STRATEGIC PLANNING

Strategic Planning Assignment

Strategic Planning Assignment

Introduction

Virgin Group is one of largest private companies in UK, with an annual turnover estimated at 3 billion pounds the year until 2000. Business highest profile of Virgin was Virgin Atlantic, which was developed to be the major force in international airline business. However, group is spread over 200 financial services firms through railways, shopping and entertainment mega soft drinks to cosmetics and condoms. His name was immediately recognizable. Investigation showed that Virgin name was associated with words like "fun" and "innovative", "bold" and "success." Image and personality of founder, Richard Branson, were high profile in British advertising for Apple computers, along with Einstein and Gandhi, who was introduced as the "Craftsman of Century 20" (Arnould, 2002, 336).

Purpose and Scope

The diverse group, Virgin has more than 200 privately owned companies. Promoter founder Richard Branson has expanded Virgin brand to many different companies such as airlines, cola, mobile phone, wedding gowns, chain retail, financial services, cars, jeans, trains, and books, among others. As Branson's Virgin brand extends to a new area and unrelated, Virgin human resource management, leadership and brand values play the key role in maintaining their core brand values. Case allows students to discuss Virgin's innovative practices of human resources and internal branding strategy, evaluate their model of human resource management with reference to work culture of recruitment, and role of leadership and dissemination core brand values (Baynard, 2002, 33).

Investments in Industries, Products and Capabilities

Virgin has opted for maintaining its services as consistent as possible throughout the internationalization process, in an attempt to become a global company through high global integration with a low-product adaptation. For the near future, the company should continue to expand by tapping into the high-potential South American market. Connections from Europe into South America are mainly done through Spain (Iberia) and Portugal (TAP), in a market that fits Virgin's criteria for investment, with solid demand, stagnant players and opportunities for innovation. Virgin could either enter the market directly with connections to (for example) São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro from London, or choose a direct investment approach through an existing airline. In the latter case, care would need to be put in the standardization of services, at the risk of jeopardizing Virgin's competitive advantage through differentiation.

Virgin has achieved some level of vertical integration at Virgin Atlantic Airways, by leveraging on the synergies within the Virgin Group conglomerate. An example of partial forward integration is the possibility of making a combined booking of flight, hotel and rental car through the Virgin Atlantic webpage, which is powered by Virgin Holidays, a sister company from the Virgin Group. Other possibilities for vertical integration certainly exist within the Group. Looking at the Group's businesses, multiple opportunities for both backward and forward integration exist, either partial or full. For example, Virgin Hotels could be a candidate for partial forward integration in the offering of flight and hotel packages. The same could be true for Virgin Rail, in the case of train connections to ...