Virgin Group Company Profile and Entrepreneurial Skills - Lab Report Example

Company profile and entrepreneurial skills Virgin Group is the leading and largest airline in the world thatencompasses a consolidation of 400 companies. Founded by Richard Branson in 1970, Virgin Group started as a record retailer before it expanded to records shops in London 2 years later. Its commitments concentrate on modern technology, providing excellent customer service, diversification in customer choices and hygiene (Branson, 2012). The group has been leading the airline business by being efficient and effective in the maximization of business opportunities, responding to customer queries and feedback as a priority. This profile majors in different areas, most of which will help in understanding the factors behind Virgin’s success. Purposely, it will provide a detailed analysis of the marketing strategies adopted by the group. In this part, the paper will give an elaboration of the pricing policy and other strategies like employee training. Further, the paper will focus on organization culture prevailing. This will include the behavior and values the group considers worth. Lastly, this report will provide a detailed analysis of the motivation the company gives to the employee hence the evident success. As it will be evident in the report, employee motivation is a key factor in Virgin Group and a determinant in the overall job of every individual employee. Richard Branson’s Profile Born in 1950, biographers document Richard Branson as one of those entrepreneurs who have realized success at a young age. As a real risk taker, Branson incepted Virgin Group at the age of 20 years. However, unlike the expectations of many, he realized his goals. Worth noting, the success attribute to the group did not just happen majestically, but took the effort of the entrepreneur, through his learned skills. A common question is how this happen. Nevertheless, the platform and sequence of events and timing he had help us understand the source of success. As he initiated the group, Branson believe that in order to build one’s daily decisions and actions, it is important to belief (Branson, 2012). This is because every belief determines the action taken by an individual. On the same, it is through belief that individuals run away from actions whenever they realize an obstacle on their way. On the contrary, the entrepreneur believed that everything is achievable. From such an understanding, he used his excellent communication skill to reach out to people and sought ideas to develop his towards the goal he had. In summary, the major skills possessed by Branson that helped him meet his goals included being an optimistic thinker, which to scholars is more of an asset, a defined vision with the desire to take charge, and his drive and persistence despite challenges, which help to explain the self-motivation in him (Branson, 2012). Marketing strategies Marketing strategies contribute extensively to the results an organization realizes. As evaluation of every potential client within reach, Virgin Group has a good marketing strategy to remain competitive. It has pricing policies whereby every customer has available service in accordance to the need and affordability. It runs promotional activities and advertisements to create awareness of its available services thus increasing market share and customer base. Its distribution is widely spread all over the world by establishing outlets to reach its diverse and widely spread customers. This group has well trained employees and practices continuous training for its staff. Its services are of high quality, and they focus on each customer segment. The group is consistent in scanning the business environment. It identifies its strength and weaknesses in the business process. This helps it correct the weakness by finding out the most suitable solution. On analyzing any opportunity and/or threat within the external marketing environment, it strategizes on how to grab the present opportunity and respond to the threat (Ferrell and Hartline, 2010, p. 92). Virgin Group has policies and procedures that govern its operations. These policies enhance goal achievement and create order in business operations. Therefore, conflict of interests and negligence are at a bay. Budgets are of major concern because the company does not want to realize losses. The groups’ expenses are cost-effective. Its management ensures reduced costs and effective production. Therefore, the group operates within the set budget. Virgin Group is proactive in response to business needs since it provides opinions and option before the problem occurs. This has a competitive edge due to its capability to respond to customer need effectively before they complain. The group concentrates on Innovations and inventions through technology. This makes sure that new product lines are available to the customer, processes are short and quality of products is high. The group measures its performance periodically by checking it against its marketing plan and developed scorecard. The group actively appraises its staff, ensures staff development through trainings and seminars. Staff promotion, reward, and motivation are important in the group. To check on staff discipline within the company, penalties are established. The group believes in giving back to the society by concentrating on development and growth (Hellrirgel and Slocum, 2007, p.241). This includes its scholarships to less fortunate students, participation in sponsorships for community development projects like building of public health centers and children homes. Organizational culture The Virgin Group has well defined meanings and understanding that its entire employees and management share and are clearly relevant