Strategic Managment Report on Virgin Trains

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Contents TASK 1: Evaluation of the virgin group strategy: .......................................................................... 3 Strategic Hierarchy: ........................................................................................................................ 4 Corporate strategy: ...................................................................................................................... 4 Business strategy:........................................................................................................................ 5 Functional strategy: ..................................................................................................................... 6 TASK 2: VALUE ADDING: ............................................................................................................ 6 Understanding of institutionalized Markets: ............................................................................... 6 Virgin brand name to overcome barriers to entry: ...................................................................... 6 Limiting Risk in joint Ventures: ................................................................................................. 6 Management is not restricted: ..................................................................................................... 7 Innovation: .................................................................................................................................. 7 TASK 3: Environmental Influences: .............................................................................................. 7 PEST Analysis: ............................................................................................................................... 7 Political: ...................................................................................................................................... 7 Economical: ................................................................................................................................ 8 Social: ......................................................................................................................................... 8 Technological:............................................................................................................................. 8 Threats: ....................................................................................................................................... 9 The Main Issues Facing the Virgin Group in the given case study: ............................................... 9 Virgin Atlantic: ........................................................................................................................... 9 Virgin Rail: ................................................................................................................................. 9 Recommendations: ........................................................................................................................ 10 Become Less Diverse:............................................................................................................... 10 Change in Strategy: ................................................................................................................... 10 Page 1 of 20

TASK 4: Cultural Web: ................................................................................................................ 10 Company culture and structure: ................................................................................................ 11 Culture and its impact: .............................................................................................................. 11 Conclusion: ............................................................................................................................... 13 TASK 5: Change management in Virgin: ..................................................................................... 14 Human Resource Management: .................................................................................................... 14 Action research: ........................................................................................................................ 14 Organization‟s effectiveness: .................................................................................................... 14 Attitudes, values, beliefs: .......................................................................................................... 14 Employee‟s efficiency: ............................................................................................................. 15 Conclusion: ............................................................................................................................... 15 TASK 6: Three main core competencies: ..................................................................................... 15 Porter‟s five forces model: ........................................................................................................ 18 REFERENCES: ............................................................................................................................ 19

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TASK 1: Evaluation of the virgin group strategy:

The Virgin Group comprises of an assorted mix of businesses. It has its “finger in every pie”, so to speak. The Virgin has group diversified into 200 businesses. Please see Figure below:

Sir Richard Branson, founder of Virgin in 1970 is in the author‟s opinion the single most important ingredient to all the success that has been reaped up-to-date. As the saying goes „you reap what you sow‟ thus, corporate rationale is merely a projection of Sir Richard Branson‟s own personal philosophy, which he has sown into the fabric of corporate rational. A personal philosophy and a personal persona that is revered and respected by the British public and beyond. Sir Richard Branson‟s high profile already won over the general public and almost anything he would pursue or was associated with would be given the benefit of the doubt. Thus the word Virgin and Sir Richard Branson are almost interchangeable. The Virgin brand name is by far the most important asset to the company. Being known as the “customers‟ champion” inevitably has done wonders for public relations. This fact was capitalized on; in British advertisements for Apple Computers. Sir Richard Branson was associated with great names such as Einstein and Gandhi, and featured as a „shaper of the 20th century‟.

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Sir Richard Branson, tired of the public listings obligations and corporate bureaucracy sought to take the business back into private ownership. His understandings lead him to believe that sacrificing short-term profits for long-term growth was the way the business should be geared. As for corporate bureaucracy its significance in the Virgin Group, was reduced profoundly. No real sense of management hierarchy can be found in the group except for when it comes to marketing and promotion issues, Sir Richard Branson would take a more involved role. Therefore Sir Richard Branson adopted a „hands-off‟ policy with his managers and by doing so, encouraged their own initiatives. By proving such freedom, managers would inevitably feel more of a sense of responsibility, ownership and would try their up most to make a success of it. Sir Richard Branson knew this fact. He was providing an enriching atmosphere in which managers would flourish just as he had done

Strategic Hierarchy:

Corporate strategy: It‟s not surprising then, that management recruited carefully selected individuals to be innovative people, pioneers in their field, and to have the competitive streak in their personalities. It was also of importance for candidates to be able to share values and to work effectively as team players. It is the author‟s opinion that Sir Richard Branson employed managers who were made up of his image; in terms of personal characteristics and persona. The key emphasis was in innovation and differentiation. The aim was to offer more for less and that each company was truly a Virgin in its own field. Although to some this notion may seem a bit too good to be true, no one can deny that “the Virgin Group is one of the UK‟s largest private companies” (with reference to the case study) with an annual turnover (estimated) at £3bn by the year 2000. The Virgin Group‟s rationale is to diversify into as many markets feasible, and extend the Virgin brand name further at a low cost; where stature could be relied upon to reduce barriers to entry into static markets. The Virgin Group sought a challenge in ever venture. They would aim to

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provide better quality products than any competitor in a complacent market. The key point is that the market to be entered must be still in its growing phase. The alluring factor to Virgin‟s Greenfield start-ups is the “reward-to-risk” ratio, which could be acted upon by the experienced and capable Virgin management team. Business strategy: All business within the Virgin Empire as mentioned in the Corporate Rationale section sacrificed short-term profits to gain long term growth and used an autonomous business level decision making method. Managers are free to make decisions independently for growth and feel the same degree of ownership and values that any other manager in the Virgin group would feel. To establish the virginity of a venture, so to speak in an institutionalized market extensive research was conducted into the static market to derive whether some sort of niche can be achieved and thus satisfied. Sir Richard Branson and his team deployed their 5 point criteria, to which 4 out of the 5 must be met by a new venture before giving the final go ahead. As the author has previously mentioned the name Virgin has become synonymous with Sir Richard Branson‟s name. The British public can immediately identify the roots to any Virgin advance as Sir Richard Branson‟s very own. This is Sir Richard Branson‟s key psychological strategy; and as you are acquainted by now, Sir Richard Branson plays a more interactive role into affairs of marketing and promotion; because aside from his indubitable genius marketing and promotion of the Virgin brand name is the Holy Grail to the expansion of the Virgin Empire. Thus many businesses outside the Virgin Group have shown their interest through joint ventures. Examples of the power of the Virgin brand name can be concluded from the various joint ventures that have been formed. For example Virgin‟s pledge in the Virgin Direct affair, was a mere £15m for the initial investment. But AMP Limited the leading international financial services initial investment was an extensive £450m; and yet it is a 50-50 joint venture! Businesses were „ring-fenced‟ so that assets could not be switched between companies in the Virgin Group and if a company became too large another company would be spun off, in its place.

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Functional strategy: All the business in the Virgin Group is strategically targeted towards a “five pillar” empire system that Sir Richard Branson is eager to create. At “the heart of Virgin’s core strategy to develop the five pillars of the business empire: travel, leisure, mobile phones, entertainment retailing and personal finance”. As you can see displayed in Figure all the ventures have inherited the Virgin name. What‟s in a one might ask? There answer to that question is an exceptionally well marketed, promoted and trusted brand name. “Brand was the single most important asset of the company”. By giving a venture the prefix of Virgin; is to send out a message to the consumer to say out loud this new business is a “virgin” in its market place, “fun”, “innovative”, “daring”. It also has the effect of transferring all the marketing and promotional endeavors up to the present for that specific venture respectively.

TASK 2: VALUE ADDING: The Virgin Group, as a corporate parent does value to its business. It is achieved by the following points: Understanding of institutionalized Markets: Virgin‟s management team has done well in identifying complacency in the market. It is this expertise/experience coupled with the strategy to offer more for less that has help the Group plough through complacent business industries. Virgin brand name to overcome barriers to entry: The Virgin brand name is a consumer‟s champion and as mentioned previously is a much respected brand with the British public. Limiting Risk in joint Ventures: Any company, corporation or organization in a joint venture with the Virgin Group has the benefit of limiting its risk in the market place. This reiterates the point made in the last paragraph. Page 6 of 20

Management is not restricted: A flat management structure helps encourage innovation; provides flexibility and promotes the values of shared ownership and responsibility. Innovation: Virgin‟s senior staff consists of individuals with successful careers. The Group acquires likeminded partners in ventures who match their ability to innovate and differentiate. These collective innovative thoughts and ideas are applied directly into business; which most often bear fruit. For example Virgin Mobile formulated partnerships with existing telecommunications operators to retail in mobile services. The Virgin management team successfully identified that the complacency was in the handling of network management. Their innovation led them to promote unique services that shock-up the market. These included “no line rentals”, “no monthly fees” and “cheaper prepaid” offers. Irrespective of the fact that Virgin Mobile did not actually operate its own network it had won the best wireless in the UK.

