Leadership of Richard Branson as an Historical Entrepreneur

Abstract or Introduction

Richard Branson has emerged to be one of the 21st century historical entrepreneurs owing to his leadership style and personal characteristics. In the past twenty years, Richard Branson has realized remarkable recognition in the business world in which he has expanded his investment in an array of ventures. His interest in business developed long ago during his elementary education when he dropped out of school and established a mail-order business. Later on, he transformed his mail-order business into a record label, in 1970s. It is quite surprising to learn that Branson adopted reliable business leadership approaches in his business leading to a rapid expansion (Dearlove, 2007). It was during its initial successes that Branson owned record stores, which bore the Virgin Records brand. In 1980s and 1990s, Branson extended his business venture into airlines in which he established the Virgin Atlantic Airways. In addition, he expanded his business further when he established a Virgin record label in the US. Another significant advancement of Branson’s investment was the establishment of a space tourism company named Virgin Galactic. His intention for establishing this company was for reaching orbital trips around the world owing to the remarkable growth of global tourism (Walenius & Westerstål, 2010). Currently, Branson owns the Virgin Group which is valued at $5 billion. Virgin Group consists of over 200 different companies including cellular phone companies, airlines and record labels.