Entrepreneurship: Virgin Group's Innovation and Leadership

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of Richard Branson and the Virgin Group, examining key entrepreneurial traits, innovative products and services, and the importance of innovation for organizational success. The report explores how Branson recognized and created opportunities, built his entrepreneurial team, and demonstrated leadership to achieve success. It also discusses the Virgin Group's contributions to the economy and the strategies employed for organizational growth. The analysis covers various aspects, including the company's corporate parenting strategy, its approach to talent management, its commitment to a positive organizational culture, and its ability to delegate effectively. Furthermore, the report highlights the group's diversification across multiple sectors, including leisure, travel, and financial services, and emphasizes the significance of innovation in addressing social and environmental challenges. The report also outlines the entrepreneurial journey of Richard Branson and the formation of Virgin Group, and also the leadership traits and strategies employed by Branson to manage his organization.

Entrepreneurship

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
A. About the Entrepreneur (or group of entrepreneurs) who was Behind the Organisation- ........3
Critically discuss the personality traits of the entrepreneurs..................................................3
How did the entrepreneur recognise the opportunity or did the entrepreneur create the
opportunity? ...........................................................................................................................4
What are the innovative products/services introduced in the market? ..................................5
Discuss why innovation is important for an organisation......................................................8
Entrepreneurial build the entrepreneurial team......................................................................9
Entrepreneur as a leader and become successful entrepreneur............................................10
How did the entrepreneur grow their organisation...............................................................12
Entrepreneur and their contribution to economy..................................................................12
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................14
REFERENCES .............................................................................................................................16

INTRODUCTION
Entrepreneurship is the creation of value that is described as the process of launching
and Successful entrepreneurs of UK running of a newly established business that is generally
stated as a small business with a willingness and the capacity to organize, develop and manage
the business venture to assume all the associated risks to earn higher profitability. The people
who are created the business are regarded as entrepreneurs, entrepreneurship is focussing on
running and launching of the business (Nambisan, 2017). Entrepreneur has to recognize the
potential of invention and further organize the talent, successful entrepreneurs of UK capital and
other resources so that invention can be turned into a commercial viable innovation. The term
entrepreneur is also capturing the innovative activities that is part of established firms addition
to other similar activities on part of starting of a new business so that there can be creation of a
higher economic value.
Virgin group is the business that is based on Branson family and is operating according
to its core values of development & nurture of the Valuable virgin business so that there is
aspiration of business for good. Virgin group of a global and a growth investor business that is
spanning across multiple sectors that is leisure, travel, wellness, health, music entrainment,
financial services. It was stated in year 1967 by the Richard Branson launched a student
magazine at the age of 15 years. Presently the report is based on the evaluation of key
entrepreneurial traits and the way entrepreneur are recognize the different attractive opportunities
in the market so that there can be launch of new innovations in the market in order to gain a
competitive advantage.
A. About the Entrepreneur (or group of entrepreneurs) who was Behind the
Organisation-
Critically discuss the personality traits of the entrepreneurs
Virgin group success is based on the corporate parenting strategy. Every new business
that is entering the entrepreneurship industry has used virgin group name according to the way
management style and value has been inherited in this organisation.

