Elaboration stage

The present situations at virgin group :

Structure
Virgin Group is one of the giant global players and comprises of several holding companies such as Virgin Atlantic, Virgin Records, Virgin Express, Virgin Blue, and many more. As a creator of Virgin, Richard Branson has blanketed the Virgin Empire in a thick layer of secrecy to get a competitive edge against its rivals. Bransons own values and management style has differentiated Virgin group from other formal structured organizations. Richard Branson has no respect for formal authority and hierarchy. Different organisational structures can be seen in Virgin Group. Nonetheless, he is considered as a revolutionary as embodied the spirit of New Britain. Mr. Branson is a charismatic leader and his followers link him with the English heroes. His leadership qualities demonstrate more of transformational rather than transactional. He motivates his employees to do their best and also offers a number of opportunities for their personal growth and development. Virgins success story reflects the effective communication either within the organisation or to deal with external forces. Nonetheless, Virgin group excels in offering friendly customer service. Due to close personal ties among employees, every individual involves to generate innovative ideas and how to improve the overall performance of the organisation. Gibson et al. (1994) as cited by Derek and Rollison (2002) explain that the organisation structure is eternal and it helps to achieve the desired goals but the changes can be seen in accordance to achieve the targets. In fact, top management chooses the correct structure which is beneficial for the organisation. The structure further segregates the organisation into various parts and defines what roles would be crucial to meet particular targets. According to Watson (2006), he mentions the structure of the organisation is more about social science thinking instead of managerial thinking, and the things involve in it persistently, as against the concept of structure to roles or activities exhibited in the organisational chart. Richard Branson has no interest converting Virgin into a giant corporation with several complex departments as he believes that it would bring stagnation and slow growth. According to Bransons own values and management style, informal way of doing business is a part of Virgin culture and he does most of the business deals from his family homes such as the Manor in Oxfordshire, a Maida Vale houseboat and his London residence. Richards long time strategist and business developer, Will Whitehorn expresses Virgin as a branded venture capital organization. Due to

informal organization structure of Virgin, strong culture and healthy personal ties can be seen among skilled financial advisors and managers. Although, the holding company structure can change management drastically (DePamphilis, 2010). Virgin group consists of several companies over the world but most of the operating companies are based within Britain. The equity is owned by Richard and through family trusts is controlled by Virgin Group Investments Ltd. The connections of all companies use a single common brand Virgin trademark and Bransons role as shareholder, as chairman while dealing with public, government, or media. Virgin group comprises a loose alliance of companies associated under the Virgin trademark and Richard has given a great deal of rights to his employees to take the decisions for the betterment of the organisation because of his vision of people-oriented capitalism. Mr. Branson rightly explains each individual has to believe in hard work and understand its responsibility as it is his/her company. The organisational structure of the Virgin Group is flat as it has little of hierarchical levels, short lines of communication among employees and senior managers. Due to a great deal of responsibility and freedom, employees are encouraged to take initiative, commitment and to come up innovative thoughts. Although, Frances Farrow handles the corporate services at Virgin Atlantic but she also offers legal advices within the Virgin group because of her legal background. Likewise, Rowan Gormley is considered as a source of new business leadership and strategy expertise although his formal position is supposed to take care of Virgin Direct and Virgin Wine.

Top Management Style

Starting from the begining, Richard was an initiator. The success of the magazine inspired him to spread his wings into various market segments such as Virgin Records, Virgin Atlantic Airways, Virgin Blue, Virgin Express, Virgin Rail, Virgin Money and many more. Despite a privileged family background, there is little distinction between his work and social and family background. The complete leadership model consists of four major components of transformational leadership and several features of transactional leadership including laissez-faire. Transformational leaders engage their colleagues and followers to accomplish the desired goals efficiently by setting up some agreements where as transactional leaders offer rewards their followers depending on their performance (Bernard and Riggio, 2006). Before getting onto any agreement or a new venture, Branson understands ins and outs of the business then hand over to his capable managing directors and highly skilled financial controllers who are given a stake in it. He even does not have any problem in paying modest salaries to most of his employees for performing well for the organisation.

Levicki (1998) explains successful leaders treat the organization as much as a social entity as a profit-maximising apparatus. The leader has a deep care for the organization and he take care of his employing by providing monetary benefits as well as job satisfaction. Most of the core members of Virgin are Richards cousins, aunts, childhood friends, and dinner party acquaintances, all are into business relationships with him. He engages everyone to put their best effort in creating enterprises. Dubrin (2001) indicates that transformational leaders put their continuous effort with their followers how to bring positive changes for the benefit of the organisation. Transformational leaders are concerned not only about achieving the desired goals but also rewarding the deserving followers for their high performance. The key qualities of transformational leaders are described as Charismatic, Inspirational leadership, intellectual stimulation and individualised consideration. The concept of charisma is about building a special kind of social relationship between leader ands their followers. Charismatic leaders are viewed as an extraordinary and special individual by common people as well as by their followers. The followers have a great respect for their leaders and allow them to have power over them (Bryman, 1992). Richard is charismatic and represents the spirit of New Britain. Bransons employees have a great deal of respect for him and refer him as the hippie entrepreneur of a counter-cultural enterprise. The group holistically follows Bransons values and his management style. According to Hickman (2010), transformational leaders have a capability of inspiring and motivating their followers. They create such an environment where team spirit can be seen among employees. Followers also exhibit a great deal of commitment to goals and shared vision. Mr. Branson understands the importance of creating of such an environment where his admirable and brilliant employees are encouraged to put their best to accomplish the tasks with high level of performance.