TASK 3: Environmental Influences: Virgin Group Limited is a British branded venture capital conglomerate organization founded by business tycoon Richard Branson. The core business areas are travel, entertainment and lifestyle. Virgin Group's date of incorporation is listed as 1989 by Companies House, who class it as a holding company, however Virgin's business and trading activities date to the 1970s. The net worth of Virgin Group Ltd as of September 2008 is £5.01 billion. It consists of more than 400 companies around the world.

PEST Analysis:

Political: Although Branson retains complete ownership and control of the Virgin Brand, the commercial set-up of companies using it is varied and complex. Each of the companies operating under the Virgin brand is a separate entity, with Branson completely owning some and holding minority or Page 7 of 20

majority stakes in others. Occasionally, he simply licenses the brand to a company that has purchased a division from him, such as Virgin Mobile USA, Virgin Mobile Australia, Virgin Radio and Virgin Music (now part of EMI). Economical: The brand name "Virgin" arose when Branson and a partner were starting their first business, a record shop. They considered themselves virgins in business. The current Virgin logo was originally sketched on a paper napkin and remains largely unchanged since 1979. First is the Virgin Airlines‟ Strengths, there is no doubt that influence, values and legacy of Mr. Bronson is one of their major strengths. Other advantage is that the business is privately owned which means they can manage the business well without the aid of following the government‟s restrictions. The business also set the good image and good marketing strategy which reflects in promoting each other‟s business as part of the alliance. Since it is the first company that offers low prices, they also get a chance to lease the aircrafts. Another factor is the strong leadership team of the seniors who are qualified enough in leading the entire organization toward the company. Social: Second are the Weaknesses behind the Virgin Airlines. Because of the different business try-outs of MR. Branson, he is also part of his business‟s weakness. All of his proposed projects or business‟ strategies affect his other business although it is successful and stable. Another weakness is the low return of cash flow because they offer low prices for the passengers and there is a high expenditure for maintenance of the aircraft and sustaining the quality of their service. The direct route from London to New York is also considered as part of the weakness because it only promotes the limited destinations. Third are the Opportunities for the Virgin Airlines. There are more cities open for another hospitality service and based on the smooth record of the airline, it is another success for them. Some of the large airline companies had experienced bankruptcy and it is a great opportunity and in addition, the European Union is on their side to support. Technological: Threats are the fourth analysis on the airlines. The rapid growth and change in the world economy is a factor of threat because of the New Airline Restrictions. Another is the competition Page 8 of 20

and high prices on the cost of fuels, threats on the terrorism, over flight restrictions, and the new airline companies are the other existing threats. Threats: 

Changing tastes and preferences of customers

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Competitors have new, innovative product or service

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Increase in taxation

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Access of competitors to channels of distribution

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Terrorism, outbreaks, biological warfare, and hijacks (airline threats)

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Failure of one group due to inadequacy of

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Quality materials in construction (Virgin Trains)

The Main Issues Facing the Virgin Group in the given case study: Virgin Atlantic: The airline industry like many industries is cyclic. This proved to be dangerous by 2001, as Virgin seemed to rely entirely on the profits of Virgin Atlantic. Deregulation increased the competition in the market place. All in all most compositors were experiencing losses. Virgin Rail: The biggest problem faced by the Virgin Group was the Strategic Rail Authority‟s Review in 2000 because it was the most public. Virgin Rail was voted the most “unpopular” rail operator; and if that wasn‟t enough the statistics: Virgin ranked 23 rd and 24 th out of 25 operators, was ample reason for Sir Richard Branson to feel a stake go through his reputation. Slowly but surely Virgin‟s prized brand name was being slowly chipped away by the press. The Virgin Group being such a large empire of 200 businesses was wonderful publicity when things were going right but all it took is for a hand full of businesses in the empire to either experience unavoidable consequences, which is the case of Virgin Atlantic and bad service and publicity as

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was the case with Virgin Rail for it to have quite disastrous effects on other areas of the group. Public confidence is such a delicate matter.

Recommendations: Become Less Diverse: Virgin should become less diverse. Its name has become diluted and its brand a purely endorsement brand. Lessons for the analysis of the environment must be learned. For example brand name alone isn‟t enough. The pubic are sensitive and are attuned corporate strategies given time. Virgin as a corporate parent can add workable value to its businesses by investing and developing real expertise. Trying to limit risk is a knife that is sharp on both sides. On the one side it inevitably “limits risk”. On the other hand it sends out a contradictory signal to consumers. How can Virgin be “daring” when Sir Richard Branson‟s value adding process is to limit risk? That is a question we should work towards eradicating. Change in Strategy: The Virgin Group should change its policy to accommodate both independent and joint ventures to rely upon short-term profits on a few of its businesses for the sake of raises capital and release the „ring-fenced‟ policy so that important revenue making Virgin Atlantic can be bailed out during the low times. Monies can be returned to the short-term ventures when the busy season arrives. The idea is to not restrict you to a policy of philosophy. Philosophies and policies should be such that can strategically change with time and environment.