and distinctive. New employees learn and conform to the culture; therefore, it is a continuous practice. The group has observable behaviuors in which the environment can understand the brand image. These behaviors have earned the group a good reputation. The groups’ set values enhance employee behavoiurs while performing tasks and this reduces conflicts in the group therefore, promoting unity and oneness in mind setting. Therefore, the culture influences interactions among employees, with their supervisors and with customers. The group has criteria for allocating rewards to best performers. This influences culture since every employee gets the motivation to perform the best. The group culture enhances modeling of talents through the provision of career development and trainings whereby the employees internalize the desires values and culture. The groups’ culture gives the management platform and guidelines on how to respond to crises, technological changes, and economic factors. To enhance its culture, the group has an organizational creed and philosophy that contain its values which when put in practice, promotes the group culture (Hellrirgel and Slocum, 2007, p.240). Rewarding good behaviors in the work place promotes culture and influences the other employees to respond in a related way. On the other hand, discouraging unwanted behaviours through corrective feedback, initial verbal warnings, and then written warnings and finally firing those who do not respond as per the warnings. This makes sure that only the desired behaviours are retained in the group Motivation at Virgin Group Motivation in employees makes sure that they work harder and better therefore satisfy the customer needs. The group supports its staff by providing support in terms of skills and information. Positive feedbacks make them happy therefore execute their jobs with a lot of dedication (Podmoroff, 2005, p.78). Virgin Group management makes prompt calls to appreciate the employees who excel in customer service. Congratulating the best workers during meetings enhances motivation since every other employee would emulate the praised one. The company management instills positive attitude among employees by considering the economic climate when setting goals and targets. Therefore, team leaders encourage members to grab any opportunity in the market and convert them into sales. To motivate the members fully, the team leaders lead by examples and explain the actions to take. Virgin Group equips its employees with the right skills and tools for the job they perform. This is achieved through occasional trainings and seminars. It ensures that one has the right skills, support and tools to perform the assigned duty. This ensures that an employee has the empowerment to execute the job as per the customer specifications. The management responds to change in technology by training the staff on the new techniques and skills leaving the staff with the impression that the company cares for them; this motivator by itself. In addition, it shows the employees that the company cares about their welfare by responding to market challenges and supporting them when need be. Virgin Group ensures a clean working environment that is conducive to excellent performance. Generally, if the working environment is conducive, employees are willing to report to work early and can stay at the work place for a longer period than when the working environment is filthy. The groups’ employees enjoy employment benefits like health facilities and medical covers provided by the company. In addition, they also have meal allowances, transport systems, and house allowances (Podmoroff, 2005, p.33). To emphasize staff performance, the group has a rewarding scheme that ensures best performers are recognized. Its sales team enjoys a good deal in commissions regarding their sales therefore motivating them to work harder since they earn more when they work harder. It also allocates bonus to its entire workforce upon their appraisal scores against the set score card; therefore, this motivates every staff to work hard in order to get high bonus. In conclusion, this paper has evidently shown the significance of identification and implementation of initiatives in an organization to align with customers’ expectation. This has helped Virgin Groups realize their success. Further, the groups’ success is a result of its well-defined objective, adherence to its marketing strategy; organizational culture and making sure that staff are well and continuously motivated. This ultimately results into improved operations as ideas are translated into beneficial tasks. The above factors have given it a competitive edge over all the competitors. However, the increasing competition requires proper implementation of strategies to maintain the market share the group presently has. Just like evidenced in this paper, adopting a culture that fits the company’s operations best goes a long way towards realizations of set goals. Virgin Group has capitalized on its culture to ensure that all set goals are achievable. Besides, the groups understand the importance of employee motivation. This has not just happened; the management has managed to understand human nature as a prerequisite to realize effective employee motivation. References Branson, R., 2012. Richard Branson Nice Guy Can Finish. Entrepreneur.com. Retrieved on Nov. 14, 2012 from http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/217309 Ferrell, O.C. and Hartline, M., 2010. Marketing Strategy. New York: Cengage Learning. Hellrirgel, D. and Slocum, J.W., 2007. Organizational Behavior. New York: Cengage Learning. Podmoroff, D., 2005. 365 Ways to Motivate and Reward Your Employees Every Day: With Little or No Money. New York: Atlantic Publishing Company. Read More