Leadership Case Study: Richard Branson and Virgin Group Success

This case study examines the leadership style of Sir Richard Branson, the founder of Virgin Group, analyzing how his leadership qualities and approaches have contributed to the company's success. It explores various leadership styles, including transformational, transactional, laissez-faire, and situational leadership, and assesses how Branson's leadership aligns with these theories. The analysis highlights Branson's application of situational leadership, his role as a transformational leader driving innovation and diversification within Virgin Group, and his characteristics as an authentic leader who fosters trust and motivates employees. The study references leadership theories such as Fiedler's contingency theory and Yukl's perspective on managerial leadership, ultimately concluding that Branson's adaptable and authentic leadership has been pivotal in building Virgin Group into a successful global brand. Desklib provides this case study along with a wealth of other resources like solved assignments and past papers to aid students in their academic pursuits.

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Introduction
Leadership is a critical aspect of the daily running of any business or organization. The
Leadership qualities of business owners and/or managers and the type of leadership style they
portray has a lot of contribution to the direction a business or organization takes in regards to
serving its purpose. Leadership is important in a business and defines whether a business is
bound to succeed or fail. The difference between businesses that fail and those that often succeed
is to a large extent leadership issue. John Calvin Maxwell, an American author, speaker, and a
pastor sums what leadership is in one of his quotes that; “a leader is one who knows the way,
goes the way and shows the way”
Different leaders portray different leadership qualities. Great leadership according to
Fries (2018) have eight essential qualities that define them. A great leader should be enthusiastic
and sincerely portray that enthusiasm in his/her undertakings. Enthusiasm drives passion. A
leader should be passionate about the company's ideologies, products or services for him/her to
be able to lead a team to achieve the set goals. Leaders also ought to display integrity at all times.
They are supposed to do the right thing and stand for it even if that which they believe in is not
the right thing for the situation at hand. Communication is a relevant tool for a leader to always
put his/her team on the check. Leaders should be able to communicate directions and/or findings
to their team members without distortion.
Further, a leader should exhibit loyalty at all times. Loyalty in this perspective would
imply a leader being able to make decisions that benefit their team members. Such leaders should
also ensure that they stand with their team members in times of conflict, crisis or better times
too. Decisiveness is also an important trait for leadership. Leaders should be able to make
decisions that they themselves could be held accountable for even when things do not go right as

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per their expectation. Last but not least, a leader should have managerial competence. This
attribute requires that leaders are able to make sound decisions that bring balance to their team
and not division. A leader should be able to motivate, inspire, mentor and even direct activities
and teams they are responsible for.
Leadership styles
Leaders also apply different leadership styles. One may choose to adopt one leadership
style and use it effectively to produce good results. Still, some leaders prefer an integrated
approach to leadership styles in which they adopt and apply different leadership styles at
different instances and still get desired results. An array of leadership styles exists for the choice
of leaders. Eagly, Johannesen-Schmidt and Van Engen (2003) classify leadership styles as either
transformational, transactional, laissez-faire and situational.
Transformational leadership style
Medley and Larochelle (1995) define transformational leadership style as a type of
leadership geared towards bringing a change to an individual and a social system. It aims at
inculcating a positive attitude in a follower who eventually will become a leader. It is a follower
development oriented type of leadership where a leader applies motivation, morale boost and
performance improvement strategies to grow someone wholesomely.
Transactional leadership style
Nanjundeswaraswamy and Swamy (2014) define transactional leadership style as a type
of leadership that focuses on results but with strict adherence and conformity with the rules and
regulations. The basic structure of such type of leadership is working as per the directions were
given and laid down rules. The leader gives directions as per the company policies and

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everything is done is such strict conformity. Tasks are routinized through the management of
individual performance and team performance.
Laisses fair leadership style
According to Merrill (2015), laissez-faire leadership style also known as delegating leadership
style is a type of leadership practice in which leaders tend to be hands-off and give
responsibilities to their team members to make responsible decisions. This leadership style is
characterized by a reporting structure where individuals report to their leaders the updates of a
task assigned to them. The leaders in this leadership style are held accountable for all the
decisions that their team members make.
Situational leadership style
Thompson and Glaso (2015) define situational leadership style as a leadership style that
is shaped and adjusted by the leader to fit the developmental capacity of the team s/he seeks to
lead. This leadership style is solely dependent on the leader's flexibility to change his/her
leadership styles to fit in with the team s/he leads and not that the followers are the ones to adjust
and blend well within the leader's style of leadership. Therefore, the leadership style adopted by
the leader often changes with time-based on the diversity in a team. It requires that a manager
adopts different leadership styles in dealing with different scenarios at work.

