Richard Branson Analysis

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Branson was born in Surrey, England in 1950. Both his father and mother were working class people; (father was a barrister while his mother was a flight attendant). He struggled with dyslexia at a young age which was a hindrance for his education. (Biography Online, 2014)
He attended Scaittliffe School but due to his illness, he nearly failed all his classes. When he was 13 years old, he transferred to a boarding school in Stowe. Due to his difficulties, Richard dropped out three years later. This was the phase in Richard’s life that he discovered his entrepreneurial skills as he started a magazine for mostly youth; Student in 1966 which was run by students for students and sold a lot during the first years. (Biography.com, 2014)
Around 1969, …show more content…

(Business Day Live, 2014). He was constantly interested in new challenges which in turn changed his reaction towards different and difficult situations such as when he started signing artists into Virgin records; he had no idea whether the artists songs will make profit or top the charts, he took a chance and risk which eventually led to his success.
Furthermore, Branson possessed great sales, negotiation and leadership skills. Despite having dyslexia, he turned this weakness into strength; as he dropped out of school and created the magazine Student, which was the start of greater things ahead. He used his negotiation skills to collaborate with Scaled Composites to build a spaceship and sales skills to sell those magazines in the 1960’s. (Entrepreneur, 2014)
Another strength advantage includes the strategy with which Branson operated called the “branded venture capital”. He opened a variety of chain businesses with very little revenue with this approach. (Entrepreneur, 2014). The catalyst was utilising the Virgin name; he gave different investors/businesses the name in replacement for interest in the business. Due to this venture he now owns and holds companies like Virgin Radio, virgin Hotel, Virgin Cola and others. (Entrepreneur, …show more content…

This is evident when he opened Virgin Records due to the postal strike of the mail order music business. (Biography Online, 2014). He also lost some of his artists like Oldfield and major revenue but he never gave up; he signed Sex Pistols which also brought success to his business. (Biography.com, 2014). He is also being considered as an amazing manager and leader as he takes good care of his employees and customers as he also imparts his knowledge on his employees. Despite the competitive grounds in the industry, he still succeeded in surviving and holding his grounds. Regrettably, Branson made some unethical choices in his life such as his continuation of operating Virgin records despite the fact that the store was undergoing cash flow problems due to fewer sales and to evade excise tax on sales. (Solutions,

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