Richard Branson and Virgin Atlantic Airways

Résumé du document

Virgin Atlantic Airways set out on its inaugural voyage in 1984 from London Gatwick to Newark in New York, the US, after a set up period of three months, and only with one aircraft. In the modern days, it runs an extended fleet of 30 aircrafts and an impressive 26 more to 22 destinations around the world, the Airways even made a pre-tax profit of £20.9 million in 2004. It has not been easy for it in becoming the second largest airline in Britain. In fact, it has been an uphill struggle fighting against the Civil Aviation Authorities (CAA), and the British Airways (BA), who had an effective monopoly in the British aviation market until the competition of Virgin Atlantic Airways (VAA) improved, and who were not keen to release their competitive advantage. In order to succeed where others had failed, Branson needed a good leadership strategy in order to manage the strategic changes and also the flexibility of the company. From 1989 to 1993, the founder and CEO of the the Airways, Richard Branson led his company in a time of financial pressure and unfair competition in the dirty tricks campaign the BA carried out. And so the Virgin Atlantic Airways, after a long struggle, has become the second largest airline in Britain.

Extraits

[...] ‘Weaknesses: Branson's strategy has been highly experimental. In the past he has always been able to extricate himself well in advance from unsuccessful ventures; he may not always be successful in the future. Branson has been able to finance the organic growth of the business to date from the joint venture and financing deals with the Japanese. Joint-venture links with the Japanese investors are likely to lead eventually to constraints on the direction of those businesses, and are limited by the extent to which Branson would wish to dilute his own control. [...]

[...] It lasted two years and detained the strategic progress of Virgin Atlantic. Virgin Atlantic has many competencies among them being the Virgin Flare. It is difficult to describe but in the selection process it is used as one of the selection criteria. It is then encouraged by a culture that supports creative thinking within a framework where there is no blame if they get it wrong. Developing and building customer relations are more competencies with a stress on the fact that if there is a problem then it affects the whole company and not just one department. [...]

[...] He is open to change and effective in leading it, and motivated. Talk about Branson as a leader, what type of leader etc. and managers' roles In March 1991, Virgin finally got permission from the CAA to fly from Heathrow airport after a long battle to abolish a ridiculous piece of anticompetitive legislation called the Traffic Distribution Rules. of the rules said baldly that only the airlines that operated scheduled services from Heathrow to airports outside the UK when the Rules were made (1970's) could operate new overseas scheduled services from Heathrow. [...]

[...] Virgin Atlantic is voted Executive Travel's Airline of the Year for the third year running. 11 December 1992 we agreed the terms of the highest uncontested libel payment ever made in British legal history: £500,000 to me personally to compensate for the personal libel, and £110,000 to Virgin Atlantic to compensate for the corporate libel'. P485 - nature I am curious about life, and this extends to my business. That curiosity has lead me down many unexpected paths and introduced me to many extraordinary people. [...]

[...] Lord King resigned in disgrace from British Airways after being forced by the courts to make an official apology to Branson and his airline. Branson always wanted to be the catalyst for improvement in the British airline industry and he managed to succeed against British Airways where others had failed before him. He is a charismatic, hard-working entrepreneur and leader who states that fun is the secret to Virgin's success (Branson, 2002), and he is not a conventional businessman. References -Virgin Atlantic Press Pack. (2005) -Branson, R. (2002). Losing My Virginity. London: Virgin Books Ltd. [...]