Strategic Management Essay: Virgin Group and Competitive Strategy

This essay provides a comprehensive analysis of Virgin Mobile's strategic management, examining the company's operations and competitive position. Part A (1) introduces Virgin Mobile as part of the Virgin Group, highlighting its customer-centric approach and multinational presence. Part A (2) applies Porter's generic strategies (cost leadership, product differentiation, and focus) to Virgin Mobile, evaluating how the company can manage its business operations and achieve market expansion. The essay also utilizes Porter's Five Forces model to assess the competitive landscape, including competitive rivalry, the threat of substitutes, buying power of customers, power of suppliers, and the threat of new entrants. Part B reflects on the project, discussing the application of strategic management principles and the importance of skills. The conclusion summarizes the key findings, emphasizing the significance of strategic management in achieving organizational goals and maintaining a competitive edge. The essay references various academic sources to support its analysis.

Strategic Management

Table of Contents
ESSAY (Assignment 2)...................................................................................................................3
PART A (1)............................................................................................................................3
PART A (2)............................................................................................................................3
PART B..................................................................................................................................6
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................7
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................8

ESSAY (Assignment 2)
PART A (1)
Virgin Mobile seems to be part of the private investment corporation Virgin company limited,
created by British billionaire businessman Sir Richard Branson. The organization believed
strongly that better customer experience will lead to higher company loyalty, which may in turn
generate a distinct gain for the organizations to gain and retain its client base and maintain a
better position in such competitive world (Rigas, and Nawar, 2016). It is one of the leading
multinational mobile network operator with activities distributed throughout countries like the
United States, United Kingdom, India, South Africa, Middle East, Great Britain, etc. In fact,
good payment providers and portals have all the tools to pay off debts, reimburse, and so forth,
as well as low calling and internet prices help to attract more customers that try to make a
competitive market. The company also has significant funding from Richard Branson's Virgin
group that had alliances with leading global telecommunications firms such as Sprint (USA),
Tata Teleservices (India), respectively. In reaction to competitive pressures in the industry,
focus strategy includes information on setting company by offering of a products / services. The
picture is meant to be produced as a pre-emptive tactic to relation virgin ultra – laptops as well as
positioning the 'Virgin Laptops for computers eight (8)' with a focus on its form which is not yet
mostly on marketplace with its specifications but somehow prices were equivalent to existing
market leaders. The virgin brand is therefore mostly respected inside the UK industry so for that
purpose, what consumers say about either the virgin product would be translated to virgin
notebooks and also will aid in the selling of this particular model. The internet industry has
developed although since technology industry constant to develop though in the face of the
financial recession.
PART A (2)
Porters generic model for Virgin company
This is known as a model or framework used by the companies for adopting best strategy
that can be used for market expansion. There is demonstration of four different strategies that can
be used by organisations for managing the business activities. Some of these are cost leadership,
differentiation and focus. It is responsibility of companies to manage the business operations and

activities for conducting the business processes. Different cost strategies that Virgin organisation
can use are discussed below:
Cost leadership: Cost leadership strategy consists of choosing the best technique for the
company in which business processes can be conducted in effective manner and the cost incurred
is less. When company is making profits in market and there is effective market expansion then
cost leadership is known as one of the best strategies that will help in in managing the business
operations. By conducting all business operations and providing products and services to
customers is priority of all organisations. In Context of virgin organisation, there are different
ways of conducting business operations and handling the cost-effective opportunities in proper
manner. Resources can be utilised properly by this company and minimum cost can be incurred
for conducting the different business activities and tasks (Wiersema, and Bird, 2017). Cost
leadership strategy focuses mainly upon improving the business condition by minimising cost
that company has to bear for doing the business functions. It is necessary for this company to
manage the cost and achieve profits so that revenue of the company will be more. It is essential
for organisations to manage the business functions in proper manner and analyse cost
effectiveness approach for the company.
Product differentiation:. According to this strategy, it is concluded that when a company
provides different type of products to the customers then it is easy to manage the profits and
revenue generated by organisation. There is need of attracting new customers and clients in order
to have effective functioning of the business processes. It is very important for the organisation
to manage the production of different type of products so that more number of customers can be
attracted by the company. It will help in eliminating competition and enhancing company for
market expansion. It is concluded that companies can improve the quality of product and provide
it at affordable prices so that more number of people can be provided services offered by virgin
group. It is essential for Virgin organisation to manage the price of offering so that customer
satisfaction can be increased (Lusch Vargo, and Gustafsson, 2016). This will also help the
organisation in can improve its prices by offering different products of the customer and increase
profitability by it.
Focus strategy: As per this strategy, there is combination of both product differentiation and
cost effective strategy. Under this system, organisation can use to focus on a particular approach

