Sir Richard

Branson – The
Development of an
Entrepreneur

“Fun is the secret of Virgin's

success.”

Case study By
Group 3
The story unfolds..

Branson was born at Stone field

Nursing Home in South London.
The son of Barrister Edward James
Branson and Eve Branson, he was
the eldest of three children.
His mother used to set challenges
for him and his sisters, in order to
make them independent.
Virgin brand took off in the year
1970.
Branson started with a student
magazine at the age of 17 which
focused on the issues of students in
Con..

A high school drop out who

suffered dyslexia, was poor in
studies but was an excellent
athlete.
Passionate about sports,
adventures, family and
entrepreneurship.
Received the status of ‘Sir’ by
queen of England in the year
2000.
Know to be a corporate
iconoclast, defying conventional
wisdom, pushing the envelope,
Virgin brand so far: Transport & Travel
Virgin brand so far: Leisure & Entertainment
Virgin brand so far: Retail
Virgin brand so far: Communications. Money.
Virgin Mobile India Entry….
Virgin brand so far: Health. Renewables. Charity.
 ….one of the most exciting brands in the world
200 companies worldwide, employing 48 500
people, an annual Virgin Group turnover
of £10.8bn/US$20.4bn
Questions

Using the various personality

characteristics, how would you
describe Sir Richard Branson’s
personality ?
The Big 5 Personality Model
Extroversion: a flamboyant businessman who loves work
life, and his family and friends even more. – ranks high.
Agreeableness: He is good natured but also a rebel. He
would take on challenges given by his mother and he also
defied the norms of education- ranks medium.
Conscientiousness: Highly responsible with his billion
dollar brand and was very persistent. – ranks high.
Emotional Stability: Though he handled pressures well and
is seen self confidant, he is also emotionally attached to his
brand. – ranks medium.
Openness to experience: An explorer, whose adventure
knows no bounds. Even at work place he would encourage
people to come up with innovative ideas and translate them
into reality. – ranks high
Personality Attributes

Core self Evaluation: High self esteem and

internal locus of control.
Narcissism : Ranked high on this attribute.
Risk taking: Branson thrived on changes and was
open to surprises. With an empire built up of 200
brands, he took calculated risks before entering a
venture.
To what extent have the barriers to
social perception influenced your
view of Branson?
Halo Effect

Rebellious: Richards childhood, schooling days, student

magazine, crazy adventures, strong competition to rivals
are some of the instances which would support him being
rebellious.

This shortcut to social perception hinders us in seeing his

other characteristics and forms a general conclusion about
him.
How do attributions factor into
understanding the background of
Branson’s entrepreneurial
development?
 Attribution

Attribution theory attempts to determine

Attribution whether an individual’s behavior is
Factors internally or externally caused.
Branson’s poor performance in school due to
Distinctiveness his inability to read, write and spell was
Consensus attributed as him being stupid and lazy. This
Consistency resulted in fundamental attribution error.
Here the external factors were
underestimated and internal factors were
overestimated while arriving at a decision on
the behavior displayed.
Distinctiveness: His performance in his studies was
always poor and thus distinctive and was not very unusual
according to his teachers. Attributed as caused by internal
factor.
Consensus: Poor performance was not shown by all
students in his class. Attributed as caused by internal
factor.
Consistency: Was consistent in showing poor performance
all the time in school. Attributed as caused by internal
factor.
As a result his true talents went unnoticed, until
Richard Branson himself proved others wrong as he
Branson’s 10 secrets to
success…

You've got to challenge the big ones.

Keep it casual.
Haggle: everything is negotiable.
Have fun working.
Do the right things for the brand.
Smile for the cameras!
Don't lead "sheep", herd "cats".
Move like a bullet.
Size does matter.
Be a common, regular person.
 Conclusion

Strategy

●
Listen to people. Encourage
communication and feedback.
●
Integrate personnel into other part of
Core values and belief the organization.

• Helping people achieve Branson’s Skill

thing that they did not
know they were capable
of.
• Being catalyst to the Values and belief
Public relation genius-he
success of other.
●

• Constantly learning. understand what media

wants and give it to them
●
He says that he never listen to critics.
●
He is a sponge for new ideas.
●
Inspire people to think like Entrepreneur.
●
You and every one around you will make
mistake.
Thank You