Virgin

289 CASE EXAMPLE The Virgin Group Aidan McQuade Introduction The Virgin Group is one of the UK’s largest private companies. The group included, in 2006, 63 businesses as diverse as airlines, health clubs, music stores and trains. The group included Virgin Galactic, which promised to take paying passengers into sub-orbital space. The personal image and personality of the founder, Richard Branson, were highly bound up with those of the company. Branson’s taste for publicity has led him to stunts as diverse as appearing as a cockney street trader in the US comedy Friends, to attempting a non-stop balloon flight around the world.This has certainly contributed to the definition and recognisability of the brand. Research has showed that the Virgin name was associated with words such as ‘fun’, ‘innovative’, ‘daring’ and ‘successful’. In 2006 Branson announced plans to invest $3bn (A2. 4bn; ? 1. 7bn) in renewable energy. Virgi n, through its partnership with a cable company NTL, also undertook an expansion into media challenging publicly the way NewsCorp operated in the UK and the effects on British democracy. The nature and scale of both these initiatives suggests that Branson’s taste for his brand of business remains undimmed. Origins and activitiesVirgin was founded in 1970 as a mail order record business and developed as a private company in music publishing and retailing. In 1986 the company was floated on the stock exchange with a turnover of ? 250m (A362. 5m). However, Branson became tired of the public listing obligations: he resented making presentations in the City to people whom, he believed, did not understand the business. The pressure to create short-term profit, especially as the share price began to fall, was the final straw: Branson decided to take the business back into private ownership and the shares were bought back at the original offer price.The name Virgin was chosen to repr esent the idea of the company being a virgin in every business it entered. Branson has said that: ‘The brand is the single most important asset that we have; our ultimate objective is to establish it as a major global name. ’ This does not mean that Virgin underestimates the importance of understanding the businesses that it is branding. Referring to his intent to set up a ‘green’ energy company producing ethanol and cellulosic ethanol fuels in competition with the oil industry, he said, ‘We’re a slightly unusual company in that we go into industries we know nothing about and immerse ourselves. Virgin’s expansion had often been through joint ventures whereby Virgin provided the brand and its partner provided the majority of capital. For example, the Virgin Group’s move into clothing and cosmetics required an initial outlay of only ? 1,000, whilst its partner, Victory Corporation, invested ? 20m. With Virgin Mobile, Virgin built a business by forming partnerships with existing wireless operators to sell services under the Virgin brand name. The carriers’ competences lay in network management. Virgin set out to differentiate itself by offering innovativeThis case was updated and revised by Aidan McQuade, University of Strathclyde Graduate School of Business, based upon work by Urmilla Lawson. Photo: Steve Bell/Rex Features 290 CHAPTER 7 STRATEGIC DIRECTIONS AND CORPORATE-LEVEL STRATEGY services. Although it did not operate its own network, Virgin won an award for the best wireless operator in the UK. Virgin Fuels appears to be somewhat different in that Virgin is putting up the capital and using the Virgin brand to attract attention to the issues and possibilities that the technology offers.In 2005 Virgin announced the establishment of a ‘quadruple play’ media company providing television, broadband, fixed-line and mobile communications through the merger of Branson’s UK mobile inter ests with the UK’s two cable companies. This Virgin company would have 9 million direct customers, 1. 5 million more than BSkyB, and so have the financial capacity to compete with BSkyB for premium content such as sports and movies. 1 Virgin tried to expand this business further by making an offer for ITV. This was rejected as undervaluing the company and then undermined further with the purchase of an 18 per cent share of ITV by BSkyB.This prompted Branson to call on regulators to force BSkyB to reduce or dispose of its stake citing concerns that BSkyB would have material influence over the free-to-air broadcaster. 