Business Formation and Purpose - Example

Business Business formation and purpose British Broadcasting Organization Introduction The British Broadcasting Corporation is a public broadcasting company based on United Kingdom. It has it’s headquarter in London. The main responsibility of the company is to present broadcasting service in UK without involving any partiality to party or any person. BBC has its production centers at various places in UK like Birmingham, Glasgow, Bristol, Belfast, Sal ford and Cardiff. It is known as the oldest broadcasting company in the world with more than 23000 employees. In the year 2012, the company has shown a unique digitization program by scanning all of its programs from 1923 to 2009 which is known as the BBC Genome project. It was made with an intention to create an online database of programs which includes more than 5 million programs and 8.5 million of presenters, actors, technical staffs and writes. History BBC was founded in the year 1922 when the govt. allowed the six main radio manufacturers to form a new organization. In 1922, it had four employees and the company was funded by a post office with a license fee of ten shillings. The first broadcasting program which was known “listening-in” came from London and soon it became popular among all. After a month of this event, John Reith was elected as the first general manager of BBC but after covering the general strike in 1926, BBC get dissolved and British Broadcasting Corporation was again reformed with royal license. Listening to radio programs became very much popular during 1930 when people used gather in one place to listen various programs like sports and other national events. During 1930s, BBC also expended itself in the field of music, drama and arts. BBC first launched its programs on television on 2nd November in 1936 but it was stopped during the Second World War in 1939. During the Second World War, the company faced lots of challenges because it needed to deal the Ministry of Information in UK while it was targeted by 500lbs of German Bomb in 1940. Television saw its huge progress during 1950 when it broadcasted programs for 30 hours per week and it was increased to 50 hours per week by 1955. To face this competition from television, BBC 2 was launched in 1964 but it failed to show its programs at the very first night due to power cut. BBC expanded itself by introducing new channels and the world television service of BBC complemented the service of radio worldwide. A satellite channel known which was known as UK Gold helped the new television service to exploit the opportunity. It introduced Radio 5 in the year 1990 and made started to cover live programs on news and sports from the year 1994. BBC also invested in internet services to make it program available to everyone through BBC news Online and planned to launch digital mode of television by creating new channels. In the present time, BBC has introduced CBBC and CBeebies for children, BBC Four as a cultural network and various other services in radio (BBC News, 2002). Industrial Classifications Industry can be classified into various sectors like primary, quaternary, tertiary and secondary. Employment structure of a nation can be shown by dividing the direct labors into these different sectors. British Broadcasting Corporation comes under the tertiary sector because this sector is also known as service sector and it involves the selling of skills and services. For example, employment in tertiary sector includes transportation, education, health care, finance, retail and entertainment. According to data taken from govt. statistics, one people out of every five people is now working in this industry in UK as compared to one people out of every ten people in 25 years ago (GSCE Bitesize, No Date). Business Ownership and Type British Broadcasting Corporation is constituted and controlled by Royal Charter. It was granted in the year 2006 and will be valid up to end of December of 2016. The charter also has an agreement between the Secretary of State for Culture and BBC for showing programs in the field of sport, media and culture. The charter has established many policies, rules, guidelines and protocols to control the operation of BBC. These documents make a constitution framework for the operation of BBC. It also looks after the matter related to fair trading obligations (BBC Trust, 2013). Size and Scale BBC is considered as the largest broadcasting service in the world. BBC world wide includes many commercial channels like BBC America, BBC Canada, BBC Entertainment, BBC Knowledge, BBC Kids, BBC Lifestyle, Animal Planet, UKTV in UK & Australia. It also has many publishing business which publishes books, magazines, DVDs and CDs. BBC covers various types of events like Current Affairs, Diseases, Natural Calamities, Religion, War, Slavery, Civilization and Modern Society. Aims and Purpose The mission of BBC is to enhance the lifestyle of people with various services and programs to create awareness about education, current issues and to entertain the people. The vision of BBC is to become the most creative institution in the world. The purpose and values of BBC includes trust as its basic foundation as it is independent, honest and not partial. It delivers quality programs which are worth of money. It adds creativity in each and every program. It takes into consideration the choices of the audiences throughout the world. The corporation finds unity in diversity among the employees to get the best out of them (BBC, 2013). Functional Areas Functional or operational areas of BBC include office of the Director General, Board of Management, BBC North, Radio, Business and Finance, News Group, Television and Future Media. BBC has commercial subsidiaries like BBC Studios and Post production, BBC World News and BBC Worldwide which cover different segment of activities in the world (BBC, No Date). Conclusion From the above study we can see that British Broadcasting Corporation has expanded itself as the largest broadcasting service worldwide. It has various commercial channels and it also publishes books and magazines. It covers events of almost all types that happen in the world. The BBC wants to enrich the lifestyle of people throughout the world by showing quality programs which educates, entertains and provides information to common people. Virgin Group Ltd Introduction Virgin Group Ltd, established by Sir Richard Branson in UK, is a service provider of fixed and mobile telephone, television and broadband internet services to businesses and consumers in USA, UK. Situated in UK, Virgin is responsible for creating more than 200 branded companies worldwide and has a global coverage in almost 30 countries with more than 50000 employees. This 40 year old giant is often considered as one of the biggest and oldest super brands ever formed in the history of entrepreneurship. History Virgin Ltd was established in the year 1968 by Sir Richard Branson n United Kingdom. During the initial days the business was concerned with youth magazine only. After the success of this magazine, Branson took charge in different innovations like mail, record shop to modern day