Entrepreneurship
Sir Richard Charles Nicholas Branson was the son of a barrister and the grandson of a Judge of the High Court of Justice. Branson was educated at Scaitcliffe School until the age of 13; he then attended Stowe school until the age of 16. He suffered from dyslexia leading him to have a disadvantage in learning, making him generally at the bottom of his schooling year. Later on he discovered his ability to be able to have a special connection with people. Richard Branson first started out by advertising popular records in the student magazine in 1968; he then started selling records at a much cheaper price than the retailers were. He named his company ‘Virgin’, which was an idea from one of his employers and it was conducted because they were all new to the business industry.
He is now best known as the founder of the Virgin Group which is over 400 companies. The main sub companies are Virgin Airlines, Virgin mobile and broadband and Virgin records. His reason for starting Virgin Airlines was when his flight got cancelled and he sold off seats to a charter plane and then
had the idea to start an airline business, even though he had no experience in the aeroplane industry.
"My interest in life comes from setting myself huge, apparently unachievable challenges and trying to
rise above them ... from the perspective of wanting to live life to the full, I felt that I had to attempt it." - Richard Branson, his expanations of his visions and ethics for his business.
He is now best known as the founder of the Virgin Group which is over 400 companies. The main sub companies are Virgin Airlines, Virgin mobile and broadband and Virgin records. His reason for starting Virgin Airlines was when his flight got cancelled and he sold off seats to a charter plane and then
had the idea to start an airline business, even though he had no experience in the aeroplane industry.
"My interest in life comes from setting myself huge, apparently unachievable challenges and trying to
rise above them ... from the perspective of wanting to live life to the full, I felt that I had to attempt it." - Richard Branson, his expanations of his visions and ethics for his business.
Operations
The first business product produced was the Student Magazine when he was aged 16. Richard operates numerous businesses, his main business’are in the broadband industry, recording industry and the airline industry. As of 2011, Virgin had approximately 50,000 employees in 34 countries. Because of the large
variety of companies, the Virgin Group Ltd, has a very large production line. For his airline company, he has a range of production lines which can include anything from food to services.
variety of companies, the Virgin Group Ltd, has a very large production line. For his airline company, he has a range of production lines which can include anything from food to services.
Finance
The Virgin Group has a net value of $4.6 billion. Virgin Group is a public company and offers shares within each company. For example, on the 20th January 2007, Air New Zealand purchased 14.99% of shares in Virgin Blue, paying $45 million. In 2012, Virgin made $74.6 million profit just in their Australian airline company.
Marketing
For airlines, they are aimed towards families and business men and women who wish to travel domestically at cheap prices with a reliable company that they know will get them there on time.
Four different marketing strategies across all businesses.
Four different marketing strategies across all businesses.
- TV Commercials – their ads always deliver messages about their companies. They advertise cheap airline prices, great deals on broadband etc.
- Billboards - always colourful and eye catching
- Celebrity Personnel’s – Doug Pitt, Brad Pitt’s brother.
- Websites that offer you to book flights online, find out the best broadband and mobile plan
for you etc.
Ethics and Social Corporate Responsibility
- Being such a large operation, which hundreds of companies, the Virgin Group has the potential to face a wide variety of ethical issues that each business can face.
standards e.g. their good service etc. With the record company, songs can sometimes be interpreted wrong unintentionally so they have the responsibility to ensure that songs are not offensive. With their airline company, they may face struggles with delays in flights, mechanical issues of the planes and ensuring that the pilot has enough experience.
- Some can argue that the Virgin Group do not follow ethic and social corporate responsibility as they have offensive ads that have rude “sexual”references in their campaign advertisements, delivering the wrong messages to their audience, especially because Virgin has aspects of their business that attract all ages.