TASK 4: Cultural Web:  Stories 

Rituals and routines

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Symbols

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Organizational structure

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Control systems

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Power structures

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Company culture and structure: The Virgin Group is one of Britain‟s largest business empires. The heterogeneous British corporationfounded by Sir Richard Branson has infiltrated into vastly diverse industries whereby unconventional business tactics are utilized to cross borders into new industries. Though the Virgin Group has retained an undeniable mystique, little empirical research has been done to obtain a perceptive analysis on the empire. Since the approach in which an organization manages itself is imperative to its success, it is important to look outside the box to assess the effectiveness of Virgin‟s management operations. The organizational culture that is synchronous with the Virgin brand, as well as the structural characteristics that have allowed Virgin to successfully operate in many industries. The company‟s fundamental values foster many of the dimensions of culture, which are highly internalized within the organization. The success and coordination attributed by Virgin‟s culture is greatly influenced by Richard Branson, the founder of the Virgin Group. Branson realizes the potential and importance of those who work for him. Consequently, he creates a structure, which is decentralized, through empowering his employees and providing them with autonomy. The Virgin Group is a company with little bureaucracy, as Branson often encourages employees to use their intuition to make decisions rather than a rational process. However, the lack of formalization within the company may deem to be a weak aspect of the organizational structure, since the lack of formal rules, regulations and procedures may create ambiguous situations for the company. Because of the company‟s corporate culture and structure, Virgin has effectively forecasted possible occurrences and has dealt with them in a timely manner.

Culture and its impact: The Virgin Group‟s overall brand identity is built upon the founder Richard Branson‟s philosophy which states that “if you keep your staff happy then the customer will be happy, and if you keep the customer happy then the shareholders are happy” (Virgin,n.d.). This underlying belief transcends into each one of Virgin‟s subsidiaries and into each individual organizational culture. The Virgin Group genuinely believes in making a difference in each consumer, which can only be accomplished by delivering quality service accomplished by empowered and motivated employees. This ultimately enables the Virgin group to foster an informal, anti-corporate work environment, which is continuously defined by the pop culture of its era (Virgin, n.d.; Grant, 2004). Management holds high Page 11 of 20

expectations and as such they expect a high level of commitment, the acceptance of personal responsibility, and long hours of work when needed (Grant, 2004).Financial rewards at Virgin for most employees are typically modest; however, the company continues to procure an abundance of non-monetary benefits, which include social activities, company- sponsored weekend getaways, and impromptu parties (Grant, 2004). This work climate continually encourages positive employee-employer relations, as well as effectively allowing Virgin‟s employees to create social networks while embracing the culture. This culture retained at Virgin has demonstrated that interpersonal relations are of key importance. The effectiveness of Virgin‟s culture may be measured through various factors, including economic and product analysis. In economic terms, there has been extensive media coverage on Virgin‟s financial problems. For example, Virgin Radio sold two of its radio stations to offset its debt. However, Virgin was never into making profits, but they were into making value-added products. These innovative products are the main reasons for Virgin‟s success and are a direct function of the brewed culture. The risk-taking, aggressive, and team oriented culture of Virgin provides focused direction for its workforce to meet customer demands of quality products in a creative fashion. The established culture fits well with its horizontal structure and is an important factor in the essence of the Virgin brand. However, Virgin must caution itself of the danger of the sub-cultures that may develop within departments. Also, a suggestion could be made to emphasize the importance of shareholder value, but overall, the culture is operating very effectively. Company‟s division of labor purports a unique aspect of structure to analyze. Essentially, one must examine the number of levels of authority that exist in the company, as well as the autonomy, control and communication that exists among employees. This information aids in determining the „flatness‟ or „tallness‟ of the Virgin Group‟s structure, which is an index of the vertical division of labor. The interaction between the companies can be considered similar to a „family‟, as opposed to a hierarchy. Each company is empowered to run their own affairs, but is expected to aid one another when needed. Through closer examination, it is determined that Richard Branson also empowers his workers by giving them the ability to make unsupervised decisions. This leads to workers having high autonomy. Additionally, communication is effective, as interaction between employees of all ranks is transparent and descending through a long chain of command is not required. This effective communication is showcased through Branson‟s spontaneous dropins on employees in any level within the Virgin ranks to receive ideas and feedback. This simple act reduces information filtering by effectively decreasing organizational hierarchy and increasing accessibility to top management, which can possibly decrease power distance. Virgin Group demonstrates high autonomy and Page 12 of 20