There are certain key personality traits of Richard Branson that has lead to growth of
Virgin group to its present position in the market. Some of his traits are mentioned below:
Stability to think differently: Branson has the ability that there is requirement of leadership skill
to think differently where they have focussed on democratic and the collaborative style of using
the autocratic style of management (Zahra, 2020).
An eye for talent: Richard Branson is believing that it is critical for business leaders to focus on
ability to get most from employees. Leadership of Richard Branson has lead to establishment of
a good cultural fit for business.
Positive organisational culture: Richard Branson is believing that there has to be directing to the
staff members according to strong leadership skills. As he believed that best candidates are
taking their roles seriously that is leading to a situation in front.
Delegation ability: all the successful business leader's have mastered the delegation art that has
lead to reduction of the workload and opportunities to ambitious employees that is going
freedom of encouragement.
Willingness to learn and listen: According to Richard Branson has always posses the trait of
listening. As a leader he belied that listening is as important as speaking as success is achieve
from learning and working with most inspired and inspiring people.
Passion: AS a successful entrepreneur Branson believed that leaders have to be passionate
enough to make all the strategic decisions that can lead to building of the teams and motivation
to the overall workforce. It will lead to identification of market gaps and then creation of
products that can lead to real difference in peoples lives.
How did the entrepreneur recognise the opportunity or did the entrepreneur create the
opportunity?
In year 1971 Branson established the most successful and the high profile ventures with
the virgin Atlantic airline where they took over the British airways that was one of the biggest
corporate rivalries. In 1986 Branson broke the world record by fastest crossing of the Atlantic
speedboat. In year 1993 Virgin radio hits the airwaves in UK that has been sold for four years
later. In this way the opportunity was identified by Branson.
In 1998 Virgin mobile was launched and it succeed massively after it was taken over by
the cable group NTL to form the virgin media in year 2006. Branson has achieved a annual

market of 8.5 million pounds with use of virgin brand. In year 2004, Virgin galactic is a airline
that operated in space with their first flight.
What are the innovative products/services introduced in the market?
The virgin group investment portfolio has diversified in many different areas across
multiple asset classes and different geographers with minority of investment that are part of
listed companies, venture capital, private companies and the real estate that are part of both
virgin brand and the non branded companies.

(Source: The Virgin Group is a global, growth investor founded by Richard Branson., 2020)
There have been many key innovations that has been launched by virgin group. As in
January 2020 Richard Branson has a view that virgin orbit will launch satellites in space as 747
airplay to virgin hotels that will lead to each and everything with higher personalisation a part of
the stay (Nambisan, Wright and Feldman, 2019). Virgin hyperloop is another innovation that has
created most eco friendly mass transportation system that can cut the overall travel time from
hours to minutes. Virgin group is working towards improvement of customer experience. Some
if the key aspects that has been focussed by Richard Branson includes focussing on the problem
then surrounding with the passionate people, embracing the innovative and diverse view points
& thoughts, listening to everybody ideas and then further simplification of the overall idea.

Virgin capital portfolio has invested by focussing on new opportunities of clear value proposition
and a credible businesses model that includes the provide of doorbell ring, money payment app
square, rise fund that is specializing in the segment of impact on investing.

(Source: The Virgin Group is a global, growth investor founded by Richard Branson., 2020)
They are part of multiple sectors such as health, wellness, entertainment, telecoms, financial
services, space, media etc. the diversification and the maturity of this portfolio has enabled the
virgin group to realise their preset holding and then reinvesting of the sales proceeds to develop,
support and then further work towards growth of the existing business. The principal activities of
virgin group includes investment management and the brand licensing (Five ways to innovate in
business, 2020).
Discuss why innovation is important for an organisation
Since the last few decades innovation has become one of the significant ways to combat
with the social threats and risks. Over last few decades innovation has become a way to combat

