Strategic Leadership Assignment 2022

Running head: STRATEGIC LEADERSHIP
STRATEGIC LEADERSHIP: AN ANALYSIS OF THE LEADERSHIP STYLE OF
RICHARD BRANSON
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author’s Note:

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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................2
Overview of Virgin Group and Richard Branson............................................................................2
Meaning of Strategic Leadership and its importance......................................................................3
Main approaches to the study of leadership and its relevance to Virgin Group..............................5
Role of Richard Branson in developing strategy for Virgin Group.................................................5
Leadership values and ethics in driving corporate social responsibility and sustainability............6
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................6
References........................................................................................................................................8

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Introduction
As stated by Avery (2017), leadership is the process through which the leaders are being
able to motivate as well as influence the followers for the achievement of the goals or the targets
that had been outlined for them. Lang, Crosby and Kwong (2016) are of the viewpoint that
unlike the earlier times the leaders are playing an increasing important within the different
corporations and they are not merely relegated to the role of motivating or influencing the
behavior of the workers. On the other hand, it is seen that the leaders are increasingly
participating in the process of strategy formulation, helping the corporations to fulfill their
obligations as business corporations by undertaking different corporate social responsibility
(CSR) initiatives and also help the corporations to attain sustainability (Marques 2017).
Furthermore, the leaders are also required to take the help of suitable leadership strategies as per
the need or the demand of the corporations while focusing on the attributes of ethics and values
for leading their followers and also the corporations with which they are associated. The purpose
of this case study is to undertake an analysis of Richard Branson as a business leader while
focusing on the roles that he is presently performing within the corporation Virgin Group.
Overview of Virgin Group and Richard Branson
Virgin Group Ltd, founded in the year 1970 by Sir Richard Branson and Nik Powell, is a
British conglomerate corporation which extensive interests in the different industries like
telecommunication, airlines, retail, finance, healthcare, music and others (Virgin.com 2020). The
conglomerate presently has more than 200 private corporations and offers employment services
to around 71,000 individuals from the different parts of the world (Virgin.com 2020).
Furthermore, although the conglomerate under discussion here started as a small entrepreneurial

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venture yet presently it is seen that the concerned conglomerate is operational in almost all the
major nations of the world and its profitability for the year 2016 was £19.5 billion which in turn
made it one of the largest corporations of the nation of UK (Virgin.com 2020). In this relation, it
needs to be said that an important factor which had directly contributed towards the success
gained by the conglomerate under discussion here and that too within a very short time can be
attributed to the effective leadership offered by its co-founder Richard Branson.
Hunt and Fitzgerald (2018) are of the viewpoint that the name of Richard Branson is
famous within the contemporary business world not only for being the co-founder of Virgin
Group but also for his effective usage of the participative leadership style along with emotional
intelligence. Adding to this, Bruijl and Gerard (2018) have noted that through the effective usage
of these two approaches he had been able to motivate his workers and also create the kind of
workplace environment wherein the workers would feel motivated to perform as per the
maximum potential. Furthermore, the inclusion of the workers within the decision-making
process of the corporation, the usage of emotional intelligence to make them feel respected as
well as important and others while empowering the workers of the corporation had also
influenced them to take personal responsibility and interest in the growth of the corporation
(Mishra 2016). In the light of these aspect, it can be said that Richard Branson is the catalyst who
singlehandedly transformed a small start-up venture into one of the largest conglomerates of the
world through the usage of strategic leadership.
Meaning of Strategic Leadership and its importance
As discussed by Ma and Seidl (2018), strategic leadership is an important emerging trend
within the discipline of leadership and this is usually being seen as the utilization of strategy for

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the management of the followers or the subordinates. Adding to this, Norzailan, Yusof and
Othman (2016) have noted that the usage of the framework of strategic leadership requires the
leaders to express or for that matter to formulate strategic vision and also offer the required
motivation, coaching, mentoring and other similar services to the followers so that they would be
able to realize or achieve the same. Furthermore, the focus of this particular leadership approach
is on influencing the followers so that they would be willing to make voluntary decisions which
in turn would enable the corporation to achieve its long-term goals while being being able to
achieve sustainability as well as competitive advantage (Covin and Slevin 2017).
In the particular context of the corporation Virgin Group, it is seen that the strategic
vision that Richard Branson had formulated for the corporation is “diversify into as many
markets feasible, and extend the Virgin brand name further at a low cost; where stature could be
relied upon to reduce barriers to entry into static markets” (Virgin.com 2020). For the attainment
of this particular strategic vision, it is seen that Branson actively takes the help of the framework
of strategic leadership. For instance, intrinsic and extrinsic motivation are being offered to the
workers and Branson himself offers the required coaching, mentoring and other similar services
to the workers to ensure the fact that they are able to achieve the strategic vision of the
corporation (Schawbel 2020). More importantly, the participative leadership style followed by
Branson ensures the fact that the majority of the workers of the corporation are being included
within the decision-making process of the corporation and thereby able to contribute towards the
growth of the corporation (Williams 2017). The inclusion of the workers within the decision-
making process also ensures the fact that they take personal responsibility for the achievement of
the goals or the objectives that had been formulated by their consent (Avery 2017). This in turn