which helped the firm in achieving separate market base and eliminating competition. It is
helpful for the organisation to manage organisational goal completion by managing all business
processes. There are various approaches that can be used by company for minimising
competition and working towards effective management of business operations. Virgin
organisation can use this type of strategy in order to manage the business processes effectively
and minimising the cost at the same time. Main objective of this type of strategy is to develop a
plan which will help in reducing cost for the utilisation of resources of company (Chernev,
2018). This strategy is combination of both cost effective techniques and product differentiation
where organisation can use to focus on a particular strategy to achieve the goals and objectives.
Porters Five force model for Virgin company
Virgin group is founded by one of the top raiders of the world Richard Branson. This
virgin group was started with a magazine that was known as student. Following is potters five
forces model for this company which will demonstrate the best opportunity that this company
can use in order to you have more market expansion.
Competitive rivalry - virgin organisation is dealing in different sectors and there is used
competition among all the industries today. It is seen that there is increasing competition among
two companies then it has resulted in zero profit margins. There are many forms which are
producing services and products offered by virgin group. Hence, it is very important to attract
customers and develop plants in order to have market expansion. When companies are trying to
expand their business and trap the new customers then there is need for having a proper plant in
order to have a successful business expansion (Tiwari, Wee, and Daryanto, 2018). This can be
done by managing the business processes and having strong rivalry within the industry.
Threat of substitute - this is defined as the factor which demonstrate bin same products are
produced by other companies too. It is a disadvantage for or companies as customers can easily
switch from one product to another. There is price war which undergo with the companies in
context of attracting new customers. When new substitute products for the company are
developed, then it is problem for company. It is important to manage the functioning and
processes effectively so that organisational goals can be attained in time.
Buying power of customers – this is hi within the virgin organisation as there are other
competitors within same industry which are providing same quality product and service. It is
required that virgin group must adopt best strategy in order to conduct business operations and

activities in a way that it is effectively attained. There is requirement of proper strategies and
plan for to know who are the potential customers and provide them attractive offers and
discounts. In this way, revenue can be increased.
Power of suppliers – suppliers are powerful in case where the number of customers is more and
there are few suppliers within market. On the other hand, suppliers are weak when there lot of
suppliers providing same product and customers are less in market (Oehmichen, Schrapp, and
Wolff, 2017). The suppliers for airway products are less. In this, Virgin company is facing
challenge as the number of suppliers are less and they demand for more money. In such cases, it
is very important to build good relation with the supplier.
Threat of new entrants – this means when a new company is entering the market, there is huge
competition within the industries and proper plans have to be made in order to be successful
within market. If a company is having good strategic planning and management then new
entrants cannot develop their position within market. Virgin group is a well reputed brand and it
is providing service in different sectors. This is concluded that working of this company is very
well recognised across the world. Hence, threat of new entrants is less for Virgin group.
Virgin group of companies is having different strategies in order to expand business in
future. Richard Branson is taking care of all business operations and processes effectively in
order to implement them effectively. There are different sectors within business which will help
in in managing business in different countries. This company generally involves in partnership
with other company when it is entering in any developing company’s market.
PART B
I completed this project in order to manage the project work. It is analysed by me that it is
essential for me to manage the completion of project work. I have concluded that business work
is attained in effective manner and I have used my skills to complete the research targets. I think
that it is seen that as I am skilled so it is not difficult to manage the project activities. On the
other hand, if I was not talented or skilled, then I had to learn how to manage and develop
knowledge effectively for conducting the project work. I think cost leadership is known as one of
the best strategy while conducting business. Virgin company is benefiting a lot when it uses this
strategy within business operations (Dembek, Singh, and Bhakoo, 2016)s. For career
progression and development in upcoming period of time, having skills is utmost thing. I have
analysed that strategic management helps the companies to manage the risk of loss for the

company. It promotes the way for attaining success while working within market. There are
some models used for evaluating competitive advantage of the company. It leads to develop
plans and strategies used for conducting operations of company effectively. Moreover, when
there is strong strategic planning, company is able to manage completion of organisation targets.
CONCLUSION
It is analysed from above report, strategic management is an important factor used for
managing the business activities and operations effectively. They are helpful in accomplishing
organisational targets and goals. There are various internal and external factors which have huge
impact on business. Virgin company demonstrated in this report shows that how adopting the
best strategy helped this company to become successful. They conduct their organisation in
many sectors and provide discussion in respect of performance of company and market position
that is required for competitive edge in the market. It is very important for any company to
handle and manage proper competitive work to stay within market.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Rigas, D. and Nawar, Y.S., 2016, July. Leadership and innovation growth: a strategic planning
and organizational culture perspective. In International Conference on HCI in
Business, Government, and Organizations (pp. 565-575). Springer, Cham.
Wiersema, M.F. and Bird, A., 2017. Organizational demography in Japanese firms: Group
heterogeneity, individual dissimilarity, and top management team turnover. Academy
of management Journal.
Lusch, R.F., Vargo, S.L. and Gustafsson, A., 2016. Fostering a trans-disciplinary perspectives of
service ecosystems. Journal of Business Research, 69(8), pp.2957-2963.
Chernev, A., 2018. Strategic marketing management. Cerebellum Press.
Tiwari, S., Wee, H.M. and Daryanto, Y., 2018. Big data analytics in supply chain management
between 2010 and 2016: Insights to industries. Computers & Industrial
Engineering, 115, pp.319-330.
Oehmichen, J., Schrapp, S. and Wolff, M., 2017. Who needs experts most? B oard industry
expertise and strategic change—a contingency perspective. Strategic Management
Journal, 38(3), pp.645-656.
Dembek, K., Singh, P. and Bhakoo, V., 2016. Literature review of shared value: a theoretical
concept or a management buzzword?. Journal of Business Ethics, 137(2), pp.231-267.