with the industrial revolution and focus on the energy driven consumption of fossil fuels that has
lead to rapid increase in CO2 emissions and disrupted the global carbon cycle that has lead to
planetary warming impact. Innovation is a key tool that is leading to new technological
development in meeting the social neds and further improvement of capabilities so that there can
be better use of resources and assets (Kuratko, and Morris, 2018).
Such as in case of virgin group there has been development of a sustainable airlines that
has lead towards reduction of aircraft emissions, virgin holidays and virgin Atlantic have reduced
the overall carbon emissions by 22 percent in the time period of last 9 years. Since year 2007
carbon emission have reduced and they have spend just 1.4 billion dollars on new jet engines that
has lead to savings of fuel costs. This has been major focus of the innovation to launch initiatives
around the flight food with further partnership with the sustainable restaurant association. Virgin
focus has been to Remove the foods that are leading to high situation of deforestation in their
menu. Branson as a entrepreneur is encouraging economies to compete with the “top innovator”
and they have achieved this tile to ensure that they are being on the creative leaders that can lead
towards need to embrace higher changes (Customer Spotlight: Innovation at Virgin Atlantic,
2017 ). These efforts on part of virgin group has lead them to achievement of significant position
to the industry to which they belong.
Entrepreneurial build the entrepreneurial team
As per the context, Richard Branson who is a successful entrepreneur everyone know
about the organisation and worth. The journey of building a organisation and leading a team of
Richard was discussed below. After the fail attempt of many business model and plan, At 1966
they used to launched a magazine named student and this magazine start-up are just growing as
Christmas and budgerigars start-up. In that magazine, Branson used to advertise popular albums,
driving his records sale in many ways (Belitski and Desai 2016). He interviewed various
personalities in that time for the magazine such as Mick Jagger and R.D. Laing. As a
entrepreneur he have some trait of leader. His continuously break the sold records. Branson used
to say that there is no any point starting for own business until do it in sense of frustration. At
that time, many product are sold in various discount offering. Branson start to create the Oxfords
streets in London. So these are some small business which is used to drive by Branson. The
formation of virgin group which is leading organisation and success full and more profitable
company of all time in career of Branson is started by investing money which is earn form the

store. Branson have already leading a team of many start-up. He made many efforts on employee
to stay for long in his organisation by rewarding, compensation and much more. Branson
launched the virgin records and Niks Powell. The virgin group is formulated and introduce and
that name was suggested by the a employee because they were new at their business. To start this
he leased studio for fledging artist and have many instrumentalist, they have airlines and many
more start-up (Isenberg, D.J., 2016). Which is usually followed by employee. Branson have
many business and these are all start-up in which he have a trait quality of leader and manage the
entrepreneurial team by their organisational role and responsibility.
Entrepreneur as a leader and become successful entrepreneur
Richard Branson was at that time an emerging entrepreneur. Their way of handling the
team, and making the organisation profitable and full of margin. He usually play the role of
leader in organisation. Some leader characteristic which is followed by Branson to handle the
various organisation.
Communication skills: As leader, Branson is always able to clear about the ideas and innovation
in front of employee. They encourage communication between various department and also
across the level. Branson avoid conflict and misunderstanding due to lack of communication or
by communication barrier.
Vision : Branson is an successful entrepreneur which happen due to long term vision. He know
where he want to go and how to achieve that. They just elaborate the vision to team and work on
it to make the vision is reality.

Supportive: The importance of initiation and reactiveness is followed by Branson. They usually
go to out their, to provide the support and help to team for achieving their goals (Kellermanns
and et. al., 2016) (Korobov and et. al., 2017). Branson always analyse the what think can grow
more and calculating the risk factor with team.
Self-belief: Branson have self-belief in themselves and has high level of confidence after failing
lots of time and success lot of time that experience built a self-belief. Branson know the strength
and weakness.
Share success tools: When the organisation get success in any business, as a leader Branson not
take all the credit. They usually acknowledge the contribution to teams and their member and
accolades with them in cheer full way.
Involved with team and members: Branson spend their time to employee, walk around the
organisation or various department, a clear interaction with various employee and some time
everyone and also see them how they are doing their job.
Honesty: As leader honesty is the best policy to achieve the desired goals and Branson have that
quality, they trust to team, employee and worker who performing their task in various aspect.
Learning: The leader is not only who spend time and motivation to employee, they always
updating their knowledge in such a way to create a learning environment in organisation. Which
help to develop new skill and experience to tackle the multiple problem and Branson follow this
rule. He updated himself and acquire new things and adopt it soon.
So this all aspect and skill, knowledge help him to built a recognition in team and team
help him to achieve the goals (Kraus and et. al., 2018). So as entrepreneur, Branson is well in
their work. This all characteristics help him to become successful.

