Gsbs6481 : Emergent Strategy : Assessment Answers

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?

2. Critically evaluate Virgin Group’s 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?

Introduction:

Virgin airlines can be described as one of the most successful innovative firms as present in the business environment. Under the leadership of Sir Richard Branson, the company has successfully pursued an emergent and opportunistic strategy through the time and with an aim of becoming successful, the firm has emerged its business in various sectors (Jackson, 1995). The primary aim of the given report is to outline the reasoning behind the expansion of the airlines and to discuss its strategies in detail.

1. It has been observed that the Virgin Airlines brand`s emergent strategy has been very strategic in nature and has led to certain cases of success as well in certain cases a loss for the company as well. At present the company has been focusing to expand its operations to different countries instead of adding more products to its portfolios. It has spread the operations of Virgin mobile phones to the United Kingdom (Williamson et al., 2013). Hence, stating this example it can be said that the primary strategy of the company keeps emerging to new countries as well as product domains.

The primary aim of the given question is to examine the meaning of the term emergent strategy. And understand the manner in which the Virgin Airlines has been able to apply this emergent strategy in their business domain.  An emergent strategy can be described as a pattern of action plans which are developing in nature and are formed as and when an opportunity emerges.  For instance, as the CEO of the company identified various opportunities like buses, mobile and other domains (Wheelen et al., 2017).  However, the nature of the emergent strategies are quite experimental in nature. Even if the plans laid out are optimum in nature, it can provide unexpected results. The lean management forms an essential aspect of the organization which shall assist the organization to prepare and execute emergent strategies well. Hence, because of the experimental nature of the strategies, some experiments are likely to fail and not all can be successful. However, in the case of the Virgin Group, the group earns well from certain groups and thus it can afford these losses.  In this manner, as some of the emergent strategies of the airlines have been successful, there have been certain strategies which have not been successful and due to this reason, it simply means that it is not important that all emergent strategies will be successful however, a business which can afford to take tasks must proceed with the execution and test the consequences accordingly.

2 . As observed from the given case study, it can be stated that over the years the Virgin group has adopted a large number of strategies. Some of them have been quite risky in nature and there have been some which have not been that successful in nature. One of the most successful strategies as adopted by the organization was the development of the Virgin Atlantic in the year 1984. Moreover, this accompanied the company by giving them confidence and helping them to expand in other domains. To understand the scenario better, the various ventures are required to be reviewed. The company over the time period came up with a magazine, a recording studio, megastores in the United Kingdom, Mobile, direct personal services, wines, cars, cable TV and others.

One aspect which may be examined in the given context is the investment in these ventures. The investment in these areas is quite problematic in nature. This is because, although the emergent strategy might be successful in nature there may be scenarios where these ventures could have simply drained the resources of the brand (Stead & Stead, 2013).   It can be agreed to the fact that some of the areas where the business expanded were too wide and hence, the use of the Virgin brand name and the logo was not required. Moreover, as stated by the website of the company, the organization stated that although its wide expansion may seem risky to certain investors, however, they only plan to expand into opportunities if they seem viable in nature and can bring value to the firm (Zott & Amit, 2013). However, the group contradicted this statement because in the last five years and has portrayed expansion in fields like Virgin Bride and Virgin Cosmetics which did not seem anything new or valuable.

Hence, it can be stated that from the last five years the company has not been quite successful in its expansion opportunities and has wasted its funds by investing its money in different domains. Instead, they should have simply expanded geographically and maintained the same portfolio offerings like Mobile and Airlines.

3. Although the expansion plan of the Virgin Airlines has been quite drastic in nature and irrelevant in certain domains, however, their growth and prosperity under the leadership and guidance of Sir Richard Branson has been quite opportunistic as well as successful in nature (Hill, Jones & Schilling, 2014).  The company showed a true entrepreneur approach by expanding to various opportunities and taking certain risks. Given below are certain lessons which can be learnt from the company:

1. Taking risks and soaring off

The company has continuously showed what it means to survive in the complex business environment and how any business needs to explore for continuous opportunities and invest in profitable ventures which will assure them with successful results (Lasserre, 2017).  Although it failed in certain domains, but the manner in which it continued to invest in other domains portray the success of the firm.

1. Indulge in free promotion

The company left out no opportunity and engaged in as much free promotion as possible. The different executives attended various seminars and functions which then allowed the firm to bring up its brand name in different business domains.

1. Commit to customer service

The company was highly committed towards the customer service. It has a customer centric data base which allow the different units to record the customer data and serve the different customers accordingly (Harrison & John, 2013).  This allowed them to become popular.

1. Indulge in employee engagement

The firm also engages in efficient employee engagement and its strategies are executed after consultation from the staff.

Conclusion:

Therefore, from the given analysis it can be stated that the group Virgin groups has become one of the most popular groups in the globe and primarily because of its take on the different strategies as adopted by it. The report analysis the different strategies and lays down some lessons which could be learnt from them.

References:

Harrison, J.S. & John, C.H.S. (2013). Foundations in strategic management. Cengage Learning.

Hill, C.W., Jones, G.R. & Schilling, M.A. (2014). Strategic management: theory: an integrated approach. Cengage Learning.

Jackson, T. (1995). Virgin website. [Retreived from: www.virgin.com].

Lasserre, P. (2017). Global strategic management. Palgrave.

Stead, J.G. & Stead, W.E. (2013). Sustainable strategic management. ME Sharpe.

Wheelen, T.L., Hunger, J.D., Hoffman, A.N. & Bamford, C.E. (2017). Strategic management and business policy. Pearson.

Williamson, D., Cooke, P., Jenkins, W. & Moreton, K.M. (2013). Strategic management and business analysis. Routledge.

Zott, C. & Amit, R. (2013). The business model: A theoretically anchored robust construct for strategic analysis. Strategic Organization, 11(4), pp.403-411.