LONGITUDINAL STRATEGIC DEVELOPMENT STUDY RECENT PAST
INTRODUCTION
Virgin Group limited is a venture capital conglomerate founded in 1970 by Sir Richard Branson with interest in transportation, travel, mobile, financial services, media, music and fitness. It employs about 50,000 people in more than 30 countries, comprising of 300 companies and brand, with 11.5 billion pounds in revenue as at 2009, (Virgin website). (Adapted from Rob Abdul, 2001)
It started as a mail order business and gradually moved in retailing and
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This new territory caused the first major shift in the strategic thinking of Virgin as the airline was capital intensive and by 1985 airfares price war and the investment needs of virgin Atlantic (the airline) had taken its toll on Virgin finances with the result that publicly listed to raise more equity. Virgin’s music, retail, and vision business was brought together to form the Virgin Group and 35% of its equity was listed. Branson was not happy with this new arrangement because of the control that shareholders would hold on direction and this was not in keeping with his nonconformist style and also that he felt that his organization was misunderstood and undervalued by so called experts. The organization culture at Virgin was also at risk in this new arrangement and he seized the opportunity presented by the 1987 stock market crash to buy out external shareholders. Back in private hands Virgin continued to grow using funds realized from Virgin Atlantic and loans to seek out new market around the globe with the Virgin megastore in such diverse countries like United States, Netherlands, Japan, Spain and Australia using joint venture strategy with Blockbuster Corporation. The 1990s saw similar expansion with the launch of Virgin Lightships, West One Television, Virgin games, Vintage
Virgin Australia is an airline for corporate, regional and leisure market segments and is the second largest airline in Australia. This airline has become a highly regarded global brand name that has a broad appeal to all consumers in a mass-market environment in revolutionising airline travel. (Virgin Australia, 2015)
That day came sooner than expected. My student picked a oad from south texas to the Los Angeles area. He made an excellent choice except for one reason. That reason was that load couldnt deliver early, adn it gave us a week to go just 1400 miles. We had disacussed those thigs before, but he made a mistake and we dealt with it. How, well we stayed in south texas for three days, partying at night across the border in Mexico, and sleeping it off at the terminal each day. Then we left for California. This was his trip, and I was just a buddy riding with him. He called all the shots, you know, where and when to get fuel, meals, breaks, and all the rest. WHe said he was ready, but he failed. WHy did he fail, because he was doingquite well until we
Virgin mobile is entering the US mobile market. Low brand recognition in USA and limited financial resources for advertisement represents a constraint because to enter successfully in such a market Virgin needs to swiftly attract its potential target customer, in order to establish a critical mass and financial strength to defend itself from incumbent and/or other potential entrants (price-wars, dumping, etc…). The profile of target customers, youth in between 15 and 29 years old with low credit credentials and high income / price elasticity (sensitivity to changes in price and income), is in conflict with the need to retain customers for a minimum period of 17
The star of the film is Pastor Becky Fischer, who explains the startling mission of her "Kids on Fire" camp: "I want young people to be as committed to laying down their lives for the Gospel as they are in Pakistan." At the camp, the children are asked: "How many of you want to be those who will give up your life for Jesus?" Little hands shoot up from every direction. They are told: "We have to break the power of the enemy over the government." At one point, Becky yells: "This means war! Are you a part of it or not?" More little hands.
Virgin is a U.K-based company led by Sir Richard Branson and is one of the three most recognized brands in Britain. The company has a vast history of brand extensions – one of which is their launch of a wireless phone service in the USA. Dan Schulman has been appointed CEO of the Virgin
The purpose of this report was to provide a strategic evaluation of the company Virgin Australia. The report begins by conducting a strategic analysis of Virgin, including an analysis of the external environment and an internal analysis of competitive strengths and weaknesses. The report then identifies the strategic direction and objectives of Virgin Australia, including the vision, mission, strategic objectives and stakeholders of the company. The report moves on to explore strategic choices of Virgin Australia by identifying the key broad business level and
Virgin Mobile will sell directly to consumers through retail companies such as Wal-Mart, Target, Sam Goody, Circuit City Media Play, Best Buy, and Virgin Mega stores. The idea is to remain accessible to youth and be in the areas where they shop the most.
