ENTREPRENEUER ESSAY

Entrepreneur Essay

Entrepreneur Essay

Introduction

Branson Richard had or has varying attributes and made very different contributions to tourism. He has been innovator in the sense of creating a new product, he has combined existing products into new packages, and he had developed tourism in particular regions where it did not previously exist (Thelwell 2007, pp. 23). Sir Richard Branson, to varying degrees, has performed all of these activities. He has produced, or is in the process of producing, a new product “Space Tourism” (Squires 2009, pp. 56).

Discussion

Branson has been knighted (in the Queen's Millennium Honours List) 'for services to entrepreneurship', is a billionaire and a highly recognizable individual, inseparable from his brand. Whether he is truly a tourism giant' may be arguable given his multiple and wide-ranging interests, but there is little doubt that he is an entrepreneurial giant, epitomizing the 'rogue' character of Schumpeter's entrepreneur, introducing disorder, innovation and competition into his areas of intervention and involvement (David 2007, pp .56).

Branson was born In London on 18 July 1950. His father was a reluctant barrister and his mother a former air hostess. From a relatively early age he exhibited both the extrovert and entrepreneurial characteristics which have made him a media personality and retailer extraordinaire. His first commercial efforts were in the publishing industry, where he published a relatively short-lived magazine called Student hi 1968. He then moved into the recorded music business, an area in which, through Virgin Records and Virgin Mega Stores, he has continued to be highly active. He began in 1970 by selling mail order records, which enabled him to undercut the then resale price maintenance scheme (and thus become one of the pioneers in the business of discounting records), and saw the first use of the name Virgin for one of his business enterprises (Branson ...