2 Virgin has been described as a ‘keiretsu’ organisation – a structure of loosely linked, autonomous units run by self-managed teams that use a common brand name. Branson argued that, as he expanded, he would rather sacrifice short-term profits for long-term growth of the various businesses. Some commentators have argued that Virgin had become an endorsement brand that could not always offer real expertise to the businesses with which it was associated.However, Will Whitehorn, Director of Corporate Affairs for Virgin, stated, ‘At Virgin we know what the brand means and when we put our brand name on something we are making a promise. ’ Branson saw Virgin adding value in three main ways, aside from the brand. These were their public relations and marketing skills; its experience with greenfield start-ups; and Virgin’s understanding of the opportunities presented by ‘institutionalised’ markets. Virgin saw an ‘institutionalised’ market as one dominated by few competitors, not giving good value to customers because they had become either inefficient or preoccupied with each other.Virgin believed it did well when it identified such complacency and offered more for less. The entry into fuel and media industries certainly conforms to the model of trying to shake up ‘institutiona lised’ markets. Corporate rationale In 2006 Virgin still lacked the trappings of a typical multinational. Branson described the Virgin Group as ‘a branded venture capital house’. 3 There was no ‘group’ as such; financial results were not consolidated either for external examination or, so Virgin claimed, for internal use.Its website described Virgin as a family rather than a hierarchy. Its financial operations were managed from Geneva. In 2006 Branson explained the basis upon which he considered opportunities: they have to be global in scope, enhance the brand, be worth doing and have an expectation of a reasonable return on investment. 4 Each business was ‘ring-fenced’, so that lenders to one company had no rights over the assets of another. The ring-fencing seems also to relate not just to provision of financial protection, but also to a business ethics aspect.In an interview in 2006 Branson cricitised supermarkets for selling cheap CD s. His criticism centred on the supermarkets’ use of loss leading on CDs damaging music retailers rather than fundamentally challenging the way music retailers do business. Branson has made it a central feature of Virgin that it shakes up institutionalised markets by being innovative. Loss leading is not an innovative approach. Virgin has evolved from being almost wholly comprised of private companies to a group where some of the companies are publicly listed. Virgin and BransonHistorically, the Virgin Group had been controlled mainly by Branson and his trusted lieutenants, many of whom had stayed with him for more than 20 years. The increasing conformity between personal interest and business initiatives could be discerned in the establishment of Virgin Fuels. In discussing his efforts to establish a ‘green’ fuel company in competition with the oil industry Branson made the geopolitical observation that non-oil-based fuels could ‘avoid another Middle East war one day’; Branson’s opposition to the Second Gulf War is well publicised. In some instances the relationship between personal conviction and business interests is less clear cut. Branson’s comments on the threat to British democracy posed by NewsCorp’s ownership of such a large percentage of the British media could be depicted as either genuine concern from a public figure or sour grapes from a business rival just been beaten out of purchasing ITV. More recently Branson has been reported as talking about withdrawing from the business ‘which THE VIRGIN GROUP 291 more or less ran itself now’,6 and hoping that his son Sam might become more of a Virgin figurehead. However, while he was publicly contemplating this withdrawal from business, Branson was also launching his initiatives in media and fuel. Perhaps Branson’s idea of early retirement is somewhat more active than most. Corporate performance By 2006 Virgin had, with mixed results , taken on one established industry after another in an effort to shake up ‘fat and complacent business sectors’. It had further set its sights on the British media sector and the global oil industry. Airlines