Entrepreneurship: Richard Branson and the Success of Virgin Group

This report provides insights into the life and achievements of Richard Branson, the founder of Virgin Group. It discusses his background, personality traits, the process of opportunity recognition and idea development, and the type of business development and competitive advantage he achieved. Recommendations for expanding the business are also provided.

Entrepreneurship

Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
Background of the Entrepreneur..................................................................................................3
Personality Traits of Entrepreneur...............................................................................................4
Opportunity Recognition and Idea Development process...........................................................5
Type of Business Development and Competitive Advantage.....................................................6
Recommendations........................................................................................................................6
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................7
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................8

INTRODUCTION
Entrepreneurship is considered as procedure of designing and launching and running an
organization that is based on a creative and innovative business idea. Most of the
entrepreneurship ventures starts at small level and have high growth rate in business
organization. The people who run the entrepreneurship venture are known as entrepreneur. This
report is based on the one of the most entrepreneur of United Kingdom, Richard Branson.
Richard Branson is founder of Virgin Group. He is well known entrepreneur and businessman on
global level. Brief background of the entrepreneur will be discussed in the report (Monitor,
2016). Various aspects of the entrepreneurship venture will be explained in report. The
personality and family background of the entrepreneur will be analysed in the report. Various
entrepreneurship traits will be analysed for the success of the business organization in the target
market. The process of opportunity creation and idea development also will be evaluated in the
report to get better response from market place. Brief discussion of business development and
competitive advantage in market place. Various recommendations will be made in the report to
improve the business of the organization in international market.
Background of the Entrepreneur
Richard Branson is one of the most celebrity figure in United Kingdom. Richard Branson
is famous as the founder of the Virgin Group. In my opinion there are various things present in
the personal life or professional life of a person that can lead their growth and development in
corporate culture. Richard Branson was born in year July 1950 in Blackheath, London, United
Kingdom. Richard Branson is famous as business man along with author and Philanthropist on
global level.
There are total more than 400 organizations are controlled by the Virgin Group around the world.
This is the reason why MR. Richard Branson is most famous person in global business market.
The organization that is founded by the Richard Branson is working in various fields that are
completely different from each other (Parker, 2018)
. The childhood of Richard Branson can not be considered as good time for him. IN my
knowledge there are various challenges are faced by MR. Richard Branson in his childhood. The
poor family background is major challenge for him. Richard Branson have two younger sisters

and his grandfather was judge at high court of Justice. His father had worked as barrister and his
mother was employed as flight attendant. Richard Branson has also health issue that is known as
dyslexia. Because of this disease he had faced many challenges in education time. Initially he
had started small business as small youth magazine. It was a publication that was run by
students. In my opinion it can be considered as his first exposure to the entrepreneurship.
He had started business with music record company and later he had expanded his business in
various industrial sectors. The initial education of the Richard Branson has complete from
Scaitcliff School which is prep school in Surry. He was dropped from school at the age of 16
year. This is the decision that made him entrepreneur of one of the most famous business
organization group in global market. HE has started his business from the music industry and
later the business expanded in other business sectors (Kuratko, 2016). Richard Branson is known
for his adventures spirit and porting achievement. There are various challenges are faced by
Richard Branson in personal and professional life but these experiences have made him one of
the few entrepreneur who have started their business at very low level and now considered as
most famous entrepreneurs around the world.
Personality Traits of Entrepreneur
There are different personality traits are require in a person to become a good and
effective entrepreneur in business corporate culture. In my opinion these traits can help the
individual person to become as most famous entrepreneur in the global market. Some of the main
traits of the entrepreneur personality are- passion, strong work ethics, strong personal skills,
determined nature, creativity, competitiveness, Self starter and open minded. These are main
characteristics traits to become good entrepreneur. These characteristics can be explained as-
Passion- entrepreneurs are passionate about what they do. This in most important for the
entrepreneur to become passionate about their actions that can help them to grow and develop
the venture on national and international level.
Strong Work Ethics- This is one of the best trait of the entrepreneur. It allows them to maintain
ethical environment in the business organization to keep people motivated and productive in
organization. This is how this trait help the organization to achieve high productivity in market
place.

