1. Key Elements of Branson’s Leadership Style
In his autobiography, The Virgin Way: If It’s Not Fun, It’s Not Worth Doing, Richard Branson identifies and explains important aspects of his leadership philosophy and style: There are ten of them: (1) “Follow your passion, but protect the downside”; (2) “Do some good”; (3) “Believe in your business”; (4) “Have fun”; (5) “Don’t give up”; (6) “Listen more and talk less”; (7) “Make room for personal time through delegation”; (8) “Go out and meet people”; (9) “Communicate among all levels of your company”; and, (10) “Be happy”.
In an interview with Forbes, Branson affirms these ten values and highlights three: (1) “Listening is one of the most important skills that any can have”; (2) “Learn: Learning leadership go together”; and, (3) “Laughter: My number rule in business, in life, is to enjoy what you do”.
Outside observers note the same the same things about Branson. In particular, he gives his employees room to act, and cheer them when they succeed as leaders . In praising employees, he does not mind looking less smart than the employee: Credit to where credit is due . He tries to give a little of himself to his employees. He lingers around after events so people could talk to him.
These rules or values are apparent in Branson’s life and companies. It is hard to separate the company from the person. It is an entrepreneurial company and thus reflects the values and philosophy of the founder. He sees to be guided by the principle of respecting everyone in the company and listening to all of them. This in part leads to his ability to delegate easily. His core philosophy is having fun and being happy. This is manifested in choices of investment, He is into the hospitality business, the travel and tourism industry. He is into holiday tour packaging. It is in the industry that aims to make people happy. He was into music production and distribution.
2. Branson’s Leadership and the Virgin Group
Richard Branson has grown his wealth and the Virgin Group by tapping and dominating niches in the market. He first succeeded as an entrepreneur with a publication, The Student. He earned his first million by recording and distributing “Tubular Bells” (later used in the soundtrack of The Exorcist) in his youth. The venture provided the springboard to build Virgin Music and Records. Richard Branson and Virgin Records firs made impact in the UK in the early with punk rock music and conquered the world with new wave music in the 1980s. Branson’s taste in music and eye for potential trends guided the growth of Virgin Records and eventually the Virgin Group.
The group also reflects Branson’s particular concern for having fun and being happy. It has investments in the travel and tourism industry with an airline, Virgin Atlantic, a chain of hotels, Virgin Hotels, and a travel and tour company, Virgin Atlantic. The group also showcases Branson’s sense of adventure and courage for risk-taking. Of all things, the company has investment in space exploration with Virgin Galactic.
The Virgin Group is practically an extension of Branson. Everything about the company is how envisioned and fashioned it to be. Its official website seems to be both one for the company and for Branson himself. It has a tab labeled as “Richard Branson” and “Entrepreneur”. Branson’s leadership does not only successfully mesh with the attributes of the Virgin Group, but also reflects his personality completely. The history of the Virgin Group is practically that of Branson’s entrepreneurial career and life. “Branson’s success was unconventional. Branson was known as one who rose to the top and remained by being himself and instilling belief in those around him.”
3. Two of the Ways to Motivate Employees
One of the ways Branson motivates employees is by winning them and inspiring loyalty. He partly does this by showing his faith in his people and respecting their ideas. He believes that multiple perspectives are better than one. In the process, he is able to discover numerous directions and recognize possible trends. He gives credit to where credit is due. He does not mind doing that even it results in making himself look less intelligent than his staff. Branson treats everyone in the organization with the same level of respect. He assigns no task to anyone that he would not have been willing to do himself.
Building from the ground and building from within is Branson’s growth strategy for the Virgin Group and another motivation approach. He does not believe in acquisitions and even external investment. By developing a business, people will have ownership of the idea and they will learn all the details of how to run it. They will remain loyal as they own both the idea and the business. Since Branson delegates much of work, the employees would contribute more their ideas in growing the business.
At the idea or concept level, Branson’s leadership style in motivating employees could theoretically work in other organizations. Many CEOs could learn from Branson’s way of showing respect to everyone in the company. However, the specifics and manner of how Branson implements all these may not work. As discussed earlier, the Virgin Group bears Branson’s personality. Only he could run it the way he did. Many conservative people also reject his leadership and management style. The Virgin Group went public and had to be bought back by Branson precisely because stockholders and many outsiders did not approve of his style.
4. Effectiveness in Communicating Vision
Richard Branson personifies the values and vision of the Virgin Group. He can communicate this by simply being himself. As a matter of habit and practice, he “gives a little of himself to employees”. He spends time with them. He lingers around so people, anyone within the organization, could ask him questions. He tries to answer as much of these as he can.