clearly were an enthusiasm of Branson’s.According to Branson, Virgin Atlantic, which was 49 per cent owned by Singapore Airways, was a company that he would not sell outright: ‘There are some businesses you preserve, which wouldn’t ever be sold, and that’s one. ’ Despite some analysts’ worries that airline success could not be sustained given the ‘cyclical’ nature of the business, Branson maintained a strong interest in the industry, and included airline businesses such as Virgin Express (European), Virgin Blue (Australia) and Virgin Nigeria in the group.Branson’s engagement with the search for ‘greener’ fuels and reducing global warming had not led him to ground his fleets. but rather to pr ompt a debate on measures to reduce carbon emissions from aeroplanes. At the beginning of the twenty-first century the most public problem faced by Branson was Virgin Trains, whose Cross Country and West Coast lines were ranked 23rd and 24th out of 25 train-operating franchises according to the Strategic Rail Authority’s Review in 2000. By 2002 Virgin Trains was reporting profits and paid its first premium to the British government. xperience with any one of the product lines may shun all the others’. However, Virgin argues that its brand research indicates that people who have had a bad experience will blame that particular Virgin company or product but will be willing to use other Virgin products or services, due to the very diversity of the brand. Such brand confidence helps explain why Virgin should even contemplate such risky and protracted turnaround challenges as its rail company. Sarah Sands recounts that Branson’s mother ‘once proudly boasted that her son would become Prime Minster’.Sands futher commented that she thought his mother underestimated his ambition. 10 With Virgin’s entry into fuel and media and Branson’s declarations that he is taking on the oil corporations and NewsCorp, Sands may ultimately prove to have been precient in her comment. Notes 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. Sunday Telegraph, 4 December (2005). Independent, 22 November (2006). Hawkins (2001a, b). PR Newswire Europe, 16 October (2006). Fortune, 6 February (2006). Independent on Sunday, 26 November (2006). Ibid.The Times 1998, quoted in Vignali (2001). Wells (2000). Independent on Sunday, 26 November (2006). Sources: The Economist, ‘Cross his heart’, 5 October (2002); ‘Virgin on the ridiculous’, 29 May (2003); ‘Virgin Rail: tilting too far’, 12 July (2001). P. McCosker, ‘Stretching the brand: a review of the Virgin Group’, European Case Clearing House, 2000. The Times, ‘Vi rgin push to open up US aviation market’, 5 June (2002); ‘Branson plans $1bn US expansion’, 30 April (2002). Observer, ‘Branson eyes 31bn float for Virgin Mobile’, 18 January (2004).Strategic Direction, ‘Virgin Flies High with Brand Extensions’, vol. 18, no. 10, (October 2002). R. Hawkins, ‘Executive of Virgin Group outlines corporate strategy’ Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News, July 29 (2001a). R. Hawkins, ‘Branson in new dash for cash’, Sunday Business, 29 July (2001b); South China Morning Post, ‘Virgin shapes kangaroo strategy aid liberalisation talks between Hong Kong and Australia will determine carrier’s game-plan’, 28 June (2002). C. Vignali, ‘Virgin Cola’, British Food Journal, vol. 103, no. 2 (2001), pp. 31–139. M. Wells, ‘Red Baron’, Forbes Magazine, vol. 166, no. 1, 7 March (2000). The future The beginning of the twenty-first century also saw furt her expansion by Virgin, from airlines, spa finance and mobile telecoms in Africa, into telecoms in Europe, and into the USA. The public flotation of individual businesses rather than the group as a whole has become an intrinsic part of the ‘juggling’ of finances that underpins Virgin’s expansion. Some commentators have identified a risk with Virgin’s approach: ‘The greatest threat [is] that . . Virgin brand . . . may become associated with failure. ’8 This point was emphasised by a commentator9 who noted that ‘a customer who has a bad enough Questions 1 What is the corporate rationale of Virgin as a group of companies? 2 Are there any relationships of a strategic nature between businesses within the Virgin portfolio? 3 How does the Virgin Group, as a corporate parent, add value to its businesses? 4 What were the main issues facing the Virgin Group at the end of the case and how should they be tackled?

