Sir Richard Branson – The

Development of an Entrepreneur

“Fun is the secret of Virgin's success.”

Case study By Group 2

The story unfolds..

Branson was born at Stone field Nursing Home in South London.The son of Barrister Edward James Branson and Eve Branson, he was the eldest of three children.His mother used to set challenges for him and his sisters, in order to make them independent.Virgin brand took off in the year 1970.Branson started with a student magazine at the age of 17 which focused on the issues of students in school.

Con..

A high school drop out who suffered dyslexia, was poor in studies but was an excellent athlete.Passionate about sports, adventures, family and entrepreneurship.Received the status of ‘Sir’ by queen of England in the year 2000.Know to be a corporate iconoclast, defying conventional wisdom, pushing the envelope, poking fun at the big guys, saying exactly what he thinks and doing exactly what he wants.

Virgin brand so far: Transport & Travel

Virgin brand so far: Leisure & Entertainment

Virgin brand so far: Retail

Virgin brand so far: Communications. Money.

Virgin Mobile India Entry….

Virgin brand so far: Health. Renewables. Charity.

200 companies worldwide, employing 48 500people, an annual Virgin Group turnover of £10.8bn/US$20.4bn

….one of the most exciting brands in the world

Questions

Using the various personality characteristics, how would you describe Sir Richard Branson’s personality ?

Extroversion: a flamboyant businessman who loves work life, and his family and friends even more. – ranks high.Agreeableness: He is good natured but also a rebel. He would take on challenges given by his mother and he also defied the norms of education- ranks medium.Conscientiousness: Highly responsible with his billion dollar brand and was very persistent. – ranks high.Emotional Stability: Though he handled pressures well and is seen self confidant, he is also emotionally attached to his brand. – ranks medium.Openness to experience: An explorer, whose adventure knows no bounds. Even at work place he would encourage people to come up with innovative ideas and translate them into reality. – ranks high

The Big 5 Personality Model

Personality Attributes

Core self Evaluation: High self esteem and internal locus of control.Narcissism : Ranked high on this attribute.Risk taking: Branson thrived on changes and was open to surprises. With an empire built up of 200 brands, he took calculated risks before entering a venture.

To what extent have the barriers to social perception influenced your view of Branson?

Halo Effect

Rebellious: Richards childhood, schooling days, student magazine, crazy adventures, strong competition to rivals are some of the instances which would support him being rebellious.

This shortcut to social perception hinders us in seeing his other characteristics and forms a general conclusion about him.

How do attributions factor into understanding the background of Branson’s entrepreneurial development?

Attribution Error

Attribution theory attempts to determine whether an individual’s behavior is internally or externally caused.Branson’s poor performance in school due to his inability to read, write and spell was attributed as him being stupid and lazy. This resulted in fundamental attribution error.Here the external factors were underestimated and internal factors were overestimated while arriving at a decision on the behavior displayed.

Attribution

Factors

Distinctive

nessConsensus

Consistency

Distinctiveness: His performance in his studies was always poor and thus distinctive and was not very unusual according to his teachers. Attributed as caused by internal factor.Consensus: Poor performance was not shown by all students in his class. Attributed as caused by internal factor.Consistency: Was consistent in showing poor performance all the time in school. Attributed as caused by internal factor.

As a result his true talents went unnoticed, until Richard Branson himself proved others wrong as he developed into a creative entrepreneur.

Branson’s 10 secrets to success…

You've got to challenge the big ones. Keep it casual. Haggle: everything is negotiable. Have fun working. Do the right things for the brand. Smile for the cameras! Don't lead "sheep", herd "cats". Move like a bullet. Size does matter. Be a common, regular person.

Conclusion

Strategy

• Listen to people. Encourage communication and feedback.

• Integrate personnel into other part of the organization.

Values and belief

• He says that he never listen to critics.

• He is a sponge for new ideas.• Inspire people to think like

Entrepreneur.• You and every one around

you will make mistake.

Branson’s Skill

• Public relation genius-he understand what media wants and give it to them

Core values and belief

• Helping people achieve thing that they did not know they were capable of.

• Being catalyst to the success of other.

• Constantly learning.

Thank you

Any questions?