sir richard branson's leadership style
TRANSCRIPT
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