Strong Personal Skills- This is highly important for the entrepreneur like Richard Branson to
reflect strong personal skills in the business organization in order to gain higher productivity in
market place (Fayolle, 2018). This process can help them to encourage the work force of the
organization to put their maximum efforts in the success of the organization in target market.
Determined Nature- This trait of the entrepreneur can be considered as the strong capability to
take decision and follows those decisions to prove self capability. This trait help the people like
Richard Branson to complete business objectives of the organization in market place.
Creativity- Creativity of the entrepreneur is considered as the capability of the person to
implement new thoughts and business ideas in the business in order to gain higher performance
standards in organization. By this nature entrepreneur like Richard Branson can lead their
organization to completely new height.
Competitiveness- Competitive ness of the entrepreneur can be considered as positive aspect.
This trait can help the entrepreneur to keep their business running effectively in market place
among other competitors in market place. This trait of Richard Branson allows him tpo take
greater risk in market place.
Self Starter- This trait also can be considered as the capability of the person to perform self-
motivation. This trait of Richard Branson helped him to come over the difficult situation with
personal life and professional life.
Open Minded- This trait is about the openness of the entrepreneur for new and creative ideas.
This trait can help the people like Richard Branson to get new ideas from different to improve
their business practices in market place to gain higher profit and grow their business more.
These are some characteristics of entrepreneur that can help them to be effective in
market place.
Opportunity Recognition and Idea Development process
Opportunity Recognition Process
In my opinion there is no specific process can be explained for the process of opportunity
recognition? This process can be considered as way to seek out and perceived opportunity in
various areas. In my opinion the main steps that are followed in the opportunity recognition

process are considered as- Preparation for recognition, incubation, insight, evaluation and
elaboration of the condition. This process can be used to recognise opportunity in market place.
Idea Development process
As per my knowledge Idea develop I consists of various steps that can help the individual to
develop idea in effective manner (Etzkowitz and Zhou, 2017). Some of the main steps of idea
development are- Kick-off, Identifying, strategize, gather information and understanding the
idea. This is how idea can be developed in individuals mind. This is all about finding ways to
address various problems and issues in daily life.
Type of Business Development and Competitive Advantage
As per the current business scenario there are different process of business development
can be used by the Richard Branson to develop Virgin Group on global Level. Some of the most
common business development processes which are used by the business organization are-
Franchising, Merger, Expending and Acquisition. These are most effective business development
process that can be used by Richard Branson.
Franchising- It is known as process to grant permission to particular organization to perform
business with name and standards of Virgin Group.
Merger- It ca be explained as process of forming one origination by combining two different
organization.
Expending- This process can be considered as development of business on new market with
completely new organization.
Acquisition- This process can be explained as complete takeover of an organization in target
market.
Recommendations
There are different process can be used by the company to expand their business to the
new location. These processes are known as franchising, merger, expending and acquisition. For
Virgin Group the best process is Acquisition process. This is one of the best process to expend
operation of the organization to new location. This can allow them to use the infrastructure to
complete their business operation to new location. Recommendation of business development

also has been provided in the report for the organization to expand business of organization in
market place.
CONCLUSION
This report is providing brief about entrepreneur around the world. The personal family
background of Richard Branson has been discussed in the report. Various personality traits of
entrepreneur has been analysed in the report. The process of opportunity recognition and process
of idea development also has been considered in the report. The process of business development
has been evaluated in the process along with competitive advantage of the organization in market
place.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Etzkowitz, H. and Zhou, C., 2017. The triple helix: University–industry–government innovation
and entrepreneurship. Routledge.
Fayolle, A., 2018. Personal views on the future of entrepreneurship education. In A research
agenda for entrepreneurship education. Edward Elgar Publishing.
Kuratko, D.F., 2016. Entrepreneurship: Theory, process, and practice. Cengage Learning.
Monitor, G.E., 2016. Global entrepreneurship monitor. Empreendedorismo no Brasil (Relatório
Nacional). Curitiba: Instituto Brasileiro de Qualidade e Produtividade, Paraná.
Parker, S.C., 2018. The economics of entrepreneurship. Cambridge University Press.