Richard Branson - a Global Leader Who Has Built a Successful Business Conglomerate - Case Study Example

Organisational Leadership and Performance Introduction There is no universal definition for the term leadership because leadership is complex and because it is studied in different ways that need different definitions. However, one common definition of the term is that “leadership is the influencing process of leaders and followers to achieve organisational objectives” (Lussier & Achua, 2009, p. 6). From this definition, it is noteworthy that leadership is about influencing others so as to attain the objectives that an organisation has set. Along this line, it is important for leaders to be very innovative in their styles because of globalisation, which makes it possible for people from across the world to interact and therefore makes the business environment very competitive. This paper will discuss the leadership style of Sir Richard Branson, an English business magnate who is renowned for his business conglomerate called Virgin Group that comprises more than 400 companies. Richard Branson is chosen for this essay because he has been described by various authors as a global leader. In his book titled “The New Global Leaders” Manfred Kets de Vries describes Branson as one of the new global leaders, and in a subsequent article, the author cites Branson as one of the global leaders who “is still going strong” (de Vries, 2007, p. 29). Further, according to Cook (2010, p. 43), a poll by researchers called MORI revealed that Richard Branson, Winston Churchill and Nelson Mandela were the three leaders that British people would like most to have a conversation with. It is important to note that the late Winston Churchill was a former Prime Minister of Britain whereas Nelson Mandela is renowned for fighting apartheid in South Africa and eventually becoming the country’s first African president. Yet the two are viewed in the same ranks as Richard Branson. It is for this reason that Branson’s popularity and leadership style cannot go unmentioned. Branson’s leadership style is admirable because he is creative, opportunistic and dedicated to those activities in which he is involved (Thompson & Martin, 2010, p. 40). His first innovation was the Student magazine which he published when he was only 16 years old, and the innovations that followed have seen him grow to be one of the most successful CEOs in history. Judging by the success of the Virgin Group, one would expect that Branson is a strict disciplinarian who rarely gets time to have fun or interact with his juniors because of the massive duties that he has to ensure that all the companies are effective. Astoundingly, Branson is the exact opposite of such a leader; he is a person who values open communication, is readily accessible to junior employees, and values employee empowerment (Mendenhall et al., 2008, p. 46). Branson has influenced Virgin Group employees so much with his charismatic style of leadership that they always have a tendency of playing an active role in creating a personal relationship with him and empowering him. The employees have identified with Virgin as an organisation and what it stands for, and this has resulted in is immense success. Branson’s role at Virgin Richard Branson is one of the business leaders in the world who have used innovative methods to expand their economies into the global marketplace. After producing the Student magazine, he ventured into many other businesses including mail order, retailing, record production, travel and financial services. A notable aspect of the success of these ventures is that Branson has always relied on working with other people to achieve the best results. According to Thompson and Martin (2010), Branson “was always an astute and visionary businessman, carefully recruiting people with the necessary expertise to manage the detail of his various enterprises” (p. 41). Further, Branson’s main skill has been in networking, looking for opportunities and securing the resources that are necessary for their exploitation. To achieve this, he has had to show courage as well flexibility (Thompson & Martin, 2010, p. 41). Flexibility implies that Sir Richard Branson is a leader who is willing to learn. The tremendous growth of Virgin is an exemplar of the point that “organisations learn only through individuals who learn” (Senge, 1990, p. 139). In deed, Branson has been able to find the best people to run the diverse businesses in the Virgin Group, and as a result, learn from them. Interestingly, he is not as much concerned about interest specific competencies as he is with recruiting employees who demonstrate strong communication and teamwork competencies that match with the Virgin culture (Hellriegel & Slocum, 2009, p. 35). Branson’s idea to begin a trans-Atlantic airline in 1984 is one of the indicators that he is a global leader or a person who thinks globally. The move had been promoted by an American businessman who approached him with a proposal for an all-business-class trans-Atlantic service. Branson initially rejected