Contemporary Business Leader Richard Branson - Essay Example

Instructor Marnie Davis

Leadership is an essential element that determines the level of performance and the achievement of any organization. Some of the most successful leaders in the contemporary business world have mastered leadership and management concepts and theories that have contributed to their success. Successful business leaders also identify and utilize various power bases to influence their employees and drive performance. This paper discusses Richard Branson, one of the most influential contemporary business leaders in the twenty-first century. It evaluates the leadership theory behind Richard Branson's successful venture. The paper further evaluates his power base, identifying his greatest career achievement, the greatest challenge faced, and compares his leadership against competitors in the same industry.

Contemporary Business Leader

Sir Richard Branson, the British billionaire and founder of the Virgin Atlantic, is undoubtedly one of the most successful and influential business leaders without any formal college degree. Despite battling dyslexia at a tender age, his remarkable entrepreneurial achievement makes him one of the most inspirational leaders to both established and upcoming entrepreneurs. And unlike most leaders who serve in their companies for a limited period, Richard Branson continues to serve the Virgin Atlantic Group, a venture capital conglomerate operating in different sectors over three decades later.

One of the reasons the Virgin Atlantic has remained successful is due to Richard Branson’s leadership style. According to Akingbemisilu (2018), Richard Branson’s transformational leadership style has been key to the success of the Virgin Atlantic Group. Arguably, Richard Branson’s transformational leadership style inspires and motivates his employees and partners to find innovative solutions that continue to shape the success of the Virgin Atlantic.

Leadership Approach

The rapidly evolving business world requires that business leaders create high-performing teams to deliver on the company's goals. The effectiveness and output of employees also depend on the leadership that the company’s top management adopts. As Akingbemisilu (2018) notes, Richard Branson employs the situational leadership theory in managing the Virgin Atlantic Group. This leadership theory contends that because no single leadership style can be applied to fit all situations, leaders take on different approaches depending on the nature and circumstances of the situation.

Furthermore, Uhl-Bien et l (2018) posit that leaders using the situational leadership theory can manage the complexities in major companies. The virgin Atlantic Group operates in several sectors and geographic locations. Thus, adopting the situational theory helps leaders such as Richard Branson handle the dynamics associated with dealing with multicultural teams.

Greatest Achievement

The airline industry is one of the industries that require huge capital investment to venture. The industry is often dominated by large established multi-corporations that can make entry into such industries devastating for entrepreneurs. This was the case when Virgin Atlantic Airlines was entering the airline industry in the UK. Big players like British Airways were a major huddle for entry into the market.

However, as Niphadkar (2017) states, his innate leadership qualities and skills saw him design the Virgin Atlantic company that disrupted the UK's airline industry. Equally important is the success of other ventures, including his investments in the music, hotel, and hospitality industries. Notably, Richard Branson’s focus on delivering affordable customer delight experiences build on reputational branding was one of the most successful career achievements on his business journey. His innovative and vibrant advertising and marketing techniques have been instrumental in the success of the Virgin Atlantic.

Handling a Challenge

In the world of business, challenges are inevitable. The success of a company depends on the ability of its leader to handle and manage challenges. One of the greatest obstacles when getting into the airline industry was that the Virgin Atlantic Air had only one plane (Clarkson, 2015). This situation caused the company to experience logistical and banking problems before it could establish. Virgin Atlantic Air also faced criticism and challenges from strong competitors.

However, rather than pulling out of the market because of the many obstacles, Richard Branson persisted. He restructured the company budgets and employed remarkable marketing techniques to combat the airline industry's stiff competition. He was determined to overcome the status quo and achieve the vision of providing a customized experience for his target market.

Richard Branson thus handled the challenges from a leadership perspective. He notes that while managers serve to guide teams in playing by the rules, leaders chart unexplored paths to find solutions to emerging challenges. Leaders also bear visions that drive them to build teams to achieve stellar performance (Preston, 2017).

Power Base

In handling the multiple challenges, including stiff competition, inadequate funds, and logistical problems, Richard Branson used both expert and referent power to handle the situation. Expert power is drawn from possessing extensive knowledge as well as experience. On the other hand, referent power stems when people can identify with the leader and seek to offer loyal support (Uhl-Bien et l (2018).