I identify Richard Branson as one of the most distinct and famous leaders among the contemporary business leaders for this paper. There may be more famous, wealthy, and renown business leaders around or may be leading with many different leadership styles of those who are CEO’s and founders, but I chose Richard Branson and I would like to analyze and evaluate his unique leadership approach and his natural gifted/talents of leading people to grow and become successful.
Virgin Cars, an internet car retailer, was launched in May 2000. Virgin predicted that they would sell 24,000 cars within the first year. That however was not the case as they only sold 12,000 vehicles by 2003. (Russell, April) Virgin Cars ceased operations in 2005. In another attempt to take on a giant in an industry, Virgin launched Virgin Pulse and Virgin Digital, which were to take on the iPod and iTunes.
The 1920s was a decade of many inventions after WWI when soldiers had returned home. People were able to enjoy themselves more from making more money and new technologies. This era was also a time where medicine advanced more, due to that less people were getting sick and more people were staying healthy. This decade of change allowed many Americans to own new technologies and different inventions they never had or thought about before.
Virgin Mobile, a MVNO is planning to launch its services in USA. It’s target is underserved Demographics of 15-29 years as this age group is underserved by the regular telecom operators due to their low credit score ( Under 18 demographic cannot go for contract). They are planning to launch their product with service offerings that focuses on value added services.
The most important inputs are craft and technology, aviation fuel, and skilled labour. Due to the reasons of political and economic, the fuel price is subjected to fluctuate. Also, the technology suppliers and craft suppliers are very limited and Virgin brands solely relies upon the supplier for them to supply very fast and aircraft that is well designed and fast. Boeing and Airbus are the two leading manufacturing aircraft that supply Virgin. The Virgin Group is constantly being technologically developed by suppliers with its touchscreen seat back entertainment, Wi-Fi accessibility, health club maintenance, cutting edge smart phones, and new space
From 1968 to 2007, Richard Branson leads the Virgin group to become a conglomerate of more than 200 companies with business in music, airlines, rail transport, soft drinks, radio broadcasting and etc. (Grant 2005a:309) The Virgin Group followed many other companies during the 1950 to1980 period in adopting diversification as a mean for corporate growth. The boom of unrelated diversification of the early 1960s and 1970s was halted abruptly however by the failure of many large diversified companies (Grant 2005b:447). The simple action of bringing various businesses together under a single ownership itself was clearly not sufficient in creating shareholder value. The following years
Dissimilar sources plan altered steps involved in the planning process, but in this case I will discuss on seven steps that are involved in the entire process. The first step is goal setting. This basically involves coming up with the main objectives and goals that the company wishes to establish within a particular period of time. It is a very important section because the company will operate with a view of the goal in mind, if it is not clearly established, and then the business could lose direction along the way. After goal setting, we have development of the planning premises, where the plans are prepared and any underlying conditions defined. This is where there is an assessment of the environment and any constraints or
His business activities showed much sign of lacking entrepreneurial vigor. In financial services, Virgin Money was in the process of a major expansion of its UK retail presence through acquiring the government-owned Northern Rock with its 75 branches, 2,100 employees, and one million account holders. In health clubs, Virgin Active, boosted by its acquisition of rival Esporta, was expanding into new markets in Asia and Latin America. In healthcare, Virgin was using its acquisition of Assura to establish itself in primary healthcare services in the UK. In communications Virgin’s initiatives included the launch of Virgin Mobile in Chile, Colombia, Brazil, Poland, and Oman and cloud computing services for corporate customers in the UK. Meanwhile, in the travel business, Virgin continued to be a pioneer: the Virgin Galactic spaceship service was undergoing test flights and selling seats at $200,000 each. Yet despite Branson prominence as Britain’s best-known entrepreneur and one of its richest