Intro
Sir Richard Charles
Nicholas Branson was born on July 18, 1950 in Surrey, England. He found school
hard as he is dyslexic and therefore dropped out at the age of 15, a decision
that lead to the creation of Virgin Records. His entrepreneurial projects
started in the music industry and expanded into other sectors making Branson a
billionaire. His Virgin Group holds more than 200 companies
Strengths
One of Richard’s
strengths is that he sees a negative and turns in into a positive. In an
interview, he talks about his dyslexia and how he struggled at school with it.
The teachers thought he was lazy and not clever. In the interview, he clearly
states “Whenever something goes wrong or you find yourself at a disadvantage,
often the best way to handle it is to turn a negative into a positive. I
learned this early on.”
Another one of his
strengths is that he has over 200 companies in different industries. If one of
them is unsuccessful then he can always fall back on many others, or set up
another company.
One of the other key
reasons for Branson’s success was his ability to learn from competitors’
mistakes. He questioned managers of many other airlines that had been driven
under by British Airways and made sure he did not repeat the same mistakes
before he started one of his well-known companies, Virgin Airlines.
Weaknesses
As previously stated,
Richard Branson believes in turning a negative into a positive. This also goes
for turning a weakness into strength.
Therefore the only weakness
that Richard really has, is his dyslexia. Although Richard is a global icon for
successful entrepreneurs, and because of his positive mentality, it hasn’t
really had much of an impact on his success.
If anything it may have
had more of an impact during the earlier stages of his career. In an interview,
Richard explains how he had come out of a meeting and didn’t understand what
Net profit meant – therefore a college had to explain this to him by making use
of drawings. Incidences like this would have been a weakness in his early years,
as he had left school early without any qualifications.
Failures
There have been a couple
of business failures for Richard Branson since he started out as an
entrepreneur. Some of which include:
Virgin Cola – launched in 1994 - the most highly
publicized of Virgin's failed businesses, and also Branson's favorite failure.
"I got to drive a tank into Times Square and also to create a cheeky
bottle in the shape of Pamela Anderson," he wrote in a blog post. "That business
taught me not to underestimate the power of the world's leading soft drink
makers.”
Virgin brides –
launched in 1996 - But the venture into bridal was short-lived. The store
stopped taking orders in December 2007 after suffering losses in the intensely
competitive bridal market.
Virgin clothing
collection – launched in 1998 - Virgin Clothing was a line of men's and women's
clothing, footwear and accessories aimed at the 18-to-35 set. It was only sold
in U.K. retailers and department stores. Virgin hired ad agency Saatchi &
Saatchi to work on the line. The brand folded in 2000 with losses to
shareholders.
Virginware –
launched in 2003 - Virginware expanded rapidly from internet sales to
opening 30 retail stores between 2003 and 2004,
including a flagship store near Carnaby Street in London. But by April 2005,
the brand collapsed into administration. And in July,
Virginware took its profits with a sale of 35,000 pairs of Virgin-branded bras
and G-strings.
Virgin
Megastore – Opened in 1992 – The stores finally closed due to the impact of the
digital music market in 2009. Richard Branson, however, admits that he probably
kept the Megastores open for much too long. "... the business was losing a
lot of money. We did not make a speedy exit in part because I resisted closing
the business. I was worried about losing the flagship stores' presence in Times
Square and on Oxford Street since they were so important to brand recognition
and our link with the past. But the scale of the losses meant that we had to
sell the business to its management and focus our attention on markets where we
could be the disruptor, not the disrupted," he wrote in a blog post.
Successes
There have been plenty of
business successes for Richard Branson since he started out as an entrepreneur.
A few of major examples of his success includes:
In 1992, he sold his
Virgin record label to EMI for 500 million pounds in a bit to keep his airline
company afloat. Although this may seem as a loss, in 2011 Virgin
Atlantic carried 5.3 million passengers, making it the eighth largest UK airline
in terms of passenger volume. It was also the first airline to use the Airbus
A340-600.
Virgin Trains is another
business well known business adventure that Richard has operated since 9 March
1997 (formally known as the InterCity West Coast). Virgin Trains operate
long-distance passenger services on the West Coast Main Line between Greater London, the West Midlands, North West England, North Wales and Scotland. The service connects the major
cities of London, Birmingham, Manchester, Liverpool, Edinburgh and Glasgow which have a combined population
of over 18 million people.
Richard has also broken a
number of world records, some of which include:
· Crossing the Pacific from Japan to Arctic Canada, 6,700 miles
(10,800 km), in a balloon of 2,600,000 cubic feet. This broke the record,
with a speed of 245 miles per hour. This record was made in January 1991.
· In March 2004, he set a record by travelling from Dover to Calais in a Gibbs Aquada in 1 hour, 40 minutes and 6 seconds, the fastest
crossing of the English Channel in an amphibious vehicle. Two Frenchmen set the previous record of
six hours.
Unique Talents
One of Richards main
talents is his down to earth charisma. He has been involved in a number of
public stunts and interviews and he’s not afraid to talk to the word about his
mistakes and business failures.
He also has a big
involvement in helping the world with its global warming issues. On 9 February 2007, Branson had set up of a new Global science and
technology prize called The Virgin Earth Challenge. It will award
$25 million to the individual or group who are able to design a
commercially reliable design, which will result in the removal of any harmful
greenhouse gases that are in the earths industry.
He also has a huge vision for
futuristic transportation, and is currently working on a project in which he
will be hosting space flights to the moon. On 14 November 2011, the
International Space Transport Association in The Hague awarded the ISTA Prize
Branson for his pioneering achievements in the development of suborbital
transport systems with "Virgin Galactic".
He has received a number of awards for the success of his businesses. He
was knighted by Charles, Prince of Wales on 30 March 2000 in
Buckingham Palace for his success as an entrepreneur.
The Sunday Times stated that his wealth is calculated at £3.065 billion; if he were
to retire to his Caribbean island and liquidate all of this, he would pay
relatively little in tax.
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