SIR RICHARD BRANSON

BDHS 7013LEADERSHIP AND ORGANIZATIONAL EFFECTIVENESS

DR CAROLINE M. ACOSTATeam Members1. NagarajanS2. Azahari M Shuid3. Gopi Naidu

SIR RICHARD BRANSON &SNAPSHOT

Sir Richard Charles Nicholas Branson 

Born 18 July 1950, in England

Virgin Group 400 companies

Companies Revenue $ 25 billion

55 000 employees

Early Years

SIR RICHARD BRANSON

Sir Richard Branson had Dyslexia made school struggle

Richard didn't breeze through school. 

He left school at age of 15.

BUT HE HAS THE GREAT BUSINESS IDEAS

AND HIS ABILITY TO ENERGIZE THE AMBITIONS OF OTHERS

SIR RICHARD BRANSON

SIR RICHARD BRANSON

Attributes

SIR RICHARD BRANSONAttributes

His insatiable desire to take on Coca Cola and British Airways-the industry giants

Careful plan for aggressive competition:: make a lot of noise to irritate those gorillas, so that

they tried to swat back.Then he waited for their mistakes

SIR RICHARD BRANSONAttributes

Tried out every mean to promote his company Drive a tank down 5th Avenue in

N.Y city to introduce Virgin Cola to the States

Fly a hot air balloon across Atlantic to promote his Virgin Airlines

Wear a wedding gown to promote his new bride chains

AND MANY MORE!

SIR RICHARD BRANSON

His belief: PEOPLE COME FIRST

People - Oriented‘PEOPLE’: includes Employees and Customers

likes to refer to the Virgin staffs as a large extended family gives every new employee his telephone number &

encourages them to call him if they come up with any bright ideas or complaints

For customers, he tries to keep them paying the lowest price for their products as long as he can cover the cost and earn ‘some’ profit

Believes in keeping faith with the staffs no matter in good times or bad

He shared the settlement from British Airways equally with his staffs

Attributes

SIR RICHARD BRANSONAttributes

• Failed to wrestle the UK’s lottery franchise from Camelot

• But was dignified in defeat • Looked into the positive side

• Immediate action:• call the CEO of Camelot • asked her not to feel sorry for him.. because

he still had a beautiful life!

• Within days, he announced his own non-profit game.

DETERMINED & OPTIMISTIC

Personal Characteristics of LeadersPersonal Characteristics• Energy• Physical staminaIntelligence and Ability• Intelligence, cognitive ability• Knowledge• Judgment, decisivenessPersonality• Optimism• Self-confidence• Honesty and integrity• Enthusiasm• Charisma• Desire to lead• Independence

Social Characteristics• Sociability, interpersonal skills• Cooperativeness• Ability to enlist cooperation• Tact, diplomacyWork-Related Characteristics• Drive, desire to excel• Responsibility in pursuit of goals• Persistence against obstacles,

tenacitySocial background• Education• Mobility

Personal Characteristics of Leaders : Sir Richard Branson

Transformational Leadership• “Master Motivator”• Pushing employees into their limits• Turning the self-interests of employees to

the sake of “Virgin”• He believes: Enthusiasm is infectious!• He is good at:

• Attempting the impossible• To excite, arouse and inspire followers• Giving trust and encouraging followers

Example: MISSION IMPOSSIBLE• He asked John, the marketing manager of Virgin, to place an ad in the London Evening

Standard. Tomorrow will be the deadline! • ** He gave confident to John and said, “Do your best all the same as normal.”• Result: John paid superhuman effort and spent entire day, did make the last edition of the

standard.

Empowerment Leadership StyleDefinition: Intrinsic motivation and self-efficacy of people are influenced by leadership behavior, job characteristics, etc . Transferring authority to subordinates “Virgin” Trademark, Situation: More than 400 companies Not feasible, hard to be boss of all of them Solution: Empowerment Branson Backseat Leader “ I know when to get out the way and let people get on with it.” = Want, X= don’t wantX people follow him blindlyX hired hands individual entrepreneurs

Charismatic LeadershipCharismatic leader

A form of INFLUENCE Based on followers’ PERCEPTION Leader has exceptional QUALITIES

Example: VIRGIN ATLANTIC Founded in 1984 Branson’s vision Dangers behind?

Extremely capital-intensive Likely Airline’s failure Aviation industry: political

Branson: To be? Or not to be? That is the QUESTION! Branson: Go on! Think about:

Risk: huge loss (Virgin) Personal failure: money, status!

Charismatic Leadership What did Branson demonstrate? His……

Courage - Vision Self-Confidence - Commitment Embrace to Changes Self confidence Think Rationally Embrace changes

Dreaming Impossible Dreams ; Challenge

Act in unconventional ways Branson’s decision making process:

Rational Logical Realistic Assessment

Minimize risk Balance between DREAM and REALITY

Inspirational Leadership• Manage employees with “Tough Empathy”• Empathize people• Care about employees’ work• An ADVANTAGE of Virgin: EMPLOYEES• SUCCESS of Virgin: EMPLOYEES + MOTIVATION

Branson’s concern:Employees’ cohesion + satisfaction

• Promote from within • Assign Virgin’s bright people to

new companies• Stretching, Developing

employees• Provide opportunities!

Inspirational Leadership

• Party Hard!• Throw a party…

• When morale is low…………..↓↓• Letter (sealed with a kiss…?)

• Every month, Branson wrote personally• Content:

• Heart-warming messages~~~• Virgin’s plan~

• Branson Cares : • Employees’ work• Their Feeling, Satisfaction

Branson: an inspirational leaderBranson: an effective leader

He is a true

LEADER1) Employee Empowerment

2) Patiently listens to Employees’ ideas

3) Not a conventional business person

4) Energizes people towards higher

performance

5) Collaborating, Competing, Compromising,

Avoiding, Accommodating