As with many success stories, his begins with hard times at school.
He was
near-sighted and had dyslexia, however this did not keep him from owning
more than 150 companies worth billions of dollars. Bored of harsh school
rules and regulations and seeing the energy of student activism, he
decided
to publish his own student newspaper in late 60`s. Different from the
others,
this paper was intended to tie different schools` students, having
ads of major
corporations and publish articles of rock stars, intellectuals and
movie c
elebrities.
In 1970, British government abolished the Retail Price Maintenance Agreement,
but major stores did not discount record prices. Richard Branson saw
the
opportunity and started to run ads for mail order delivery. The business
got so
well that, they started a music shop above a shoe store persuading
the owner that
the music shop will increase his sales. As the place was found, they
needed a brand
name: "Virgin" was the 2nd alternative after the "Slipped Disc", but
the VIRGIN
RECORDS was founded.
The name "VIRGIN" is now associated with much different sectors than
music,
VIRGIN ATLANTIC, VIRGIN COKE, etc. It seems that the only things that
combine
the companies are the name "VIRGIN" and Richard Branson. What is more
interesting is that, most of the companies under the name of the group
have
partners and the Virgin Group has even fewer shares than them. Only
two
companies are fully owned by the group, the VIRGIN ATLANTIC, and the
V2, which
is a record company. However the well known VIRGIN RECORDS is not owned
by
the group anymore, it has been sold to EMI for more than a billion
dollars.
The group having many firms in many sectors now faces two kinds of risk.
First
one is the association of the name "VIRGIN" with failure, because of
the many
attempts made. The group's recent rapid growth enlarges this risk,
since Virgin
has started to buy existing businesses rather than to build them from
scratch.
The second is the association of the company with its owner, Branson.
The group
cannot be differentiated from its owner Richard Branson, it is why
we have
written so much about it. Richard Branson is seemed like a daredevil,
a man of
unexpected things, who takes huge risks and wins. However, being an
adventurous man, he takes risk in his private life, as well: recently
had an
accident during his skydiving lesson. If something disastrous happens,
the group
will be left hollow. Branson also tries to turn around the world with
a balloon,
details are available at www.challenger.virgin.net.
Richard Branson defines the group he has built as "an Asian Business
Empire, in
which divisions making different products operate as separately traded
companies, owning stakes in each other and sharing a name and an ethos."
Citing
the example of Mitsubishi. Jeff Rayport of Harvard Business School
suggests
that brand names are associated to emotional associations but not to
a set of
products: hence the importance of Branson in the company. It is said
that, "No
other company chairman has quite the taste for adventure or the genius
for
publicity of Richard Branson, boss of the sprawling Virgin Group. His
latest
escapade, a brush with death on January 8th in an attempt to float
around the
world suspended from a helium balloon, exemplified both qualities."
Richard Branson at Launching of Virgin Cola
It is hard to get any up-to-date financial data about the group, since
the firms are located in places like Channel Islands and British Virgin
Islands, which are tax heavens, and the group is constantly getting
in and
out of businesses. The group mostly chooses markets of low competition
and tries to offer different, innovative products. However, the
recent aim of his is to compete with Coca-Cola Co. and Pepsi Co. in
Europe
and US, representing the savage behaviour of Branson.
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