How did the entrepreneur grow their organisation
The entrepreneur is a self motivated person, generally they came in market with new idea
and strategies. This strategies and idea help to develop the base of any organisation. To grow the
business motivation, support and learning is necessary, where the family support is very
important to grow the business. The skill and knowledge help to built new plan which is
innovative, support provide them encourage to do and learning create the continuous grow in
workplace. As per the context with Branson, Branson have many of qualities as leader and this
qualities help him to achieve the goals. Their are many failure faced by Branson which help to
acquire the experience and remind him that what mistake that he does in past and what not to do
in future, these qualities help the entrepreneur to grow the business.
Entrepreneur and their contribution to economy
Entrepreneur are help to create new firm and enterprise which is unique and different idea
and new innovation. The entrepreneur usually develop a new concept of firm in their country. It
also help to create the economical growth and firm contribute in them. The great entrepreneur
have ability to change the way of living and work in that particular culture. If the idea and
innovation is successful then its help to create the wealth and with the entrepreneurial
combination (Letaifaand Goglio-Primard 2016). The new enterprise also create the job and
contribute in country economy include GDP, net worth and capital of country. The new
enterprise help a country to in economic development which means a operation process which
change whereby the capital income of a country and enhance after a time. They came with
industrialisation and some of with new technology, as per this context, Branson and their firm
contribute in country economy and after the globalisation of enterprise help to increase the raise
in GDP and net worth of organisation and country too.
Capital formation: Entrepreneur help to save the issue of industrial securities. The investment of
money which is form bank or other help to create the productive utilization of national resource
which is available in a country. The rate of capital formation enhance which is important for the
instant growth of the wealth, so entrepreneur is the wealth creator of any country. As per the
Branson, they also increase the wealth of his county by their small and large enterprise. They
deals with other countries by lapping the international border which help to earn more profit and
revenue, which help to develop the economy of country.

Improvement in per capita income: Entrepreneur are located and helps to introduce new
opportunities. They change the dynamic and create the opportunity by converting the latent like
land, labour and capital which up into national income and wealth in the aspect of product and
goods. They usually develop the net capital income in the respect country which is essential for
generating new economic growth. As per this, Branson mobilise the resource of the country and
create the income in that country. The overall turnover form various firm help to contribute the
small fund help to grow in income. The local and large firm must contribute some amount of
income in country growth, which help to enable the raise in GDP and that create the overall
income enhancement of per person on base of per capita income.
Generation of job: New enterprise and new firm need some human resource for the work and to
achieve the objective of organisation. So, a new firm give the opportunities to unemployed for
employment. The entrepreneur introduce the job directly and indirectly. Directly they push the
employment by vacancy and all and offer the employee a new path of independent and better
life. And by indirectly, the large scale and small scale business generate million of job in local
and global level. Thus on this the entrepreneur help to increase the employment in the country.
As per the Branson, they have many of enterprise which need human resource, the firm hire
capable employee for the work and reduce the unemployment ratio in country (Liñánand et. al.,
2019).. The position is usually created by organisation and create the job opportunities in the
local are and when the enterprise is large and in global level, then the recruitment process is
taken for candidate which may follow long interview and selection process that lead to know the
employee in effective what that candidate achieve the goal in given time or not. Branson follow
this techniques in which candidate know the aim of organisation and they give their prospect
how they achieve the goals.
Balance regional develop: Entrepreneur help to remove the disparities of economical
formulation with the help of public and private sector. The new firm get sometime benefit with
the central and government in the form of various concessions and subsidies by government.
Help in improvement of living standard: entrepreneur create job opportunities which make a
unemployed to employed. The wealth is enhance and which create the living standard of many
people who are unemployed and common man. These offers of product and services at lower
cost and increase the species of utilization. Branson and team with organisation also hire number
of people and change the living standard of that people.