the proposal but took a few weeks to make a decision. This involved analysis of why small airlines had previously failed in similar ventures. He saw an opportunity in that Virgin Atlantic Airways would offer added value and superior service at competitive prices, and focus on a limited number of the most profitable routes (Thompson & Martin, 2010, p. 41). This description depicts Branson as a person who although willing to learn, would take some time to think over a proposal before totally rejecting it or accepting it and this demonstrates flexibility. For an organisation to compete globally, its leaders must demonstrate leadership skills that make them suitable to deal with the challenges associated with globalisation, such as flexibility, integrity, or being business savvy. There is no doubt that Branson has demonstrated these traits. These requirements for leadership roles often integrated with more general management skills or with intercultural skills that are needed by anyone who working in a globalised environment (Gundling, Hogan & Cvitkovich, 2011, p. 28). By definition, globalisation refers to “the process by which markets and production in different countries are becoming increasingly interdependent due to the dynamics of trade in goods and services and flows of capital and technology” (European Commission 1997, cited by Held, 2000, p. 92). According to Rondinelli and Heffron (2009, p. 269), globalisation is influencing the roles and styles of leadership in at least three ways. First is that globalisation is increasing the diversity and complexity of tasks and challenges that leaders face in the 21st century. Second, globalisation is shaping leaders’ behaviours and roles. Third, globalisation influences expectations about the characteristics of effective development leadership in bringing about economic, political and social changes. The forces that drive globalisation and expand interaction among political, economic and social organisations across national borders have had direct corollaries on leadership tasks as well as challenges and have directly shaped the environment in which the effective leaders must perform their task. When organisations decide to compete globally, their leaders and employees must be prepared to adjust to the aforementioned aspects. Notably, by launching Virgin Atlantic, Richard Branson knew too well that the new airline would have to compete with well established airlines such as British Airways among others. Specifically, the airline had to content with issues such intercultural communication since airlines, by their nature, are bound to serve people across all cultures. In deed, the airline has grown to the extent that it serves 35 destinations across all the world’s continents. This has been made possible by Branson’s clarity of vision as well as his ability to motivate others (Cook, 2010, p. 43) – values which have become engrained in Virgin’s organisational culture. Branson’s leadership style Sir Richard Branson can be described as a flamboyant and charismatic leader who believes in self-promotion, having fun and taking risks to achieve his goals. He always leaves his partners to supply the majority of the knowledge required to make a venture successful (Steers, Sanchez-Runde & Nardon, 2010, p. 256). This style of leadership can be likened to the point that the active force in an organisation is “people”, that is the employees. These employees need to be sufficiently motivated to challenge the goals of growth and technological development, without which, there will be no growth, no increase in productivity and no technological advancement (Senge, 1990, p. 139-140). Branson has definitely used the skills of his people effectively to tackle the challenges of globalisation, going by the range of services that the Virgin Group offers. For instance, Virgin Atlantic’s state-of-the-art services make the airline remarkably unique compared with its rivals (Taneja, 2008, p. xli). Branson believes that “business ideas can, and do, come from anywhere in Virgin” (Thompson & Martin, 2010, p. 41), as well as from people outside the organisation. He has always made sure that he is approachable and motivates employees who come up with new ideas with development capital (Thompson & Martin, 2010, p. 41). Nevertheless, this approach of being too open to new ideas has also resulted in failure in some areas. For instance, Virgin vodka and Virgin underwear failed, and as such, Branson has had to change his strategy and focus on those areas which have been successful (Daft, Murphy & Willmott, 2010, p. 374). Richard Branson’s leadership has definitely been shaped by the fact that with globalisation, there is an increase in the diversity and complexity of tasks and challenges that face organisations. As such, leaders in the 21st century have to redefine their jobs and give up the dogma of planning, organising and managing as argued by Inamori (cited by Senge, 1990, p. 140). There is not doubt that Branson’s leadership style is based on the belief that the manager’s fundamental task is to provide “the enabling