Richard Branson Essay Example

Richard Branson Paper Richard used management skills, management challenges, and the management process, (planning, organizing, leading, and controlling) every day to insure his accomplishments. Management skills consist of three skills: technical skills, human skills, and conceptual skills. Technical skills are the ability to performance at tasks with expertise. Human skills are the ability to work well with others. A conceptual skill is the ability to think analytically and solve complex problems. Managerial competency is skill-based capability for high performance in a management job using communication, teamwork, self-management, leadership, critical thinking, and professionalism. Brannon as successful because he understood the management principles and took full advantage Of lifelong learning in all aspects Of our daily experience and job opportunities His organization is working on flat and non-hierarchical structure which is made of clusters, and given the flexibility to work independently without much interference (Drove 2007). These factors clearly show that his form of leadership is of much more democratic and participative nature. Position power he proves to be dominant thinker, and generally makes decision by himself. Brannon has strong contingency and situational leadership skills too. He has always looked for and uses every opportunity to create a new company to be viable. He is quite capable of controlling situations and also a high risk taker. This reflects the most dominate theory of leadership today i. E. Situational theories. We will write a custom essay sample on Richard Branson specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on Richard Branson specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on Richard Branson specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer He follows different leadership styles and technicians according to the situation. This has been one of the most important features of Richard Abrasions leadership (Durbin, Dahlias Miller, 2006). He also shows the ability to implement changes quickly. For example: Virgin Cola in the Ignited States changed its strategy, management and location of its t-drinks business tit emphasis on the theme New Age beverages like fruit juices and energy drinks, when he saw no prospect in the war against the Coca-Cola and Pepsi- Cola in the Cola Business (Drove 2007). His values and goals are the driving force of the whole corporation. His philosophy is to put his employees first, his customers second, his investors third and in the end, everyone will be happy. One of the ways he does this is through his sense of equality and fairness in how he treats people and by promoting flat, non-hierarchical structure to run his businesses (Grant, 2005). Richard Brannon style of draperies is best summarized as a transformational approach (Lousier Cache, 2009). Brannon has also been labeled as a transformational leader for his individualist strategies and his stress on the Virgin Group as an organization driven on informality and information, one thats bottom heavy rather than strangled by top-level management. Transformational leadership is a style of leadership that occurs when leaders broaden and elevate the interests of their people, when they generate awareness and acceptance of the purposes and mission of their group, and when they stir their people to kook beyond self-interest for the good of the group. The Virgin Group is a company that provides consistent and unique customer experience. It is fun, maintains quality, competent, creates value through innovation, and promotes social responsibility. Virgin is a powerful brand that is loved by its customers and respected by its employees. Richard Brannon instills his own values into the company to make it focused on branding and the customer experience. They consist of eccentricity, fun, innovation, commitment to employees and customers and contempt of authority and hierarchy. There are over 200 companies under the Virgin Group, but there is a clear, focused message that it broadcasts to its customers. The Virgin Group stands for value for money, quality, innovation, fun and a sense Of competitive challenge. The Virgin Group strives to achieve this by empowering employees to continually deliver an unbeatable customer experience. Brannon set up the Virgin Group to be independent companies, meaning when they entered a market, the company becomes its own entity and must stand on its own two feet. Independent managers under Virgin are able to make quick decision without approval from the CEO improving speed, immunization and elevating employee level of the responsibility. Employees have a stake in their success. They feel -and are crucial to their company because they are one-in-fifty or one-in-a-hundred instead of one-in- tens-of-thousands (Grant, 2005). This style of management sets the tone for how employees feel working for Virgin, which makes this management style a success for the company. Due to the flat structure of management that Brannon encourages, it translates to higher employee and customer satisfaction. The Virgin Experience is the cultural value that Brannon utilizes o his commitment to customer satisfaction. He wants to create the best customer experience possible and so he sacrifices short-term profits for this long-term goal. Running a successful company full of high achievers and model employees is what Richard Brannon dreamt of. Staffing a group of individuals who respect development, protection Of natural environment, and protection Of human rights in all aspects of society, in employment leads to career involvements. Richard Brannon gives his