Ace Institute of Management

First Individual
Assignment
Strategic Management

Jubin Pradhan
BBA-BI VIII A
28-08-2013

EMERGENT STRATEGY AT THE VIRGIN GROUP

Case questions
1

The Virgin emergent approach to strategy development has not always proved
successful Virgin Bride and Virgin Cola, for example, remain relatively small
businesses. Does this matter? Do all emergent strategies have to be successful?
Answer:
The Virgin emergent approach to strategy development has not always proved
successful. Importantly this does not matter to the Virgin Group. Chief Executive,
Sir Richard Branson has quoted that, Business opportunities are like buses . . .
Theres always another coming along. This means that Virgin examines new
opportunities to see if the group can offer something better, fresher and more
valuable than existing companies. It looks particularly at markets where the existing
customers are not always receiving value for money. The main thrust of the strategy
has been to find new market opportunities where the company believes its brand
name can create competitive advantage.
It is important that all the emergent strategies have to be successful to increase their
profit. The payoffs from success must exceed the problems of losses. Otherwise, the
group would collapse.

Critically evaluate Virgin Groups strategies over the period of the case study. Was
the company wise to spend so much time investing in so many new product areas?
What would you have done?
Answer:
The strategies were clearly only partially successful. Some of the strategies secured
the future of the group and allowed the company to explore other business areas in
subsequent years.
The issue of investing in so many new product areas is more problematic. There is
no simple answer to this question which depends on the strategists view of the
importance of the resource-based view. If the resource-based view is important and
relevant, then it could clearly be argued that the spread of business opportunities

was far too wide even allowing for the common use of the Virgin brand name and
logo. If the resource-based view is only one of many theories, then arguably it was
reasonable to experiment in many business areas. The Virgin Group only moves
into a new area if it is able to bring something different to a clear business
opportunity.
I would have also invested in more business by doing various researches in the
related fields of current market scenario and take advices from the panel of expert
in the related field.