Background Information and Challenges of the Virgin Group 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 …show more content…
The lack of a corporate headquarters and the small size of most of the Virgin operating companies were intended to foster teamwork and a strong entrepreneurial spirit. (Grant 2005a:325) Branson envisions that Virgin group has a responsibility to the employees and it develops a better understanding of the human factor. (Davidson and Griffin 2006: 40) Branson extracts some guidelines from Fayol to scientific management, such as the Equity (Managers should be kind and fair when dealing with subordinates), Initiative (Subordinates should have the freedom to take initiative) and Esprit de corps management issues (Teamwork, team spirits and a sense of unity and togetherness should be fostered and maintained). (Davidson and Griffin 2006:41) Finally, he follows Henry Gantt by employing a system that give people rewards for completing their jobs in less than allowed standard time. Branson’s management strategy and the success of Virgin Group were founded on the ideology of “the Business of Trust”. First of all, Branson recognized that large companies were more likely to be mistrusted by their employees, whereas smaller companies often have the loyalty of staff because of the culture of collaboration. Productivity, performance and retention rates suffered in low-trust firms. While managing in smaller companies in a flattened organizational hierarchical way would facilitate the communications and interactions between the managers and employees.
Virgin Australia is an extremely diversified and multi dimensional corporation that truly approve that its individuals are its the most important asset. They always provide a view of the different business tasks and some of the model roles that shape a section of every team. Team at Virgin group includes individuals with consummated experiences who are committing to a similar goal. There are many types of teams that occur within the Virgin group of corporations, for example, the top management team, a self-managed team work team and the cross functional teams. In addition, there are stages of improvement and task roles influence the efficiency of groups within the Virgin Group through forming, storming, norming, performing and
In 2004 Virgin Australia created a non-profit foundation called Virgin Unite to which it unites people and entrepreneurial ideas to they then create opportunities for a better world. Over the last decade, partners have inspired and raised an amount of magnificent relationships such as Ocean Unite, Carbon War Room and The Branson Centres for Entrepreneurship to which these groups have encouraged the change in the world that is needed. Branson says he spends his time now working with Virgin Unite to ensure that he creates a positive difference that is needed in the world. He supports the projects that he is truly passionate about to being an advocate for issues such as gay rights and using the power he has to raise his voice to the issues that
In light of an evolving market, faced with new competitors, and after a careful analysis of their current customers, the Vanguard Group (hereinafter referred to as “Vanguard”) realizes it must rethink its entire marketing strategy. However, in order to protect and leverage their competitive advantage, which is their low management fees, and to optimize the loyalty that their customers continuously demonstrate toward their organization, they must now target the most profitable segment for them, and develop the best way to serve and delight these customers.
After its mission statement, the company enumerates its values in support of the mission statement. The values are the following:
Virgin Group LTD is a British venture capital conglomerate that has been around since 1970. Virgin encompasses over 400 different companies located in many industries such as: financial services, transport, food and drink, media and telecommunications. Headquartered in London, this British corporation has come a very long way since it’s birth in 1970. One of the main reasons for the companies success is because of its founder; Sir Richard Branson.
Planet: Being a responsible global citizen that makes a difference by helping to build and support sustainable communities
Coca-Cola is the largest non-alcohol beverage manufacturer in the world, which holds approximate 43% market share. The firm is also ranked in top 20 in the Fortune 500 in terms of the largest capital with over 100 billion dollars in assets. John Stith Pemberton is the founder of the firm, which is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia. During its 100 years of history, Coca-Cola has grown its businesses substantially in the globe. Currently, the firm presents over 160 countries, including China, India, Japan, and South East Asia countries. The main objectives of the firm that is it can serve its products to all consumers in the globe, and expands its businesses to the majority of strategic regions. In order to grow and expand its present to the other major markets, Coca-Cola executes its marketing strategies based on three different categories, including price, place, partnerships, and core products. These marketing methods have supported Coca-Cola to sustain, and grow in the soft drink industry.
The twentieth century has brought in a number of management theories which have helped shaped our view of management in the present business environment. These emerging theories have enabled managers to appreciate new patterns of thinking, new ways of organising and new ways of managing organisations and people. Over the years these different theories have enabled the study
I believe the Virgin Group, as a corporate parent, does add value to its businesses. The main way in which it adds value to the strategic business units is by the use of their brand name and image. This is very prominent and well recognised world-wide, and therefore gives each business unit instant recognition within their industries and therefore gives each business a strong external image to benefit from. Research shows that the Virgin brand was recognised by 96% of consumers in the United Kingdom, and 95% were able to associate Richard Branson's name with the brand. The brand name is also known for a huge variety of different businesses which shows the name has proved to be very versatile and can probably be put with most fields and brings an element of success.
Marketing is an essentially about marshalling the resources of the organization so that they can meet the changing needs of the customers on whom the organization depends. As a verb, marketing is all about how an organization addresses its markets. Marketing is “The management process which identifies, anticipates and supplies the customer requirements efficiently and profitability”.
Coca-Cola Company has realized significant growth since its establishment to become a global leader in the marketing, manufacturing, and distribution of syrup and soft drinks. Out of the four generic strategies, the company has followed the differentiation strategy to make its products unique in the market. Its interest is to maximize the market share through the development of the most innovative products and the establishment of effective strategies to influence the customer’s decisions. In such a way, the company has integrated various strategies to ensure that desirable results are attained in the market. Its strategic choices align with the differentiation strategy in an attempt to make its products unique and meet diverse market requirements. To reduce its weaknesses, the company should consider exploiting key opportunities in the market including venturing in the packaging of water, promotion of new brands, and launching of healthy products. In particular, the vision and mission statement of Coca-Cola seems to have reconfirmed and changed in this process of company’s strategic analysis.
Considering about the strategy of the Virgin group, their founder has mainly pointed out that the key to success as to being up to date with the things going on with the environment. When considering about analyzing an organization, one of the main concepts is that the corporate rational. This means that the way in which corporate parent will add value for its strategic business units.
Scientific management uses incentives to motivate workers. This idea comes from Henry Gantt who introduced the bonus system, which motivated workers to complete their daily tasks by
Top managers develop long-range plans, called strategic plans that define the company's overall mission and goals. Strategic planning focuses more on issues that affect the company's future survival and growth. To develop strategic plan, top managers also need information from outside the company, such as economic forecasts, technology trends, competitive threats, governmental issues and shareholder concerns.
1.The company I chose to research is the, Coca-Cola Company. Their company mission is to “refresh the world” and spread happiness, which can be seen in the media advertising. Although this company is sold in stores, there is the option for online buying as well. Its URL is, http://www.coca-colastore.com. While this URL, is the company’s actual website, http://www.coca-colacompany.com/our-company. This online website allows customers to buy Coca-Cola products “Share-a-Coke” and Coke brand merchandise (Moye, 2015).