An entrepreneur is an individual who utilizes commercial innovation or idea to develop an enterprise or business while bearing the risk, profit, and loss. There are many more aspects that define the entrepreneurial journey of a successful entrepreneur. It could be educational background, support for the family, individual ideas characteristics, and more.
There are various theories of Entrepreneurship that can help in understanding the business and its achievements better. These evaluate the efficiency, impact of social change, the business approach, and more. This paper sheds light on the journey of Richard Branson. He is a British entrepreneur who founded the Virgin group in the 1970s. It discusses his family’s contribution to the business, early stages of business development, and expansion. In addition to these, the entrepreneur’s characteristics that contributed to his success are discussed. The analysis of these traits is based on entrepreneurial theories.
Sir Richard Charles Nicholas Branson is the son of a British philanthropist Evette Huntley Branson and a barrister, Edward James Branson. He was born into a well-to-do and influential family of Blackheath, London. He did his schooling at Scaitcliffe School and Buckinghamshire. Although Brandon was not able to perform well academically. He struggled with dyslexia. This condition can negatively affect the reading and learning skills of an individual (Snowling Hulme and Nation 2020). He also was diagnosed with Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). This resulted in him dropping out of Buckinghamshire at the age of 16. From the early age, he was invested in various business ideas. His mother, Evette Branson was also an entrepreneur and sold wooden tissue boxes and wastepaper bins. She was supportive of Richard Branson’s entrepreneurial ambitions. His first attempt towards the business can be dated back to 1966. Branson along with Nik Powell launched a magazine called Student Magazine. The magazine focused on diverse issues from music to the Vietnam war. After some time, he opened up a store to sell records. He used the popularity of his magazine to advertise his store. In addition to the advertisement, he sold the records at a much lower price than High Street” outlets. Richard Branson’s partnership with Nik Powell continued and he launched record label Virgin Records. The first Virgin Records artist was Mike Oldfield who Tubular Bells and later the label went on to sign big names like Sex Pistols and The Rolling Stones (Richard Branson | Virgin, 2022). The entrepreneur is known as the founder of Virgin Groups which started with this record label.
Entrepreneurs are the center of a business and their characteristics heavily influence the success of their enterprise. According to Kabir, Haque, and Sarwar (2017), education is an influencing factor in the making entrepreneur. It provides knowledge, vision and sets a mindset among students to create jobs rather than searching for one. Lee (2019) states that entrepreneurs who have pursued higher education and have more experience in the specific industry are more likely to succeed when compared to those with less education and experience. Richard Branson did not have much formal education after high school. However, he had much more experience than many in the business due to his early interest. There are certain leadership skills displayed by Richard Branson that contributed to his success. One of these is a simulation, which is the courage and self-confidence in an individual to believe in their decision-making skills (Zulvia and Adrian 2018). Joseph Alois Schumpeter’s entrepreneurship theory suggests that individuals opting for entrepreneurship are influenced by psychological elements like creativity and includes innovative practices like the introduction of new goods or finding a new market (Mehmood Alzoubi and Ahmed 2019). In the early years, entrepreneur Richard Branson displayed his creativity by selling records at lower prices in the market and launching a mail-in-order record company. According to Thomas Cochran’s cultural theory on entrepreneurship, an individual’s success is dependent on role expectation, cultural value, entrepreneurial urge, and environment (Julius and Maru 2020). The influence of these factors can be seen in Richard Branson. The early entrepreneurial urge is evident from various ideas he had had in past. He started his first business at the age of 16 (Richard Branson | Virgin, 2022). Growing up, he had a supportive and inspiring environment, since his mother was also an entrepreneur.
Boudreaux and Nikolaev (2019) state that finance opportunities and market opportunities are central to entrepreneurship along with other capital. When the virgin label was introduced the mail-order business was comparatively new. This created more opportunities for the new brand in the market. Family capital has the potential to create opportunities in a turbulent market and business environment. Social capital from family can provide local and international contacts that can help in the development of the business (Mzid Khachlouf and Soparnot 2019). Branson belonged to an influential family that had contacts from a political background. The mentioned entrepreneur could have used these opportunities for expansion of the Virgin Groups.
The Virgin Group started from a record label and has expanded the business to a diverse market. After the success of the record label, Branson moved towards the airline business. The business found success with the company’s one of the biggest marketing campaign (Stoffers Gunawan and Kleefstra 2018). Branson created clear goals and used opportunities for the development of the company.