control, as well as an effective communication system for employees, which indicates that it is a flat organization. (Grant, 2004) Flat organizations, such as Virgin, commonly have effective communication channels and coordination. These attributes make decision-making in a company faster and more efficient. If the Virgin Group chooses to expand, having a flat structure would be advantageous because the effects of failure are less significant. Additionally, having a flatter organizational structure promotes a wider span of control, which results in a greater range of responsibility given to employees. These responsibilities provide employees with the autonomy to execute unsupervised decisions, which in turn increase employee empowerment. Lawler expresses this premise in an article where he notes that one of the six factors that foster empowerment is a wide span of control. (Lawler, 1992) Having a wide span of control, however, decreases the interaction between a manager and the employees. It may also create sub-cultural differences, which may result in conflict. Conclusion: It is evident that the Virgin Group is a successful international organization. This success is a product of leader Richard Branson‟s unique view on organizational culture and structure. Although many of his practices are considered unconventional, it is clear that they are effective. The underlying theme of the organization‟s culture is the push for innovation, aggressiveness and team orientation. These three facets contribute to Virgin‟s high exposure as well as its valueadded products. With regards to organizational structure, Branson believes that the Virgin Group should possess attributes of a small business. He believes in building a strong relationship with employees, allowing them to express themselves. These fundamental values and beliefs lead Branson to form a structure, which demonstrates high empowerment, high autonomy and low bureaucracy. Virgin‟s recent penetration into the Canadian mobile market is an example of the company‟s forward-thinking and results-oriented capabilities. This thriving expansion has proven that Virgin‟s organizational culture and structure have brewed corporate success. If Virgin continues to operate in this manner, as well as being aware of the problems with expansion, it will slowly progress through the ranks of some of the most influential and dominating companies.

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TASK 5: Change management in Virgin: As virgin group is now Selling chunks of some businesses to fund new and existing businesses had become a familiar story at Virgin - they sold off their UK and Irish cinema houses, sold Virgin Music, sold a 49 per cent stake in Virgin Atlantic to Singapore Airlines, and in 2001 were seeking buyers for Virgin Sun and Virgin Express. Management is changing time by time But, whenever there is a strategic, cultural or technical change occur in any organization people of that organization need some counseling or some help to get alliance with the company change and that organizational change lead to organizational development become a huge pay off activity done by HR.

Human Resource Management: Its goal is to give employees the insight and skills required to analyze their own and other‟s behavior more effectively, so they can then solve interpersonal and intergroup problems. These problems might include, for instance, conflict among employees or managers (might be possible in the given case), or a lack of interdepartmental communications. Sensitivity training is perhaps the most widely used technique in this category. Team building and survey research are others.

It usually involves; Action research: It means collecting data about a group, department or organization and then feeding the information back to the employees so they can analyze it and develop hypothesis about what the problem in the unit might be. Organization’s effectiveness: It applies behavioral science knowledge to improve the organization‟s effectiveness. Attitudes, values, beliefs: It is the duty of HR department to change the attitudes, values and beliefs of employees so that they themselves can identify and implement the technical, procedural, cultural, structural, or other changes needed to improve the company‟s functioning Page 14 of 20

Employee’s efficiency: It changes the organization in a particular direction toward problem solving, responsiveness, quality of work, and effectiveness. Conclusion: In the light of the above information we can conclude that Human Resource management plays a major role in the development of people and further help employees to cope with the organizational development and changes. In the given case, when company started its new project then authorities posted a project manager whose duty is to get the specific information and make a hypothesis. After that, he has to take some tactical decisions and for that he really needs help from the HR department to help employees to understand the new situation and as they have an open culture so it really helps this whole process in terms of information. Mutual trust makes things much easier and once the research completes take a feedback from the low level employees as well and give them the insight of the whole scenario.

TASK 6: Three main core competencies:  The Virgin Brand Firstly, the Virgin brand is valuable in the form of brand equity, where „Virgin‟ is one of the most recognized brand names in the UK, and is also well-known in other important markets including Europe and the U.S.A. Based on 1990s research, the Virgin brand was recognized by 96% of UK consumers. 