airlines business. Virgin became successful during the year 1973 due to their recording business. In 1986, Virgin Atlantic was formed whose primary business was public airlines services. Today virgin Atlantic is the second largest aviation company operating in Britain. As different business units were started to form, the group’s operational complexity went up significantly. It became public in the year 1986 but again retreated back to its private limited structure two years later. In the year 1997, Branson formed a private railway system named Virgin railways and within a year, it became one of the most criticized railway brand. In later years, virgin started signed deals with different organizations for social care purposes and community health services. During the credit problem years in 2011, Virgin Group was interested to buy Northern Rock, one of the mostly affected banks during the Euro Crisis. (Milmo, 2012) Industrial Classification Virgin is primarily a service provider offering wide range of vale added service to widespread consumers in different geographic locations. This great conglomerate is engaged in different unrelated diversified business in almost thirty countries. From Banking to Beverages, and from Recording to Railways, this service giant is a branded multinational. The firms dealing with “Virgin Brand” comes under the same roof of West London Headquarters of Virgin. Business Ownership and type Each subsidiaries working under Virgin are separate entity with distinct and different governing bodies. The group comprises of assorted mix of different business under a common roof. The management believes that brand is the most important staff of their business and hence the brand name “Virgin” must be associated with every subsidiary. Virgin brand was spread globally by virtue of Joint Ventures and licensing. Virgin Group and Stagecoach Group plc jointly manage Virgin Railways where Virgin owns 51 % share and Stage Coach manages 49% share. In this case, Virgin is the Holding Company and Stagecoach is the subsidiary (Virgin Trains factsheet, 2011). Virgin Media is currently a subsidiary of Liberty Global, a public limited company. Size and Scale Virgin group consists of 400 operations in 30 countries. Branded revenues from the companies having brand name “Virgin” associated with them have grossed more than £ 13 billion in the year 2012 (Wachman, 2012). Virgin group has significant contribution in innovative investment. Virgin Atlantic, the aviation system provided by the company with 51% market share, is the most cash rich business of them. The travel and tourism business is the most profitable business of this group. It is known as the most innovative and fun filled industry available today. Virgin deals with businesses such as leisure, financial sector, and telecom too and the combined powers of all these businesses have made Virgin to this size existing today. Aims and Purposes The main business of Virgin is Service. Virgin Group has the core aims of providing value added services to the customers for better customer satisfaction and retention. It has the objectives such as- Value for money and quality – providing customers with value added services Innovative approach – the core business strategy of Virgin was their innovative ideas throughout last 40 years. Fun – the value added services provided by Virgin are presented in a humorous way. Branson believed that in order to attract the customers and position the brand in the mindset of the customers, the brand design must be interesting enough to notice. And one of the most popular ways of striking the brand is by using fun filled presentation approaches. Customer Service – in order to get the business right at the first time, the group is concentrated on providing the service in a more customer centric way. Although it is quite impossible for a company like Virgin to do mass customization, but still they are offering customers superior value added services with assurance of good customer service. (BUSINESS STUDIES SPECIFICATION, 2009, p.5) Functional Areas Telecom - This is an expanding market and this segment has primary objective of gaining market share. Airlines - The Cash cow responsible for generating most cash of the group. Referred as one of the most luxurious airlines in the world, aviation is the best business Virgin Group provides. Recordings – The oldest business success of Virgin. This was their way to gain widespread success as a global brand. Hotels – Virgins group has introduced luxury hotels in different places around the world as a part of their premium services and offer accommodations in these hotels as a part of their tourism package. Apart from all the above mentioned business, Virgin Group is also involved in Retail services, Consumer durables, and most recently in luxury space tourism (Wachman. 2012). Conclusion As the part of their corporate strategy, virgin does not compromise on quality. Virgin believed that customer is the king of their business and it is the customers who have established the brand name. They value added service provided by them is the most important strategy they have taken in their widely differentiated business. Virgin views every product and service as a different object with distinctive personality. Service, Style, Entertainment and proposition are the four pillars of their corporate success. (Virgin Limited Edition. N.d) The shift in focus to the public health and society, corporate social responsibility has successfully positioned the brand as an image easy to remember, difficult to remove. References BBC Trust. (2013). Governance framework. Retrieved From http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbctrust/governance/governance_framework.html. BBC. (No Date). BBC Structure. Retrieved From http://www.bbc.co.uk/aboutthebbc/insidethebbc/managementstructure/bbcstructure/. GSCE Bitesize. (No Date). Characteristics of industry. Retrieved From http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/geography/economic_change/characteristics_industry_rev1.shtml. BBC News. (2002). A short history of the BBC. Retrieved From http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/1231593.stm. BBC. (2013). Mission and values. Retrieved From http://www.bbc.co.uk/aboutthebbc/insidethebbc/whoweare/mission_and_values/. Gmbusiness (2009). BUSINESS STUDIES SPECIFICATION Foundation and Higher Tiers Case Study, General Certificate of Secondary Education available at http://gmbusiness.wikispaces.com/file/view/Virgin+Case+Study.pdf Virgin Trains (2011). Virgin Trains Factsheet, Virgin press. Available at http://www.virgintrains.co.uk/assets/pdf/media-room/fact-sheet.pdf Milmo, D. 2012. Virgin empire: from selling records to running trains and airline,The Guardian. Available at http://www.theguardian.com/business/2012/aug/15/virgin-train-richard-branson Wachman, R. 2012. Virgin brands: What does Richard Branson really own? The Guardian. Available at http://www.theguardian.com/business/2012/jan/08/virgin-brands-richard-branson-owns Virgin Limited Edition. N.d. available at http://www.virginlimitededition.com/resources/pdfs/vle/about_us/investors/Virgin_Limited_Edition_presentation.pdf Read More