employees the freedom to get creative, to come up with their own ideas and run with them. He particularly emphasized, to give a whole new life purpose to all the people who work in your company. Long-term sustainable happens when employees discover their own power. If you can motivate your people, use their creative potential, you can get through bad times and you can enjoy the good times together. If your employees are happy and smiling and enjoying their work, they will perform well. Consequently, the customers will enjoy their experience With your company. There are many positives, but crucially, employees retained responsibility for their own projects and were not hampered by internal red ape and bureaucracy. Give your employees the freedom to get creative, to come up with their own ideas and run with them. Another way that Richard Brannon motivates his employees is with drive and foresight. Enthusiastic team members will be your best assets, so if career advancement is an employees goal, look at the opportunities for stretch projects that can provided; if building technical skills is what another wants, consider what sort of training he/she can learn on the job; if work-life balance is another persons focus, find out what his or her needs are and try o accommodate them. Then keep in touch with your employees and discuss how theyre progressing, because youll need to readjust this plan as they attain their goals and choose new ones. Foresight is important in business: Dont wait until an employee comes to you and says hes ready to leave before you Start thinking about what his goals are and what keeps him/her happy. This should be part of your hiring decision. Before you make a prospect a job offer, be sure to consider how his plans for his career fit. The trick is to ensure that your staff feels empowered. As your team members grow into their jobs, give them real responsibilities: Theyll respect you for it and do everything they can to rise to the challenge. Richard Brannon has the ability to communicate and install his vision towards his employees and the stakeholders. He shares his passion and his enthusiasm with everyone. Employees are attracted to business leaders who are genuinely excited about their business. Many in leadership roles have a great passion for their work, but tend to hide it. He articulates a compelling vision for everyone. Employees and stakeholders feels as if they re sailing on rudderless ship when management fails to communicate their vision for the company. By engaging employees and stakeholders in the companys vision, he created an employee and stakeholder base which is exciting for the future and one that looks forward to growing with the company. Mr.. Brannon invites participation from everyone. He wants everyones input and opinion on anything and everything. Good leaders are good listeners, but great leaders go one step further; they actively solicit input from their employees. Richard Brannon has an Open door policy in which he wants everyone to commit to an pen and honest communication. Good news or bad, open and honest communication with your employees makes them feel valued. It goes a long way towards building a trusting relationship between employees and management. Richard Brannon praises his employees and stakeholders who works hard, who is deserving and he provides great feedback and his company shows great achievement under his leadership. If, Richard Brannon offered me a managers position to work at the Virgin Group, would accept it. Why? His leadership style fits perfectly for me. I have previous managers experience. Richard is a good listener, he allows his managers to have input and to have open communication. Richard Brannon allows his managers to use the concept of innovation to inspire the employees to contribute to the company at all levels, rather than just doing what they are told. Employees can contribute to the cutting edge products that the company creates as well as look for new ways to increase the overall efficiency of the company. The Virgin Group has been able to create a management style that encourages employees to be competitive. This also gives people the desire to see the company succeed in order to be a nutrition to a fresh and creative business model. Transformational leadership comes from the top managers and executives within the company. Richard Brannon along with other company executives have set many common goals for the company to achieve as a whole. These ambitious goals include expansion into international markets, utilization of new technology, loyalty among customers, and joint ventures with other companies. Goals of this level are voiced to all people involved with the company. This has a benefit to the company by giving everybody involved a challenging mission to accomplish. The highest level of management encourages employees to use their skills in a way that will best compliment the company. The idea behind this is to promote the philosophy that the overall benefit of the company will lead to individual benefits for each person involved. Group contribution will eventually lead to rewards for executives, managers, employees, shareholders, and customers alike. Leadership is encouraged among managers, but it often takes strict management to get the job done. Each management function varies within the different divisions in the company. Managers at the Virgin Group have a wide range of goals to pursue. Because each division within the company varies in its specialization it takes well trained managers to run it effectively. Managers hired by the company tend to have a solid background in their area of specialization. They also need to have a