Secondly, it is rare for a brand to have such positive consumer perceptions; which include value-for-money, fun, innovation, success, and trust across a range of Virgin businesses (Case, p.685). Thirdly, Virgin has built up their excellent reputation over time, and is therefore path dependent and difficult for competitors to imitate.

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Lastly, competitors cannot substitute resources that serve the same functions as brand equity and corporate reputation.

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Richard Branson The personal reputation and image of Richard Branson is outstanding. He is well respected for his unconventional approach to business, is often cited as a role model, nominated for enterprises, voted the most-popular businessman and named in London polls as the preferred choice for mayor despite never putting his name forward (Case, p.697). Branson possesses distinctive capabilities, including his ability to effectively use the media to raise public awareness of Virgin, his superior negotiation skills and his excellent charisma. Furthermore, as an „international celebrity‟, he is easily able to acquire access to the right people and obtain partnerships or alliances when necessary. Therefore, Branson‟s reputation, and the rare tacit knowledge that he possess, creates value for Virgin Group and is imitable and non-substitutable by competitors. Innovation, company structure and culture Virgin Group‟s innovative environment creates value for the organization as innovation promotes employee motivation and can lead to more efficient/effective processes, thereby improving performance

The strategic development of Virgin Group of Companies is considered prescriptive on the level of leadership management and team dynamics. The Virgin Group has minimal management layers (2007). The management proliferate familial organization rather than hierarchy. They do not recognize bureaucracy as evident with the presence of a tiny board and absence of a global headquarters (HQ). All they have in mind is the idea of one team working towards a specified series of objectives. There is a free flow of affairs and cooperation among other companies that allows them to use team dynamics. Information are originating in diverse sources. In terms of Page 16 of 20

planning and decision making, various elements are contributed by all sections of the management. Thus, it provides a wide array of resources. The principle of communalism, sharing of ideas, values, interest, and goals are considered as real and tangible formula of success. These attributes are credited to the clear proliferation and application of team dynamics and effective leadership as well as management strategy. However, this decentralization of the organizational structure is among the weaknesses of Virgin. This is also part of the difficulties that Virgin is facing. Virgin considers this as strength but the researcher, on the other hand considers this as weakness. Because of the decentralized leadership of the company and many sub-divisions of the Virgin, there are some difficulties in the controlling mechanisms. This slows down the production processes because of the need of addressing or giving reference to the other board members and directors. Virgin will also have a potential difficulty in finding out what division is accountable for the possible pitfalls. In here, the concept of leadership and team dynamics can turn vague and stagnant. In organizational planning and decision making, there is definitely a need to reconcile both the inside-out and outside-in capabilities. While Virgin Group‟s operations management involves focusing on its core competencies with market position following its resource base, Branson and his company will be put into a disadvantageous position should they choose to neglect both the macro as well as the micro industry environment. Therefore, Virgin Group has to be aware of the latest operations management changes, as well as political, economic, legal and even demographic trends. This is for them to develop the outside-in capabilities such as market sensing, customer linking, channel bonding and technology monitoring.

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Porter’s five forces model:

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REFERENCES: Book: Dessler, 2002, Human Resource Management (Ch.: 8), Prentice Hall, New Jersey. Web: www.robabdul.com/the-virgin-group-case-study.asp Virgin group case study Visited at 22:10 5/5/2011 http://www.managementparadise.com/forums/principles-management-p-o-m/208730-pestanalysis-virgin.html PEST analysis of virgin group Visited at 23:40 5/5/2011

www.robabdul.com/the-virgin-group-case-study.asp Virgin group case study Visited at 22:10 5/5/2011 http://www.scribd.com/doc/27898308/The-Virgin-Group-Executive-Summary-the-Virgin Virgin group‟s culture and corporate structure Visited at 5:25 6/5/2011

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http://www.slideshare.net/arvindprabhu/the-cultural-web-presentation Virgin group cultural web Visited at 5:33 6/5/2011 http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=BCG+matrix+of+virgin+group&view=detail&id=AD79 79C7B6C7E71A28F2A5DBA2B7687EE2508061&first=0&FORM=IDFRIR Virgin group competency analysis Visited at 6:13 6/5/2011 http://www.oppapers.com/essays/Strategic-Management-Virgin-Case-Study/286757 Virgin group strategic development Visited at 7:05 6/5/2011 http://www.virgin.com/ Virgin group introduction and general information Visited at 22:40 5/5/2011

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