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Richard Branson-case study
Sir Richard Branson, a founder, and owner of Virgin group investments is a British
entrepreneur who has made significant impact and contribution to the shaping of international
business through his magnate businesses investment. He has diversified his investments and
currently has an array of businesses running under the Virgin group brand. He is placed under
the top one hundred most influential business personalities in the world and ranked number 388
in the world’s billionaires (Forbes, 2018). This milestone is not easily achieved by any other
business without proper leadership skills and qualities.
In the mention of Richard Branson, often he is described as a creative, fun loving,
opportunist, risk taker, adventurer, competitive, negotiator among other various terminologies
that portray him as a great leader. His leadership skills and style vary depending on the situations
at heart. His leadership style is therefore considered situational in a way but also applies other
leadership styles. His leadership style and qualities are in accordance with leadership theories
and frameworks. Dearlove (2007) points out that in line with the leader-member relationship,
Richard Branson upholds close association with his team members and values their work-life
balance. Dearlove (2007) asserts that Branson is a type of a leader who can even welcome his
juniors for tea and parties at his own home.
Virgin group investments organizational structure is said to be low and characterized by
self-decision making process. Most employees are responsible for their tasks and only report
their findings. This practice depicts Richard Branson’s leadership as delegative. This makes most
of the employees at Virgin group investments very creative, responsible and accountable for their
own actions. The absence of a structured organizational structure and a hierarchy of reports at

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Virgin group investments is another way showing that Richard Branson’s leadership style
delegative.
According to Peters, Hartke, and Pohlmann (2006), Richard Branson's leadership fits
perfectly within Fiedler's contingency theory of leadership. This is so because, according to the
contingency theory of leadership, effective leadership is not only dependent on the style of
leadership but also how a leader can effectively manage situations that arise at a working
environment. It requires that there exists a good leader-member relationship, assignments,
objectives and a clear procedure and guidelines on how to meet those goals. Leaders, therefore,
have the mandate to have a better evaluation approach that puts in place rewards for achieved
goals and punitive measures as well. Richard Branson has demonstrated in his leadership style
the effectiveness of the contingency theory by embracing an approach that is centered towards
situational management. He uses different leadership styles and tactics depending on the
situation at hand.
Richard Branson is also classified as a charismatic and transformational leader. This is in
line with the transformational leadership style. As earlier noted, transformational leadership style
is anchored on quick embrace to changes in a business environment (Bass and Riggio, 2006).
Richard Branson has clearly manifested his transformational leadership style by being very
flexible in the diversification of his business portfolios and the ever-changing business cultures
and structures. He is not only known for his original magnate business but he has been on the
verge of continuous diversification of businesses moving into new businesses and heavily
investing in transformational ideas. A classic example is depicted in his move from magnate
businesses to virgin air, Virgin Atlantic and many others within his business lines. He has

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transitioned from one business entrepreneur to another and bought into other businesses where
he moved with his staff.
Virgin Group Investment is often referred to as a business dynasty. Richard Branson’s
leadership capability is what has taken the business to where it is. Yukl (1988) while reviewing
managerial leadership asserts that transformational leaders often create a milestone in their
business undertakings by proper selection and management of their follower and/or team
members who work in accordance with the leader’s ideologies and buy into his/her leadership
styles. Richard Branson has built a dynasty and a business kingdom with the help of a team that
buys into his ideologies and believe in his leadership style. Thus, transformational leadership
style depicted in Branson’s leadership ability is the best fit for Virgin Group Investments.
Finch (2014) notes that Richard Branson exhibits features of an authentic leader. An
authentic leader is a type of a leader and/or other people in the management system who carries
out himself/herself in a genuine, sincere and real manner which portrays their real life situation.
An authentic leader is central to inspiration of trust, promote individual’s loyalty and motivate
high output productivity in accordance with the organization’s missions, visions, and goals.
Wang et al, (2012) identify that an authentic leader has a trait of self-awareness, directness, clear
behaviors, and openness. Authentic leaders are free to information sharing which is a necessary
recipe for strategic decision making, keen to involve input from others and also ready to make
open their motives, concerns and personal beliefs. Wang et al (2012) further assert that authentic
leaders are central to the development of their team members by cultivating in them the need for