Reward and Control systems

Individuals can be satisfied by adequate wages, good working conditions, and other benefits. However, transformational leaders not only satisfy their followers by paying well but also pay attention to their other needs for personal growth and development (Daft, 2008). All the same, Richard displays individualised consideration by showing great amount of importance towards his employees. He wants his talented people not to leave the group and prefers to make the millionaires within the group. He gives his employees a sense of loyalty and offers minority shareholdings to the manger of subsidiary. Bass (1990) argues that transformational leaders use latent skills of their followers to solve the business problems while asking them to view from different angels (cited in Hunt 1991, p.188). Richard always invites his employees to participate to share their thoughts and ideas. He even asks his senior managers and advisors to call up for a meeting so they can discuss about the finance, long-term plans and so on. He

gets ideas from his own people so he can be confident to invest in new ventures. Moreover, he is always keen for new opportunities where the conservatism and lack of imagination of incumbent firms. For instance, Branson didnt hesitate to sell his most profitable and successful business, Virgin Music to Thorn EMI for GBP 650 million as he had great interest to invest in airlines industry. In response, Virgin Atlantic airways started expanding and won a number of awards for its excellence in customer service. On the other hand, Daft (1999) explains that transactional leaders receive rewards for performing well. It can be explained a transaction or exchange process between leaders and followers. In contract, Mr. Branson sometimes does act like a transactional leader. While, he does not believe in giving financial rewards to his employees but he is much interested in offering non-pecuniary benefits such as social activities, company-sponsored weekend gateways and parties. it might be appropriate to say that Richard Bransons style of leadership could be more transformational than transactional.

Goals
To be the successful market leader, Virgin has to be quick in decision-making because of changing external market environment to compete its rivals. Once the goals are defined, Virgin can use the potential skills of its talented financial and legal advisors. The managers should know how to excel in performance to overshadow their rivals. They need to focus on improving its vital competencies so that the rivals can not copy their style of doing business (Prasad, 2009). Nevertheless, Richard Branson always looks for new opportunities but he should also focus much more on most profitable existing companies. In order to improve the services, he can ask his employees to take initiatives. Carmody (2004, p.85) argues, marketers focus on building their long-term strategies rather than for short-term goals. Additionally, Virgin group deals in different kind of products and services but it should satisfy the needs of its customers for the long-term goals and not for short-term gains.

Products and services

The sprawling business empire that makes up Richard Branson's Virgin investment group consists of about 400 operations, a tangled web of enterprises owned via a complicated series of offshore trusts and overseas holding companies. Branson's finances are difficult to penetrate because of their complexity and opaqueness, with few of his large companies wholly owned by Branson himself. His big-branded firms such as Virgin Atlantic, Virgin Money, Virgin Media and Virgin Trains have other major shareholders. In some cases, he simply licenses the brand to a company that has purchased a subsidiary from him, and these include Virgin Mobile USA, Virgin Mobile Australia, Virgin Radio and Virgin Music (now part of EMI). In return, as the licence holder of the Virgin brand, he receives annual or triennial fees that can amount to hundreds of millions over time.

By forging partnerships with cash-rich allies, Branson has established new businesses without depleting the group's reserves and spending little to establish new ventures in sectors such as mobile telecoms. But initiatives come straight from Branson, who prides himself on his ability to spot a gap in the market. He is not a numbers or a details man and leaves the everyday running of his firms to a group of lieutenants. According to a spokesman for Branson, "branded revenue from companies that bear the Virgin name" topped 13bn last year. Branson himself is estimated to be worth more than 3bn.

Some of the prominent sectors in which Virgin group operates are Banking Airline Telecom Beverages Travel Video Games Films Financial services Retail Internet Radio Music Books Jewellery Housewares Consumer electronics

Innovation
Following their famed mission statement to, Deliver unforgettable experiences to customers that are expecting nothing less but breakthrough innovations, the now Galactic Virgin Group continues to push its way into industry after industry. On February 28 ,2011, Virgin announced its first commercial contracts to send customers into space. Not even two months later, Virgin launched the formation of the Oceanic group, which intends to enable, Pioneers and adventurers to participate in deep sea oceanic exploration. These two recent announcements aimed at truly exploring the final frontiers of our environment and taking travelers to destinations only dreamed of, clearly place Virgin and its talisman, Richard Branson, at the forefront of innovation