Entrepreneurship and the Economy: A Case Study of Richard Branson

This essay delves into the crucial role of entrepreneurship in establishing and maintaining a robust global economy. It defines entrepreneurship as the process of creating new business ventures based on innovative ideas, often involving the reinvigoration of traditional business models. The essay highlights the importance of entrepreneurs in formulating business ideas, strategizing, and managing various aspects of their ventures. The organizational prospects of an organization depends greatly on the entrepreneurial vision, mission, strategic planning and other aspects of the entrepreneurs. The essay uses Richard Branson and the Virgin Group as a case study, examining his entrepreneurial journey, leadership, and contributions to the UK and global economies. The essay also discusses Branson's contributions to job creation, economic growth, and the challenges he faced, including difficult business decisions, ethical dilemmas, and legal disputes. The essay concludes by emphasizing the direct correlation between entrepreneurial activities and economic growth, including job creation, wealth generation, and the overall improvement of regional and national economies.

Running head: ENTREPRENUERSHIP AND ECONOMY
Role of Entrepreneurship in helping to create a strong economy
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author’s Note:

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Introduction
As opined by Scarborough (2016), entrepreneurship can be defined as the activity or
the process of through which the entrepreneurs establish new business ventures on the basis
of the innovative ideas that they have. On the other hand, Chell et al. (2016), are of the
opinion that it is not necessary that the business ideas which forms the basis of the business
ventures that these individuals have to be something “out of the box”. However, most of the
time it is seen that the business ideas which are being utilized by these individuals are the
reinvigoration of some of the older business ideas or models that had been used by the other
organizations since the traditional times so as to gain success (Sadler-Smith 2016). In this
regard, Llopis et al. (2015) have defined entrepreneurs as the individuals who create or
establish new business ventures which in one way or the other different from the ones which
have been dominating the business world since the traditional times.
Entrepreneurs are thus entrusted with the work of formulating the basic idea behind
the formation of any new business venture, determining the kind of products or services that
the concerned venture would offer to the customers, strategically planning the strategies,
policies and other aspects of the concerned business venture (Dees 2017). Thus, the
organizational prospects of an organization depends greatly on the entrepreneurial vision,
mission, strategic planning and other aspects of the entrepreneurs. More importantly, along
with the contribution that the entrepreneurs makes towards the establishment of an
organization and also the management of its diverse aspects they are also playing an integral
role in the establishment of a strong world economy on the score of the contribution that
these organizations are making towards the world economy (Sadler-Smith 2016). This essay
will evaluate the role that the entrepreneurs play in the establishment of a strong world

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economy in the particular context of the contribution made by the entrepreneur Richard
Branson of the Virgin Group.
Richard Branson as an entrepreneur
Sir Richard Charles Nicholas Branson or more commonly called by the name of
Richard Branson, born 1950, is perhaps one of the most influential entrepreneurs of the 20th
century who single-handedly changed the landscape of the UK and also international business
(Niphadkar 2017). As a matter of fact, he showed entrepreneur skills from an early age and at
the age of 16 years he established the magazine, “Student”, which had a successful run for a
brief period of time (Wilkinson 2015). In the year 1970, he established mail-order business
and also a chain of record stores which was called by the name of “Virgin Records” or
“Virgin Megastores” (King et al. 2015). This business venture is often seen as a prototype of
the actual Virgin Groups which he founded a few years later. This business venture within a
very short time gained much popularity and in the 1980s he established the “Virgin Airlines
Group” which was to further enhance the prospects of his business (Cook 2018). More
importantly, in the year 2004, he established a spaceflight corporation called “Virgin
Galactic” which offers space tourism options to the individuals (Muegge and Reid 2018).
King et al. (2015) are of the viewpoint that the entrepreneurial vision, effective
leadership abilities, the use of emotional intelligence and other aspects of the character of
Branson were the primary reasons for the unprecedented success attained by the organization
“Virgin Group” within a very short time. It is the result of this that the Virgin Group
presently is a conglomeration of more than 400 different companies and is operational in
almost all the major nations of the world (Leyden 2016). More importantly, for the year 2016,
the net revenue generated by the organization under discussion here was £19.5 billion and
Branson himself is currently one of the richest individuals of the world with a net worth of

3ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND ECONOMY
more than US$5.1 billion as of 2018 (Virgin 2019). In addition to this, the Buckingham
Palace, knighted him for his “services to entrepreneurship” and also the contributions that he
made towards the retail, airlines and music sector (Wilkinson 2015). Furthermore, in the year
2007, the Time’s Magazine named his as one of the “100 Most Influential People in The
World” to honor the contribution that he made towards the business world in the
contemporary age (Virgin 2019).
Entrepreneurship and the development of a strong economy
According to Devece, Peris-Ortiz and Rueda-Armengot (2016), the activities of an
entrepreneur and the factor of the economic growth of a nation are directly correlated to each
other and one factor affects the other in a linear manner. As opined by Spigel (2017), the
activities of an entrepreneurs are directly associated with various opportunities like the
creation of new jobs, stabilization of regional economy and development, wealth creation as
well as sharing and others. For example, it is a commonly accepted fact that the employees
are the backbone of the modern organizations and the different business ventures established
by the entrepreneurs need adequate number of employees or workforce for the completion of
different kinds of job roles (Korsgaard, Müller and Tanvig 2015). This in turn creates job
opportunities for the unemployed population of any nation which in turn helps in the
improvement of the economic condition of not only the individual people of the nation but
also of the nation itself.
The establishment of new ventures along with the creation of new job opportunities
also improves the condition of trade and commerce in the region of their operation through
the establishment of effective trade relations (Leigh and Blakely 2016). This enables the
organizations to earn a higher amount of revenue which is not only important from the
perspective of these organizations but at the same time from the perspective of the concerned

4ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND ECONOMY
region as well since a part of the revenue earned by these organizations goes to the national
government as taxes, tariff charges and others. More importantly, this capital helps the
organizations to invest in various kinds of developmental projects and also to invest in
various other business activities which in turn help in the improvement of the GDP of the
concerned region and also the nation itself (Dees 2017).
Contribution of Branson towards the strengthening of UK’s economy
Virgin Group, the business venture of Branson, which started as a small organization
in UK, currently offers employment to more than 71,000 of the people from the different
parts of the world (Virgin 2019). Needless to say that this has helped the different nations of
the world to address the wicked problem of unemployment in a substantial manner and has at
the same time reduced the unemployment rate of the world. In addition to these, the
conglomeration of 400 companies offers the right kind of flexibility as well as mobility to the
national economy of the UK not only by means by the economic wealth that they create but
at the same time through the enhancement of business competition and also the enhancement
of the choices or the options that are available to the customers (Wilkinson 2015). This in
turn had forced the different organizations of the nation to offer better quality of products or
services to the customers of the nation and also to look for new business markets abroad
which in turn has increased the amount of profit or revenue earned by them. This is directly
related to the economic growth of the nations in which these organizations are operational.
Branson and his organization follow the Triple-Bottom line approach to sustainability
within the framework of their business operations. In this context, it needs to be said that the
organization taking the help of this framework seeks to bring about the economic
development of the regions or the nations in which it is operational (Niphadkar 2017). For
example, the high amount of profit earned by the organization under discussion is an

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indicative of the substantial amount of capital that the concerned organization pays to the
national governments of UK, Australia and other nations (King et al. 2015). More
importantly, Richard Branson along with Bill Gates, Warren Buffet and others had emerged
as one of the philanthropists of the world in the recent times (Cook 2018). For example, it is
seen that a substantial amount of money that his organization makes goes to the diverse kinds
of developmental projects and also for the improvement of the economies of the region in
which the organization is operational. In this regard, mention needs to be made of the various
developmental projects as well as contributions that Branson has made towards the
development of the economies of UK, Australia, Africa and others (Muegge and Reid 2018).
Difficult Decision made by Branson
In the opinion of Branson himself one of the most difficult decisions that he made
during the entire course of his professional career was the decision to sell “Virgin Records”,
one of his earliest organizations (Virgin 2019). Branson sold Virgin Records to Thorn-EMI
for £510 million in the year 1992 because of the difficulties that Branson was facing to
manage the different organizations that he owned (The Independent 2019). It is pertinent to
note that Branson had been trying to purchase Rolling Stone for quite some now and it was in
1992 that the purchase of the above mentioned organization was finalized (The Independent
2019). Furthermore, the organization Virgin Records was also facing various kinds of legal
issues related to Virgin Records and this made Branson realize the fact that if he does not gets
rid of Virgin Records then he would end up losing both the organization because of
management issues (Devece, Peris-Ortiz and Rueda-Armengot 2016). It is in the light of
these factors that Branson sold off one of his very first organizations so as to ensure the
growth of his other organizations.

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Ethical issue faced by Branson
In a 2006 meeting with Al Gore, Branson promised to spend more than $3 billion for
the development of a low carbon fuel for his Virgin Airlines planes so as to reduce the
environmental damage caused by them (Goldenberg 2019). He further on went on to
announce a “$25m Earth prize” for the creation of such a technology which could help him
and his organization to reduce the damage caused by “1bn tons of carbon a year” released by
the various airplanes (Goldenberg 2019). However, he went back on the promise made by
him in the interest of the economic damage that this was likely to cause to the interests of his
business. This was one of the major ethical problems faced by him since he has to decide
between the interests of his own business venture and the interests of the planet. Finally,
weighing the economic damage that the deal would cause to his own organization and the
world economic system he decided against the climate deal and went ahead looking after the
interests of his own business organization.
Legal Dispute faced by Branson
One of the major legal disputes that Branson has faced in the recent times is the tax
evasion claims made by the different governmental authorities and also by the different
media channels. For example, in an article Dailymail.co.uk (2019) claimed the fact that
Branson has deprived the national government of UK of more than £500,000 by not reporting
the exact profit made by his organization. Furthermore, the article even claims that he has
taken up residence in the Caribbean Islands so as to avoid such allegations and also to go out
of the hands of the judicial system of the UK (Dailymail.co.uk 2019). However, Branson
himself has refuted such claims by stating that they are just allegations which had been made
to malign his and Virgin Group’s public image.

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Conclusion
To conclude, the entrepreneurs play an integral in the development of a strong world
economic system through the creation of more job roles, development of a strong economic
system and others. However, at the same time it is seen that the different entrepreneurs during
the course of their business operations are required to make certain different decisions so as
enhance the prospects of their business. In addition to this, they are also required to take the
help of the kind of decisions which might not be ethically as well as legally correct but at the
same time are in the best interests of their business venture. These aspects of the process of
entrepreneurship become apparent from an analysis of the entrepreneur Richard Branson and
the operations of his business venture Virgin Group.

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