Richard Branson employed expert power spanning from several years in business to maneuver the financial challenges and competition to set up the Virgin Atlantic Airline. Furthermore, referent power is demonstrated through his working with people he trusts. His value towards employees' welfare creates a sense of loyalty, inspiring teamwork, and support that saw him traverse the challenge and established the Virgin Atlantic Airline (Clarkson, 2015).

Leadership Comparison

Elon Musk is the founder and CEO of Tesla Motors, Solar City and SpaceX. While all the three ventures have had a significant impact in the motor and energy sector, the successful launch of SpaceX, a space manufacturing and transport service company, has seen Elon Musk rise to popularity on international media (Gilbert-Bonne, 2017). Elon Musk SpaceX project makes him one of the greatest competitors to Richard Branson’s Virgin Atlantic Air.

While Richard Branson and Elon Musk have both created successful brands, they exhibit different leadership theories. Unlike Richard Branson, Elon Musk employs a contingent leadership theory. According to this theory, the leader adopts different leadership styles in handling different circumstances. Furthermore, unlike Richard Branson's transformational leadership, which seeks to inspire his staff to find innovative solutions, Elon Musk employs a complex leadership style incorporating authoritative, democratic, and coercive tactics to achieve his goals. For instance, in Elon, Musk employs democracy to solicit feedback from his team and coercive leadership to achieve compliance and when dealing with crises (Gilbert-Bonner, 2017 & Uhl-Bien et l (2018).

Whereas the two leaders may have differences in terms of their leadership styles, continuous innovation, and the ability to take risks seem to be common between the two leaders. For instance, both leaders have pioneered their spacecrafts despite the industry being one of the highest risks. Thus, both leaders can be termed successful, as evidenced in the continuous investments, they continue undertaking to expand their businesses.

Attributes

Personal attributes are an important aspect of successful leaders. Investment is often a risky venture that requires leaders to possess specific attributes to inspire peak performance and handle volatile situations objectively. Among the most important attributes that Richard Branson demonstrates are emotional intelligence, confidence, and listening. Emotional intelligence allows one to understand their emotions and the emotion of other people around them. Confidence involves a belief in one’s projection while listening involves the accurate receipt and interpretation of information.

For instance, Richard Branson has created a culture in which he listens to all employees, giving them opportunities to experiment with novel solutions to emerging problems. His emotional intelligence has enabled him to foster a culture in which employees' well-being is kept as a priority, emphasizing enjoying having fun at work. Furthermore, Richard Branson’s effective listening skills have been instrumental in negotiating business deals. All these attributes have enabled him to create an organizational culture that inspires innovation and values its employees, consequently driving peaking the Virgin Atlantic to peak performance (Akingbemisilu, 2018)).

Conclusion

Richard Branson thus remains one of the most successful business leaders in the airline industry. Branson's success in business can be attributed to his transformational leadership style and situational leadership theory. Furthermore, his expert and referent power bases drawn from years of experience and loyal employees have contributed to his successful business career. His success can be attributed to his emotional intelligence, listening skills, and confidence, which have enabled him to create a strong culture and brand at the Virgin Atlantic Group.

Reference

Akingbemisilu, Tosin. (2018). Critical Evaluation of the Application of Leadership Theories to a Leader in an Organizational Context and Management Theories to a Contemporary Organization (A case study based on Virgin Group Limited and the Co-Founder, Sir Richard Branson). 10.13140/RG.2.2.21903.53922/1

Clarkson, N. (2015). Richard Branson's advice for embracing obstacles. Retrieved from https://www.virgin.com/entrepreneur/richard-bransons-advice-embracing-obstacles

Gilbert-Bonner, Patti. (2017). Elon Musk - A failure is an Option. 10.13140/RG.2.2.33624.70407

Niphadkar, C. (2017). The new age transformational leader: Richard Branson. International Journal of Scientific & Engineering Research, 8(6), 542-547.

Preston, J. (2017). Understanding the Richard Branson approach to leadership. Retrieved from https://www.virgin.com/entrepreneur/understanding-richard-branson-approach-leadership

Uhl-Bien, M., & Schermerhorn, J. R. (2018). Organizational behavior and exploring management. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley & Sons.