history of proven management experience to be considered for a position. Ultimately, managers within the Virgin Group deal with managing the day to day tasks required to keep their division running efficiently. Richard Brannon creates a winning team of managers. He creates at the eighties level of managers to succeed at every level within the company to ensure that each division has specific goals and the steps needed to complete each goal. A high level of organization is needed at all levels of the operation. For example, each division needs to organize their management structure. This is often done by trial and error to determine the most efficient ratio of managers to non-managers. When the proper determination is made the company can organize its management structure in order to meet the highest level of efficiency. His leadership dynamics are terrific. He is a very vocal and lamentably leader. His mission is to inspire those who work below him to work to the best of their abilities for the good of the company. He often pushes his belief that by contributing to the good of the company it will increase the rewards for everybody involved. He has stated that he tries to bring the best out of people and does this for workers at the lowest levels as well as the top ranking executives. His philosophy is to encourage to all managers within the company. Management is expected to embrace this principle and pass it on to the employees that they are managing. His draperies style tends to give people a high level of freedom in their work. Freedom gives them direction in their work and then let them take control of the situation there after. Freedom in their work allows them to excel without the need for micromanagement. The Virgin Group believes that employees should have a certain amount of freedom to make choices for the good of the organization. It is this freedom and decision making that has the potential to bring out the best in an employee. So, yes I would have accepted the job offer from the Virgin Group and shook hands with the CEO Richard Brannon and embraced honor and intelligence to him. The company in which he has created has a unique management formula that has contributed to the long term success of the company. Although there is a clear distinction between management and leadership, the company has been able to integrate a blend of each in many aspects of the business. The transformational leadership has proved to be a valuable tool for executives, managers, and workers alike. Employees within the company have a willingness to work together to expand and improve the company in order to reach their own personal success in life. Richard Brannon is a global leader. He is a billionaire. He is an entrepreneur. He is one of the most successful and admired business leaders in the world. He shows a great example of how entrepreneurs can figure out what the customer really needs thats different from conventional thinking. He has created a company that does business all over the world, from the UK to emerging markets like Chile and Brazil. He goes where the growth is. He goes after big brands where there is a big gap in the market or where old competitors no longer deliver a great customer service. He has strong draperies skills which is an essential key in the success for a global company. Brannon wanted to expand the global presence even further by participating in joint-venture agreements in telecommunications with China. By incorporating their reputation into the foreign market, the exposure to an untapped market or competitive market, an organization is able to branch out with ideas that will produce additional profits. Corporate leadership in global business becomes even more complex when companies enter into other markets (Dresser, 2011 Motivating his employees an international call was a challenge that Brannon was able to overcome with his leadership skills. He was able to understand that the organizational skills needed to be adaptable to the local cultures which meant that the strategies needed to be altered when appropriate. Leadership is setting a new direction or vision for a group that they follow; management controls or directs people/resources in a group according to principles or values that have already been established. Being able to work and deal with people in an international environment is a task that Richard Brannon accomplished because he was able to handle the ask at hand. Over the next five years, Richard Brannon will not only sustain success, but will achieve greater success. He has already laid out the foundation of the company to continue to succeed thereafter. The company continues to create more business ventures. Invest in more job opportunities for future employment. More experience, better culture, more freedom for employees to become future entrepreneurs for themselves. His success in one area, tends to leads to success in other fields. He has built up an extensive network of relationships, and now entrepreneurs and companies often approach us with ideas for partnerships that will help them to start a new business, or to attract new customers. The company relies on experience and their own reaction to a prospective product or service to decide whether or not to go ahead with the launch Of a new company or partnership. His teams also use data about economic, consumer and population trends to evaluate the consumer experience and assess potential opportunities. Right now they are looking at entering a number of sectors for potential expansion. Richard Brannon will have sustainability within the company and continue to expand, innovate and motivate his leaders to become better entrepreneurs.