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had enabled the corporation under discussion here to attain a substantial amount of growth over
the years and also competitive advantage within the business sector of UK.
Main approaches to the study of leadership and its relevance to Virgin Group
Meyer and Meijers (2017) are of the viewpoint that the majority of the successful
business leaders like Bill Gates, Steve Jobs and others over the years had taken the help of the
autocratic leadership style for facilitating the growth of their corporations. Adding to this, Hunt
and Fitzgerald (2018) have noted that although this particular leadership approach had helped
them to attain success yet at the same time it needs to be the primary focus of the workers within
these corporations is on the monetary benefits offered by the corporations rather than facilitating
the growth of these corporations. It is precisely here that the importance of the strategic
leadership approach lies since through the usage of this particular approach the leaders have
opportunity to influence the workers to focus on the long-term growth of the corporation rather
than primarily on their own monetary benefits. For instance, in the context of Virgin Group it
had been seen that Richard Branson had been able to influence his workers to work for the long-
term growth as well as the sustainability of the corporation through the effective usage of
strategic leadership and also participative leadership approaches (Schawbel 2020). As a matter of
fact, the relevance and the importance of these two leadership approaches in the case of Virgin
Group becomes apparent when the initiatives undertaken by the workers in the recent times for
facilitating growth of the corporation and also the growth attained by the concerned corporation
are being taken into account (Bruijl and Gerard 2018).

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Role of Richard Branson in developing strategy for Virgin Group
Richard Branson over the years had played a pivotal role within the strategy formulation
or strategy development process which is being undertaken by the corporation Virgin Group.
However, an important difference between Branson and Bill Gates, Steve Jobs and other
contemporary business leaders can be attributed to the aspect that unlike them he involves the
different workers of Virgin Group within the strategy formulation process (Mishra 2016). The
primary idea behind this is to enhance the engagement of the workers towards the corporation
and thereby influence them to perform as per their maximum potential for the achievement of the
strategic vision formulated for the corporation (Muenjohn et al. 2018). This while enhancing the
financial performance of the corporation had also helped the corporation to attain long-term
growth and sustainability within the business market of UK as well.
Leadership values and ethics in driving corporate social responsibility and sustainability
Branson unlike the other contemporary business leaders takes the help of the concepts of
ethics and values for driving the CSR initiatives of his corporation. Firstly, there is a fair amount
of equality as well as fairness within the corporation and the adequate usage of emotional
intelligence as well as participative leadership style ensures the same (Schawbel 2020).
Secondly, the different CSR initiatives which are being used by the corporation are not merely
intended for boosting its brand image and thereby its financial performance but for the purpose
of making a real contribution towards the environment, economy and the society (Bruijl and
Gerard 2018). In addition to these, the environmentally sustainable practices which have been
used by the corporation over the years have positively affected the buying behavior its target
market which in turn had enabled it to achieve long-term growth and sustainability.

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Conclusion
To conclude, the leaders are playing a pivotal role within the different corporations and
rather than merely associated with motivating or influencing the followers for the achievement of
their targets they are presently involved in managing the strategic direction of the corporations.
Furthermore, the leaders are taking the help of the framework of strategic leadership for creating
adequate strategic vision for their corporations and also for influencing the workers to work for
the achievement of the same. In addition to these, unlike the earlier the leaders are including the
followers within the decision-making process which in turn enhances the accountability as well
as the engagement of the workers and thereby helps the corporations to attain their long-term
goals and also sustainability as well. These aspects of strategic leadership become apparent from
the above analysis of the same in the particular context of the business leader Richard Branson
and his corporation Virgin Group.

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References
Avery, G., 2017. Top leaders shift their thinking on corporate social responsibility. Strategy &
Leadership.
Bruijl, D. and Gerard, H.T., 2018. Sir Richard Branson: A Global Leader with a Difference. Th.,
Sir Richard Branson: A Global Leader with a Difference (January 31, 2018).
Covin, J.G. and Slevin, D.P., 2017. The entrepreneurial imperatives of strategic
leadership. Strategic entrepreneurship: Creating a new mindset, pp.307-327.
Hunt, J. and Fitzgerald, M., 2018. Styles of Leadership. Leadership: Regional and Global
Perspectives, p.62.
Lang, J.R., Crosby, C. and Kwong, E., 2016. New Law: Creating Your Strategic Leadership Role
in the Future of Law. TALL Q., 36, p.8.
Ma, S. and Seidl, D., 2018. New CEOs and their collaborators: Divergence and convergence
between the strategic leadership constellation and the top management team. Strategic
Management Journal, 39(3), pp.606-638.
Marques, J., 2017. Leadership and Purpose. In Leadership Today (pp. 7-19). Springer, Cham.
Meyer, R. and Meijers, R., 2017. Leadership agility: Developing your repertoire of leadership
styles. Routledge.
Mishra, A.S., 2016. The Role of Corporate Leadership in Business Growth. Effective
Executive, 19(2), p.5.

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Muenjohn, N., McMurray, A., Fernando, M., Hunt, J., Fitzgerald, M., McKenna, B., Intezari, A.,
Bankins, S. and Waterhouse, J., 2018. Leadership. Cambridge University Press.
Norzailan, Z., Yusof, S.M. and Othman, R., 2016. Developing strategic leadership
competencies. Journal of Advanced Management Science Vol, 4(1).
Schawbel, D., 2020. Richard Branson's Three Most Important Leadership Principles. [online]
Forbes. Available at: <https://www.forbes.com/sites/danschawbel/2014/09/23/richard-branson-
his-3-most-important-leadership-principles/#60cddf5f3d50> [Accessed 31 March 2020].
Virgin.com 2020. Virgin Group-Home Page. [online] Available at:
<https://www.virgin.com/virgingroup/content/about-us> [Accessed 31 March 2020].
Williams, D., 2017. Richard Branson as a Global Magnate. What to learn from him about
Business. GRIN Verlag.