Economic in-dependency: The entrepreneurship is an major for the national income and self
income. This help to country in such a way like using the country resource and produce the
product, this help to reduce the dependency of product which is taken from the another country.
And also increase the exports of goods and service on the huge margin to another countries. This
help to create the economic independence (Mamabolo and et. al., 2017). As per this, Branson
and their organisation create the markup of wealth which is initially reduce the profit but after all
create the change in over country.
Overall the role of economic development means the process of change in per capita
income of any country which is enhance over a long period of time. The economic history which
is backward in nature. They develop their economic by self dependency of their own product.
These countries are like America, Japan and Germany. The important and essential role played
by the b entrepreneur is in formulation of the economic development and built the relationship
with other countries in the base of trade and export, imports of good and services. The
government and people realise that the increase in economic growth depend on the new firm
development (Muralidharan and Pathak 2018). It is essential to enhance the entrepreneurship
both in the aspect of quality and quantity. These entrepreneur utilise the potentialities of
country's available resource land, tech, capital, material etc. the role of development of economic
growth by entrepreneurship change from economy to economy. This all depend upon the
resource which is material, industrial, climate and the behaviour of the political system to the
entrepreneurial necessities. The entrepreneurship help to contribute more revenue in countries as
well create the opportunities in organisation. As per this Branson contributing more and more
everyday in economy. They shine as successful entrepreneur in their country, awarded by many
of award and rewards.
CONCLUSION
From the above mentioned different aspects it can be summarized that innovation in case
of entrepreneurship plays a very crucial role in developing a detailed overview of the way there
can be higher contribution towards overall development of society through such innovative
efforts of entrepreneurs through their venture. There are different aspects of innovation that are
part of every organisation such as it include the tech innovation, sustainable innovation that
further contribute towards creative leaders taking a step to be one of the top innovators and
embrace the need of change that is required in coming future time period. There are some of the

specific Traits and characteristic if a entrepreneur that lead them towards the path of success and
assist their business venture to gain the competitive advantage that is required in the present
scenario.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
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Isenberg, D.J., 2016. Applying the ecosystem metaphor to entrepreneurship: uses and abuses.
The Antitrust Bulletin, 61(4), pp.564-573.
Kellermanns and et. al., 2016. The resource‐based view in entrepreneurship: A content‐analytical
comparison of researchers' and entrepreneurs' views. Journal of Small Business
Management, 54(1), pp.26-48.
Korobov and et. al., 2017. The substance of a rational approach to entrepreneurship socio-
economic development. In Integration and Clustering for Sustainable Economic Growth
(pp. 207-223). Springer, Cham.
Kraus and et. al., 2018. Fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) in entrepreneurship
and innovation research–the rise of a method. International Entrepreneurship and
Management Journal, 14(1), pp.15-33.
Kuratko, D.F. and Morris, M.H., 2018. Examining the future trajectory of entrepreneurship.
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Letaifa, S.B. and Goglio-Primard, K., 2016. How does institutional context shape
entrepreneurship conceptualizations?. Journal of Business Research, 69(11), pp.5128-
5134.
Liñánand et. al., 2019. SMEs and entrepreneurship in the era of globalization: advances and
theoretical approaches. Small Business Economics, pp.1-9.
Mamabolo and et. al., 2017. Entrepreneurship management skills requirements in an emerging
economy: A South African outlook. The Southern African Journal of Entrepreneurship
and Small Business Management, 9(1), pp.1-10.
Muralidharan, E. and Pathak, S., 2018. Sustainability, transformational leadership, and social
entrepreneurship. Sustainability, 10(2), p.567.
Nambisan, S., 2017. Digital entrepreneurship: Toward a digital technology perspective of
entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, 41(6), pp.1029-1055.
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Rigby, J. and Ramlogan, R., 2016. The impact and effectiveness of entrepreneurship policy. In
Handbook of Innovation Policy Impact. Edward Elgar Publishing.
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