conditions for people to lead the most enriching lives they can” (O’Brien, cited by Senge, 1990, p. 140). Companies also need to develop cultures that encourage the whole workforce to be creative and to contribute new ideas (Emerald Publishing, 2006, p. 32). It is by providing such conditions that employees can become more imaginative and innovative so as to make their organisations more competitive in a globalised world. It is by being innovative and creative that employees are able to challenge accepted practice, which is essential for organisations’ growth as noted by (Sinclair & Wilson, 2002, p. 63) and as exhibited by the Virgin Group. Sir Richard Branson approach’s of developing and transforming Virgin into a global organisation depicts him as a transformational leader. Transformational leaders have an advantage over those who use other leadership styles. This is because as seen for the case of Virgin, everyone in the organisation, not just the leader or a small top-level group, can attend to external change and its consequences. People in such a setting are likely to come to similar inferences because they are guided by shared values and beliefs. They can figure out on their own what the appropriate actions are, and they do not need to be told. In addition, they likely to take those actions because they have been empowered to do so (Sashkin & Sashkin, 2002, p. 167). At Virgin, employees are empowered to learn and implement what they learn. For instance, within the Virgin Group there is a culture that encourages risk taking and rewarding of innovation. In addition, rules and regulations are not overrated, nor is analysing ideas to death. In fact, as said by Branson, “an employee can have an idea in the morning and implement it in the afternoon” (Nelson & Quick, 2010, p. 343). This environment provided by Branson ensures a learning organisation in that employees are able to tap into their inner reserves, reinvent themselves, connect to and value their own knowledge, and work with their colleagues to attain their organisation’s common goal. For a brand like Virgin Atlantic, the result has been massive innovations which range from offering new products and services to travellers, to using innovative, fuel efficient aircraft to compete effectively with some of the world’ major airlines. See the airline’s key innovations between 1998 and 2007 in the diagram below. Source: Rothkopf (2009, p. 107) How Branson communicates to employees A key feature of transformational leaders is that they spend time listening, teaching and coaching their followers. They also encourage their followers to re-examine assumptions, seek different perspectives, analyse problems in novel ways, and encourage non-conventional thinking and re-thinking to break through inapt or outdated business models (Burke, 2006, p. 38). Interpersonal communication is a crucial aspect of communication between Branson and Virgin employees. He reads emails from employee every morning before he resumes any of his tasks. This relationship started in Virgin’s early days, and has been embedded in the organisation’s culture. As such, employees do not hesitate to air their grievances directly to Branson (Hellriegel & Slocum, 2009, p. 36). The definition of interpersonal communication is that it is the “communication that takes place between people who are in some way ‘connected’” (DeVito, 2009, p. 4). Interpersonal communication is regarded the cornerstone of what social scientists call the communication climate – that is, the quality of personal relationships that exist within an organisation. These relationships are directly impacted by the soft skills of the people within the organisation. The communication climate portrays the workers’ perceptions of whether the organisation trusts and values them (Krizan et al, 2007, p. 365). For instance, in the Virgin case, Richard Branson’s personal communication with employees at all levels implies that he respects them and values their contribution to the organisation. It is for this reason that when the employees have a problem, they go directly to the boss and so the formation of a union is not necessary (Hellriegel & Slocum, 2009, p. 36). This essentially means that Branson personally understands the problems that each employee is likely to face or is faced with and has an opportunity to intervene accordingly. This helps to avoid cases of disgruntled or unsatisfied employees. Conclusion In conclusion, Sir Richard Branson is a global leader because of the way he has managed to build and maintain a successful business conglomerate and because of his unique style of leadership which enables him to interact freely with employees and have personal contact with them. Although occupying a high position at the Virgin Group, Branson has not stuck to the traditional dogma of management which is planning, organising and managing. Rather. He encourages employees at all levels to come up with new ideas which are fundamental in ensuring the success and efficiency of each of the business units. 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