in which he engaged in protracted court battle with British airways where the latter was accused of stifling virgin Atlantic growth by poaching its clients and hacking its computers to aid publishing of stories that casted virgin Atlantic in bad light (Branson, 2011). Other companies such as virgin mobile and virgin money are all subject to global turmoil and economic booms and recessions. This is most likely going to impact on the profitability and success of the companies as far as consumption of the products and services is concerned. This is the new face of globalization, where problems from a single big economy have far reaching effects on the entire global economy posing great challenge to globally present companies (Denning, 2011). Branson as the founder and leader of the virgin group of companies, is responsible of ensuring that the businesses under the virgin group all post healthy revenues from their operations otherwise they would affect the whole group. At some instances, Branson has had to sell some entities to bail out poorly performing entities (Fertig, 2013). He sold virgin records to help virgin Atlantic with its financial problems. Branson also takes a great deal of effort and time in assembling an able team for every company so that it can commence on a good footing towards its objectives chief among them to stay true to the vision of the virgin group and the values that Branson and his team stand for. To do this he engages in a rigorous recruitment process to get the best talents for the job to get the best results and above all time to take care of the other businesses and focus on the big picture in regards to virgin’s future (Branson, 2011). Culture is a people’s way of life. Culture dictates what people value and the behaviors they should depict and how they expect others to treat them (Hofstede, 1991). According to (Schein E. H., 1985) every society believes that their culture is superior and should be treated as such. In the global context this more often results in conflicts where some people feel their culture is not valued. As the world becomes a closely knit global village, there is more marriage of cultures which are just convenience kind of relationships where people don’t completely disown their culture but seek to entrench their beliefs and ways of life in different contexts (Millls, Bratton, & Forshaw, 2006). This has resulted in a situation whereby heterogeneity of global; cultures is more evident especially in major global business cities. Today’s workplace, especially in multinationals contains people from different ethnic backgrounds, race and religion. The diversity means that conflict is more expected than in a homogeneous workforce mainly due to cultural differences (Schein E. H., 1985). In regard to this phenomenon, leaders are presented by a whole new challenge that needs to be addressed in a different more innovative manner to achieve organizational efficiency. Schein (2004) specifically puts it that of utmost importance is to devise a policy that will feel more inclusive of all cultures. A policy that will be evident in the hiring process, treatment to employees, provision of development opportunities and recognition of cultural differences through understanding what matters most to people from different cultures (Robinson & Harvey, 2008). Virgin group under the leadership of Branson Virgin has been able to tap into the talents and experiences of its global workforce. The employees refer to themselves as a team (Branson, 2011). Branson himself takes part in so many public relations events. In fact he is always present whenever major virgin brands are launching their products. He promotes a culture of inclusivity where all the employees despite their cultural or religious backgrounds work together as a team for the success of the brand. The airline has also blended in with local cultures wherever it operates by offering a service that is highly identical to the locals’ way of life (Fertig, 2013). The brand also rides on the major attractions or features that define a country or region to market it (de-Vries & Treacy, 1999). By adopting such names as virgin Atlantic, virgin America and virgin Nigeria, it shows the brand is determined to be associated with the people of the regions it is operating, unlike other multinationals that don’t have such regard (Fertig, 2013). The level of turnover in virgin is also low as the management strongly encourages hiring of competent people who will blend despite cultural differences to give a remedy for success they can believe in (de-Vries & Treacy, 1999). As businesses rake in profits, they have also to be concerned about their impact to the environment and also what good can they do, not for profit but for the betterment of mankind in the world. Big corporates can no longer make huge profits and share it amongst themselves with little regard to giving back to the society which is the custodian of wealth in world. The law may play its part in collecting taxes but it cannot determine what the owners do with the rest of the money (Edwards, 2004). To respond to this changing situation where brands are judged on how responsible they are to the society and not by profitability (Cohen, 2010); Branson has established a number of initiatives to advance the idea of a pragmatic approach to global problems. Branson founded the virgin earth challenge, in which he together with a team of judges award an annual prize to an individual or group that comes up with a commercially viable idea that will aid in removal of harmful gases and greenhouse gases from the earths atmosphere (Fertig, 2013). Industrialization inspired by technology has been blamed for emission of harmful gases and as such leaders need to look for new ways of doing things and how effects of technology in the environment can be addressed for the benefit of all (Cohen, 2010). This means the traditional idea of the leader knows it all is not practical but rather a new approach where the views of all stakeholders need to be listened to in order to make informed decisions since actions of a single nation or multinational may have huge impact on the global family. Branson has also endeavored to build a team of managers to take care of the businesses he establishes all over. This is in a view to making the entities more flexible and creative on their own to respond to the local challenges facing the company without having to engage Branson directly. It is the new face of managing transnational businesses where leaders only play a facilitative role as they can be directly involved in active running of the businesses (Fertig, 2013). It will be right then to state that Branson’s leadership style has been influenced a lot by changing global environment in terms of politics, technology, and environment and consumer enlightenment. Branson has had no problem with being flexible as he has always been passionate about entrepreneurial style of management, but he has had to adopt a more hands off management where he has allowed his team to do their work while he has extra time to look into the future of the group. Under the leadership of Branson, the virgin group has endured many challenges along the way such as financial instability, criticism on Branson’s strategies of doing business and rough economic times. The group has however emerged strong from all these problems under the visionary leadership of Richard Branson (Branson, 2011). The group has also been taking advantage of opportunities to open up new markets and revenue sources for the company. Virgin group is said to be in advanced stage of starting space tours under its virgin galactic tours. This has not happened before but there exists wealthy people who can afford the space trips in virgin’s space ship (Fertig, 2013). Less ambitiously though, virgin acquired 30 percent of northern rock in a deal to bail it out from financial crisis after which it was renamed virgin money (Virgin Group, 2013). This shows the commitment to getting into challenging situations head-on and making a viable opportunity out of them. Virgin has definitely learned from its mistakes and success to build a strong global brand. Richard Branson has been tenacious at approaching business opportunities and leading his team to brave new grounds where they expect to replicate the same success they have in other areas (de-Vries & Treacy, 1999). The group is known to invest in very different sectors such as airlines, mobile, entertainment, hotel, rail transport, tourism and the likes. Branson is involved in developing the business plans and helping to execute them. He is flexible all rounded courageous leader known to lead from the front. He is the leader that the business deserves to steer it to new heights in terms of profitability and growth (Fertig, 2013). Conclusion The world has slowly but steadily moved towards becoming a closely knit global village where nations come together to form one big international community. The result of this can be seen in social, economic and political spheres of the member nations. Globalization also brings with it competition from other countries and increased opportunities in form of markets and unexploited resources. Leadership then has to be well advised about the global environment to know how to deal with the new challenges and also take advantage of the new opportunities that present themselves due to globalization. There are also varying challenges such as a complex global economy where hiccups in one region may have massive impact on other countries as well. The virgin group has had to adapt to changing global context by adopting a more flexible entrepreneurial approach towards opportunity exploitation and solving of its problems. The transformational and charismatic leadership of Richard Branson who is also the founder has ensured the company relies on its vision and core competencies to sustain a strong brand even in the face of a challenging global economy. References Branson, R. (2011). Losing my Virginity. Ebury Publishing. Cohen, S. L. (2010). 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