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positive psychological state of mind which in essence is important to the overall evaluation of
performance of their team members.
In his working environment, Richard Branson is central to the achievement of Virgin
group’s goals by putting side by side the organization’s visions and missions with his set goals.
His ideal focus in this scenario is to keep tabs with the goals of the organization to ensure they
are effectively met without deviations which sometimes would impose financial loss to them. He
has achieved this milestone by realizing and identifying the energy of his team towards the
achievement of the set objectives with the interest of the organization put ahead of their own.
Authentic leaders show directions to their team members from their beliefs and not making
decisions out of what they think (Avolio and Gardner, 2005). They do not shy from emotional
imbalance and directly communicate their feelings and beliefs to their immediate team members.
Even so, communicating one’s feelings and beliefs directly to the people reporting to you is a
better way of encouraging the achievement of your desired outcomes, this is the underlying
motivation of Richard Branson. However, he does this direct communication of his beliefs and
emotions while considering the sensitivity of his communication and the perception that
communication can send out. In addition to open and direct communication, authentic leaders
will encourage transparency which determines how a leader behaves while at work or in his real
time behavior away from work. An authentic leader will portray the same behavior and express
his/her real picture in all the situations (Leroy et al, 2015). Transparency is also tied to the way in
which the leader administers his/her outcomes to the organization’s stakeholders. Therefore, an
authentic leader is to act in a such a way that promotes empathy and directness, with a his/her
focus in brooding achievements, Richard Branson is no less of this.

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Self-reflection
As been identified, Sir Richard Branson integrates various leadership styles in order to
have a mix of leadership capability that best suits the situation at hand. Situational leadership
sums it all up as his main leadership style. Sisk and Thompson (2018) note that situational
leadership approach is subject to a number of challenges that may hinder organizational growth
and development. Branson's leadership style can act as a goal shifter. This is one way or another
has limited the chances of Virgin Group reaching its full potential. There is the temptation to
shift from organizational objectives and respond to an immediate situation. This mindset is not
good for business as there is the risk of lagging behind and losing the gear to backtrack to the
original objective of the company.
Secondly, Richard Branson's approach to none-hierarchical organizational culture and
structure to some extent has hurt his business more than it has benefited it. The flat structure at
Virgin group could be the reason behind limited growth and a reason to critics of Branson's
approaches. This system is characterized by the lack of a leader to report to and encourage
confusions and scrambles for power. It is also characterized by a lack of specialists but
encourages generalists at work because employees lack proper job descriptions. This could be
the reason for diversification into other business lines by Branson. Business disintegration is also
possible when there is no suitable structure. Virgin Group, for example, is quite decentralized
into various independent ventures which could be mistaken for diversification while in the real
sense, the mother business is disintegrated into smaller manageable groups.
In conclusion, therefore, as a strong proponent of democratic leadership style, Richard
Branson should embrace democratic leadership style with a well-defined organizational structure
and reporting frameworks. He should create a suitable environment for idea formulation,

Leadership in business 10
suggestions and decision making by his team but stay steadfast in determining which ideas to
implement and what decisions to make. He should not leave high-level decisions to his juniors
but listen to their ideas on decisions but have the final say. He should organize Virgin group
holdings and other businesses under the same brand with a properly defined organizational
structure where his employees will understand levels of leadership and authority and have a
better approach to reports. He should use these well-defined organizational structures to
encourage talent growth and have specialists rather than creating generalists. This will enable his
employees to be more focused in areas of their expertise and narrow down their skills to perfect
what they know how to do better.
A well-structured organizational structure will encourage a well-organized organizational
culture with guidelines for evaluating performance, providing motivation, morale and positive
attitude building yet still come up with punitive measures for violations of procedures. This will
encourage the workforce to be more vigilant, responsible and accountable at all times when
handling their tasks. Having a hierarchical organizational structure at Virgin Group rather than
flat structure will also encourage loyalty of the workforce to the organization (Meehan, 2018).
Loyalty will be earned by the organization when their employees can be associated with different
departments at their organization which will also determine the best motivational strategies based
on performance at different levels. Communication is more effective in a structured organization
where there are different levels and channels of communication. In an instance of a flat and
structure-less organization, it is not easy to have communication flow effectively back and forth
and hence this will also affect the feedback sessions in the organization weakening the
relationships and psychological well-being of the workforce.

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positive forms of leadership. The leadership quarterly, 16(3), pp.315-338.
Bass, B.M. and Riggio, R.E., 2006. Transformational leadership. Psychology Press.
Dearlove, D. (2007) Business the Richard Branson Way, p163, Capstone, Chichester, UK.
Eagly, A.H., Johannesen-Schmidt, M.C., and Van Engen, M.L., 2003. Transformational,
transactional, and laissez-faire leadership styles: A meta-analysis comparing women and men.
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