Richard Branson And The Contemporary Business Leaders Essay

There is a great importance put on business leadership, this is directly due to how a business not only functions but in how fruitful the company can become. A great leader essentially can take a business plan that is weak yet turn it into a success, whereas a poor leader stands a higher chance of ruining the best of business plans. That is why it is essential to develop effective leadership throughout a companies entire management program at all levels. How does one develop or retain strong leadership? Companies must be focused on hiring strategies that encompass very specific parameters, building from within whilst creating a strong foundation for employee development and succession planning. Leadership is essential in any organization. The style and theory embraced determines whether the company will or will not achieve their goals. in all cases theory must be embraced, as a companies theory, style, and strategy is greatly dependent on the industry the company is in (Sadler, 2014). “The behavioral theory is one of the widely used theories of management. It suggests that leaders are made and not born. It gives room for training to install leadership traits in leaders at the expense of denying them a chance. There are various leadership styles embraced by companies (Cyert, & March, 2005).”  This paper takes a look at the management styles of two specific

(2006, 05). Leadership Styles: Richard Branson. StudyMode.com. Retrieved 05, 2006, from http://www.studymode.com/essays/Leadership-Styles-Richard-Branson-88459.htmlBlustein, A. (2013). What kind of leader are you?. Inc, 35(8), 58-59.

Peter Singer's persuasive essay strips us bare of our selfish wants as he equates our tendency to accumulate all the stuff we don’t need with ignoring the plight of drowning children and, as such, being responsible for the death of those children. We are, Singer convincingly argues, products of our fortunate “social capital”; therefore, we have an obligation to those who do not have a social capital.

These days, many students cannot afford to go to college or university. However, there are many people who have succeeded without college degrees. Richard Branson, the founder of the Virgin Group, is one of the successful people without a college degree. The reason for choosing Richard Branson for this essay is because he conquered dyslexia and achieved many unique and great businesses although he did not have a college degree. Therefore, having a college degree is not necessary to succeed.

Sir Richard Charles Nicholas Branson was born July 18th, 1950, in Surrey, England. He struggled in school and eventually dropped out at the age of 16. He started his first business after dropping out from school. In 1972, he founded Virgin as a mail order record retailer, and shortly afterwards he opened a record shop in London. This kick-started his Virgin brand globally, With more than 400 companies in over 30 countries, with different business ventures from alcoholic beverages to financial services, including airlines Virgin Atlantic and Virgin America, as well as wireless company Virgin Mobile. In addition, it includes international health club Virgin Active.

Effective leadership is one of the most important key factors for success and longevity in every organisation. So it does not come as a surprise that the topic of leadership has continued to be a subject of interest in the modern world both from practitioners as well as academics and the extensive research for decades has not exhausted the topic (Bennis W., 2007).The purpose of this essay is to apply the three relevant leadership theories in relation to Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple Inc., one of the most admired leaders of recent times. The essay firstly introduces the concept of Charismatic leadership, transformational leadership and transactional leadership and then briefly reviews Jobs and his leadership styles in relative to the theories.

1. Richard Branson's leadership style works for his particular role as visionary and figurehead of his diverse group of companies under the Virgin Group umbrella. However diversified the Virgin Group may be, Branson remains an essentially charismatic and transformative leader. His leadership philosophy is built on employee empowerment and stimulating employee satisfaction. In his own words, Branson states, ""Rather than focusing on mistakes, catch someone doing something right every day," (cited by Adonis, 2010). Likewise, Branson advises that managers "place greater emphasis on unearthing what their employees are thinking and feeling," (cited by Adonis, 2010).

In modern day business, leadership has become an issue that is given far more attention and investment than ever before. Leadership involves establishing a clear vision, sharing that vision with others so that they will follow willingly, providing the information, knowledge and methods to realise that vision, and coordinating and balancing the conflicting interests of all members and stakeholder. This essay will discuss whether leaders are born not made, with varies of theories being compared and contrasted and the strengths and limitations of leaders itself. Further this essay will analyse the future aspects of theories which would establish whether a leader was born with leadership qualities or made into a successful leader.

From Mahatma Gandhi and Nelson Mandela’s charisma, to Winston Churchill and Martin Luther King’s intelligence and Steve Jobs’ analytical nature, there can be as numerous ways to lead as there are leaders (Crossman, 2010). Leadership is a hot debate both in the business world and other areas of the society. Throughout the world's, there have been as many leadership models as there have been their commentators (Burns & Peltason, 1966). Fortunately, psychologists and businesspersons have established useful frameworks that refer to the main ways of leadership.

Sir Richard Branson's model is a personification model of Virginia brand and explains it using his life when he was young. He uses both his life and Virginia brand to elaborate his leadership skills which is not based on any professional skills. Over the years, he is seen to recruit the best managers. Leadership is one of the strategies and strategic management. It includes planning for informal, formal and strategic planning systems by the leader. It has planning for emergent strategies, which include; responsiveness to arising threats and opportunities, increasing of changes to predetermined intended strategies, and adaptive learning and responsiveness to intended strategies. The Branson's model includes visionary leadership, which is planning, for the future. Competitiveness and competitive advantage for business services and products are dependent on strategic plans.

In this ever growing, rapid developing world as we can see today, there are many different successful leaders. As we know it, leaders are humans just like everyone else. How did they manage to stand out from the crowd? What did they do to achieve great success for an organization? As of all the successful leaders in the world, Steve Jobs is one of the successful leaders that managed to achieve great success for an organization. Therefore, Steve Jobs is the leader that I personally admire and would like to emulate.

Branson, born July 18th, 1950 in London England, started his working at an early age. Due to his dyslexia, school and academia never came easy for Branson. He attended multiple schools in his early teens such as the all-boys Scaitcliffe School, which he almost failed out of, and the Stowe School, a boarding school in Buckinghamshire, England. After struggling at both of these schools, Branson dropped out at the age of 16. After he dropped out, he started his first business, a youth culture magazine called Student. By 1969, Branson, influenced by the British music scene, decided to start a mail order record company to help fund his magazine. By 1972, Branson had enough money to build himself a record studio in London to continue his record business. Branson and co-found Nik Powell named their record business “Virgin” because they were both virgins to the business world.

There are different leadership styles; a particular leader that will be discussed is Alan Mulally a CEO of Ford Motor. Alan faced many challenges and he impacted

Warren Buffet is the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Berkshire Hathaway (http://www.berkshirehathaway.com), a holding company for several businesses (Berkshire Hathaway, n.d.). Fortune Editors (2014) named Warren Buffett number four on The World’s 50 Greatest Leaders (2014) list for his leadership techniques with his 300,000 employees. Buffett is also a proponent for philanthropy and earmarks Berkshire Hathaway shares to distribute to several foundations annually (Berkshire Hathaway Inc., n.d.). In 2014, Buffett led his followers with a hands-off style empowering his managers to act as owners (Fortune Editors, 2014). However, Buffett did not begin his career with a hands-off style; his leadership techniques evolved as he became a seasoned CEO. Over time, Buffett shifts from a unilateral power to a mutual power (Kelly, 2013).

Prior to attending the Business Internship course, my knowledge and understanding on successful business leaders was very limited. Although I had heard of countless success stories in business, I had never actually understood what it took to achieve such measures of success. However, it wasn’t until we had the privilege of hearing from four different business magnates in weeks 6 -9. Each of the business leaders gave an hour’s seminar and which was aimed at providing insights into their personal lives, working experiences and the core essence of 21st century business leadership.