MANAGING CHANGE AND CREATIVITY IN ORGANIZATIONS

Managing Change And Creativity In Organizations

Managing Change In virgin Company

Abstract

Richard Branson the chief Executive of the Virgin Group is well known for making successful businesses out of 'crazy ideas'. It is a known fact that Branson can make any business profitable in the most unusual ways, he does it all himself, be it dressing like a bride or flying in a hot air balloon. Branson is the most innovative entrepreneur of the 21st century. He is known for his Virgin brand, a banner that represents his organization and he is also known to be a leader with informality and information. Branson values people at the bottom level of the organization, and encourages them to move upwards through his various incentive plans.

Aims

This report will research and examine the nature and leadership factor of the most successful British entrepreneur and the CEO of Virgin Group Sir Richard Branson. It will carry on explaining Branson's informal leadership styles applying various theories and using real life instances.

Definition of Entrepreneurship

Murray and Richard (1986) in their book " Entrepreneur and Economist" define, "Entrepreneurship is a dynamic process created and managed by an individual (the entrepreneur), which strives to exploit economic innovation to create new value in the market, who has entrepreneurial mind with a strong need for achievement"(p.15). The most interesting point of this definition is the purpose of value creation and the need for recognition.

A brief biography of Sir Richard Branson (1950 - Present)

Founder and mastermind of the Virgin business enterprise, Richard Branson was born on July 18, 1950 into a middle class traditional Christian family in the English county of Surrey. As a teenager (17 years), his entrepreneurial ways began early when he and his friend Gems started a student magazine called the 'student' (Bower 2000, P. 12).

In addition to his business ventures, Branson also continued to maintain an active lifestyle. His activities include attempts to break land and air speed records. In 1986 he crossed the Atlantic Ocean in his boat, "Virgin Atlantic Challenger II." In 1987, his hot air balloon, "Virgin Atlantic Flyer" became the first to cross the Atlantic Ocean. In 1991, Branson crossed the Pacific Ocean from Japan to Canada, breaking distance and speed records (Bower 2000, P. 61).

Branson's entrepreneurial success continued when he opened a mail order record retail business and named it 'Virgin.' When asked about why he chose the name 'Virgin.' He replied, "I was a virgin in business." Even this venture was highly successful. Later on he opened a record shop at Oxford Street in London. In 1972, Branson started a recording studio at Oxfordshire (Dearlove, Dez, p. 45). The Virgin Record Company signed on many superstar and music group such as Genesis, Phil Collins, Peter Gabriel, Simple Minds, The Human League, Bryan Ferry, Culture Club, and Janet Jackson. By the early 1980s, 'Virgin Records' was related among UK's top six recording companies (Dearlove, Dez, p. 47). Under Branson's management Virgin became a very powerful ...