Virgin Company: Organizational Leadership

Company Background

History

Although nowadays famous as the worldwide corporation comprising the mail order companies, airline companies, wholesale and retail stores, etc., the Virgin Company used to be a personal project by Robert Branson. In 1969, Mr. Branson founded the Student magazine which brought him fame and money for establishing retail record stores first of which opened in London in 1970 (Branson, 2009). 1970s saw also the development of the Virgin record label and the opening of The Manor, the first Virgin recording studio. Virgin Atlantic, the airline company, was founded in 1984 as another area of Branson’s business expansion (Branson, 2009). On the edge of 1980 – 1990s, Virgin Megastores are added to Branson’s corporation and developed overseas. Late 1990s saw the birth of Virgin Trains, Virgin Radio, Virgin Cosmetics, etc (Branson, 2009).

Main Activity Areas

Nowadays, the Virgin Company is the worldwide famous brand owning over 200 business companies around the world and employing about 50,000 people in Europe, Asia, and America. According to Branson (2009), nowadays Virgin Company operates in 29 countries. The annual revenue of the company at the global range amounted to $17 billion in 2008, and this year’s figures report 3% increase as forecasted for the end of the fiscal year (Branson, 2009). With such figures showed on the company’s balance sheet every year, the Virgin Company does not limit its activities to one particular area. The Virgin products and services are offered in airline business, train and machine building, military equipment, wholesale and retail trade, recording business, cosmetics, etc. The company’s head, Robert Branson, still runs the business and is often named as an example of the successful leader (Marriott, 2009).

Leadership Practices

Leadership Practices Used

The above discussed success of the Virgin Company is possible due to the leadership practices of ensuring the unit level strategic direction, ensuring successful goal achievement, and ensuring the quality of goods and services marketed by the company (DuBrin, 2009, pp. 14 – 16). These practices are the parts of the leadership development program introduced in the Virgin Company in 2007 for the purpose, as Martindale (2007) argues, of increasing the income levels by 7% for the next 4 years: “We need to have the leadership strength to be able to [respond to opportunities] without damaging the main business” (Martindale, 2007). Thus, strategic development, long-term goals’ priority, and quality assurance are the major leadership practices used by Virgin to facilitate its development.

Leadership Practices Misused

Accordingly, there are no obvious cases of the misuse of the leadership practices considered in the Virgin Company. The success in ensuring the unit level strategic direction, ensuring successful goal achievement, and ensuring the quality of goods and services marketed by the company allow the company to currently structure its work on achieving the long-term goals. According to Branson (2009), for instance the Virgin Blue Group, the Australian branch of Virgin airline business, achieved the level of 100,000 customers for 7 months of its work. Martindale (2007) reports ₤140,000 of saved funds the Virgin Atlantic obtained from its leadership development program implemented in 2007. These facts allow speaking of proper implementation of leadership practices considered in Virgin Company.

Leadership Practices Lacked

Concerning the lacking leadership practices, the Virgin Company displays none as well. In other words, the official web site of the company, its strategy, mission, and values, as well as the reports and research works by scholars like Martindale (2007) and Marriott (2009) prove that the Virgin Company works not only on the leadership practices considered in this paper but on the wide variety of other practices that include paying attention to customers’ and partners’ needs, ensuring environmental protection, facilitating social development, etc (Martindale, 2007; Marriott, 2009). The Virgin Company leadership practices also ensure the appeal to the senior citizens and people with limited physical and mental abilities. All these points do not allow speaking of lacking leadership practices in Virgin Company.

Leadership Styles

Leadership Styles Applied

Such a consistency of leadership practices can be ensured only by the properly structured and balanced system of leadership styles adopted in the Virgin Company. According to DuBrin (2009) and Syque (2009), there are seven major leadership styles whose single of combined