Branson says that Virgin’s values have been and will always be the same: “to change the game and to challenge the status quo by providing a product or service of great use” . This is characteristic of Richard Branson. He lives and breathes the values of Virgin. Those are his personal values. From the outset, Branson had been anti-establishment. He had dropped out from high school and somehow been anti-school too. He had been an underachiever mainly because he had poor eyesight that had not been diagnosed early enough. Branson adds that Virgin saw gaps in the market. They wanted to fill in those gaps and be “a force of good”. Being a force of good has become the group’s motto. Branson adds, “If you love what you do and if you believe in what you do, others will share your enthusiasm. Passionate people find their way to the Virgin Group, and when they do, we snap up we snap them and try to keep them within the family.”
Living the values and vision himself seems to be the essence of his ability to communicate these things to his employees. Branson also has the penchant for publicity stunts that call to him the world’s attention. People think of him as crazy but he generates wide publicity. With the publicity come curiosity and interest his companies. People try to learn more about him and his companies. If he is able to get this kind of interest around the world, all the more would he get his employees’ attention.
5. Fitness as My Manager
Richard Branson is an entrepreneur that grew his small enterprise into a huge conglomerate . Learning and watching him work would already give me an idea how to succeed as an employee and possibly an entrepreneur. This would be the prime reason that he fits into my idea of a manger.
Forbes magazine identifies six competencies that global leaders must have. Four of these are particularly important for my manager to have: (1) customer focus and understanding; (2) ability to spot trends and connect the dots; (3) engaged and committed teams; and, (4) willingness to take risk. Branson has shown that he is strong in these areas, especially in his younger days. He sees potential in underserved, niche markets. His early success in the The Student magazine and in Virgin Records was because of his strengths in these areas.
I may not become a global leader and CEO. At least, I would know what it takes to become a good leader and entrepreneur. Even if I do not become a CEO, at least I would understand how to work with CEOs, especially the best ones.
In addition, a good CEO “must have the capability to remain calm and functional in the center of a hurricane” More than being calm, Branson has a way of still having fun and remain happy in times of crisis. Arrested for a prank on a business partner and a balloon crash in the ocean, Branson has kept his composure no matter what the world says about him. This is definitely a trait that I want to develop in myself.
Another important characteristic of a global leader is a strong self-awareness. . This is one important thing that anyone who wants to succeed must learn even if one does not aspire to become a global leader. Self-awareness allows one to have greater control of oneself and therefore of the environment one has to manage. This is something difficult to teach oneself. Learning it takes a long time. It requires conscious effort. I can learn this more quickly by observing great leaders. Certainly, Branson is one such leader. He has also displayed a very deep self-awareness as shown in his flamboyant ventures and adventures.
6. Global Leadership
Richard Branson is clearly a global leader. His companies had been global leaders themselves at certain points in time. He has had profound influence in the business world especially because of his unique, friendly and fun management style.
He has the competencies of global leaders as noted in Forbes and Inc . Similarly, the World Economic Forum’s four qualities of a global leader are among Branson’s 10 rules
Media has long recognized him a global leader. In 1999, a book—The New Global Leaders: Richard Branson, Percy Barnevik, David Simon and the Remaking of International Business—included him among the global leaders at that time. He has also been used as an example of a global leader in other books like The Mind of the CEO and Strategic Leadership .
Branson enjoyed recognition in various forms. He ranked 212 in Forbes’ World Billionaires . He was knighted in 1999 for his service to entrepreneurship . Member companies of the Virgin Group had been in and out of the Fortune 500. Virgin Media Inc ranked 374 in 2011 in spite of the group’s problems beginning in 2008. Of course, a company’s being global does not necessarily translate into its having a global leader . Still, a company—especially an entrepreneurial company—would not have become global if not for its leader.
7. Branson’s Future
Richard Branson is practically retired and lives in an island in the British Virgin Islands. He would be about 66 years old today. In the next five years, he will withhold his command over his companies more and more. He actually does not lead in most of his companies anymore as he has delegated this work to trusted employees and potential successors. He may never retire completely as he will continue to be checking on his companies, His success as a leader would shift from managing companies to training and mentoring. He has actually begun doing this now. He has been active in social media sharing his thoughts on management and almost every other issue that could affect any business. In Twitter, he has about 8.17 million followers . As he grows older, Branson will be sharing more of himself to the world than just his companies. Using new technology, he would be able to accomplish this while staying in the confines of his home in the Caribbean.
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