One of the most important strategic tools for any business is to create a competitive advantage(Distanont and Khongmalai 2020). Virgin groups have successfully expanded their business to various domains through numerous innovations. Very recently through the Virgin Hyperloop, the company is setting a goal of zero direct emissions during mass travel (Five innovations of 2021 that are set to change the world, 2022). The motivation to do everything differently has set the Virgin groups at an advantage over other businesses. Branson has expanded the company in various sectors like television, radio, travel, airline, Motorsport, and retail. In 2020, the Virgin groups added cruise business to the list of businesses (Richard Branson, 2022). Their Virgin Voyage cruise aims to utilize modern technology like chat bots and virtual queuing.
A green marketing approach can bring new opportunities and bring competitive advantage for the Virgin groups. The concept of green marketing involves the evaluation of the positive and negative aspects of marketing practices on energy consumption and pollution (Moravcikova et al. 2017). With increasing climate change awareness, employing this concept can attract more customers who are looking for sustainable alternatives in the exiting market. Apart from a sustainable approach in marketing, a sustainable approach in business is recommended as well. The company is well established in the travel industry. Switching to more sustainable fuel can further help in decarbonization. To continue the success of the business, it is important to get continuous customer feedback. It can assist in developing strategic plans for the future of the company.
Conclusion
From the above discussion, it can be concluded that Richard Branson’s successful entrepreneurship can be examined through cultural and social entrepreneurship theories. These theories provide details about his leadership characteristics. His family background and early life provide an understanding of the opportunities and challenges during his entrepreneurial journey. Another factor that contributes to this success is the competitive advantage of the business in the market. To further help in growth, green marketing is recommended.
References
Boudreaux, C.J. and Nikolaev, B., 2019. Capital is not enough: opportunity entrepreneurship and formal institutions. Small Business Economics, 53(3), pp.709-738.
Mzid, I., Khachlouf, N. and Soparnot, R., 2019. How does family capital influence the resilience of family firms?. Journal of International Entrepreneurship, 17(2), pp.249-277.
Distanont, A. and Khongmalai, O., 2020. The role of innovation in creating a competitive advantage. Kasetsart Journal of Social Sciences, 41(1), pp.15-21.
Forbes. 2022. Richard Branson. Available at: <https://www.forbes.com/profile/richard-branson/?sh=319a51e26ff5> [Accessed 19 March 2022].
Julius, N.T. and Maru, G.W., The Effects Of Socio-Cultural Factors On Entrepreneurial Performance In Selected Small Scale Business Organizations In Bori-Ogoni.
Kabir, S.M., Haque, A. and Sarwar, A., 2017. Factors affecting the intention to become an entrepreneur: a study from Bangladeshi business graduates perspective. International Journal of Engineering and Information Systems, 1(6), pp.10-19
Mehmood, T., Alzoubi, H.M. and Ahmed, G., 2019. Schumpeterian entrepreneurship theory: evolution and relevance. Academy of Entrepreneurship Journal, 25(4).
Moravcikova, D., Krizanova, A., Kliestikova, J. and Rypakova, M., 2017. Green Marketing as the Source of the Competitive Advantage of the Business. Sustainability, 9(12), p.2218.
Snowling, M.J., Hulme, C. and Nation, K., 2020. Defining and understanding dyslexia: past, present and future. Oxford Review of Education, 46(4), pp.501-513.
Stoffers, J., Gunawan, A. and Kleefstra, A., 2018. Social entrepreneurship, An international perspective. Open Journal of Social Sciences, 6(10), pp.10-24.
Virgin.com. 2022. Five innovations of 2021 that are set to change the world. Available at: <https://www.virgin.com/about-virgin/latest/five-innovations-of-2021-that-are-set-to-change-the-world> [Accessed 19 March 2022].
Virgin.com. 2022. Richard Branson | Virgin. Available at: <https://www.virgin.com/branson-family/richard-branson> [Accessed 19 March 2022].
Lee, B., 2019. Human capital and labor: the effect of entrepreneur characteristics on venture success. International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behavior & Research.
Zulvia, Y. and Adrian, A., 2018, July. The Role of Core Value, Character and Entrepreneur Leadership towards Successful Entrepreneur. In First Padang International Conference On Economics Education, Economics, Business and Management, Accounting and Entrepreneurship (PICEEBA 2018) (pp. 676-683). Atlantis Press.
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