5 Peculiarities of the German Alphabet

5 Peculiarities of the German Alphabet The following are five peculiarities of the German alphabet and its pronunciation that every beginner German student should know about. Additional Letters in the German Alphabet There are more than twenty-six letters in the German alphabet. Technically speaking the German alphabet has only one additional letter that is different- the eszett. It looks like a capital letter B with a tail hanging from it: ß However, there is also something that Germans call â€Å"der Umlaut.† This is when two dots are placed above a letter. In German, this happens only above the vowels a, o and u. The umlaut placed upon these vowels makes the following sound shifts: similar to the short e in bed; à ¶, similar to the u sound in further, and à ¼. similar to the French u sound. Unfortunately,  there is no English equivalent for the sound à ¼. To pronounce the à ¼ sound, you need to say u while your lips are in a puckering position. The ß, on the other hand, is simply like an over-pronounced s. It is rightly called in German ein scharfes s (a sharp s). In fact, when people don’t have access to the German keyboard, they often will substitute a double s for the ß. However, in German, there are further rules about when it is correct to write either ss or ß. (See article German s, ss or ß) The only way to avoid the ß Â  is to move to Switzerland since Swiss Germans don’t use the ß at all. V Is W and Sounds Like F The standard name of the letter V, as it is in many languages, is actually the letter name of W in German. This means that if you were singing the alphabet in German, the section TUVW, would sound as follows (Tà ©/Fau/Và ©). Yes, this confuses a lot of beginners! But wait, there’s more: the letter V in German sounds like F! For instance, the word der Vogel you would pronounce as Fogel (with a hard g). As for the letter W in German? This peculiarity at least makes the most sense: the letter W in German, which is named like a V sounds like a V. The Spitting Combo Now for a little humor that actually helps you remember! The pronunciation spitting combo helps students remember the peculiarities of these three very common German sounds: ch – sch – sp. Say them quickly one after another and it sounds like, first - the preparation for the spit ch/ch, the start of the spit – sch (like sh in English), and finally the actual ejaculation of the spit – sp. Beginners tend at first to over vocalize the ch sound and forget the sh sound in sp. Better practice some pronunciation spitting then! The K Reigns Even though the letter C is in the German alphabet, by itself it plays only a minor role, since most German words that start with the letter C followed by a vowel, stem from foreign words. For example,  der Caddie, die Camouflage, das Cello. It is only in these types of words where you’ll find the soft c or hard c sound. Otherwise, the letter c is actually only popular in German consonant combinations, such as sch and ch, as stated in the preceding paragraph. You will find the German version of the hard â€Å"c† sound in the letter K. Consequently, you will often see words that start with a hard c sound in English spelled with a K in German: Kanada, der Kaffee, die Konstruktion, der Konjunktiv, die Kamera, das Kalzium. Position Is Everything At least when it comes to the letters B, D, and G. When you place these letters either at the end of a word or before a consonant, then the sound transformation is usually as follows: das Grab/ the grave (the b sounds like a soft p), die Hand/ hand (the d sounds like a soft t) beliebig/ any (the sounds like a soft k). Of course, this is expected in Hochdeutsch (standard German) only, it might be different when speaking German dialects or with accents of different German regions. Since these letter shifts sound very subtle when speaking, it is more important to pay attention to their correctness when writing them.

Southern Culture essays

Southern Culture essays Todays society is dominated by stereotypes and misconceptions; the way that we talk, walk or even look has a large impact on the way other human beings judge us. Therefore, it should come as no surprise that some people associate the Southern accent with a lack of education or laziness. Despite this fact, Southerners continue to maintain their unique dialect, and ignore stereotypes that they are often forced to undertake. In fact, to many southerners their dialect is more than a way of speaking, it is a long standing tradition that goes far beyond the language. The Southern dialect is the product of a wide array of cultural and ethnic influences. Both the French and African slaves had a large impact on the Southern way of speaking. Because the French dominated most of the Southern and Western American regions during the 18th century, their way of speaking was highly influential on the Southern culture. Just as the French significantly contributed to the Southern dialect so too did the African slaves. The large populace of African slaves played a large role in todays Southern accent. Furthermore, because the South is largely agricultural, the people tended stay in one location thereby allowing for the development of a deep rooted, distinct accent. Many historians believe that todays Southern dialect is largely attributed to cities such as Richmond, Charleston and Savannah due to their historical importance in the South. The Southern accent today is ever changing and even within the south there are a wide variation of accents. For ex ample, the Gullah way of speaking is predominantly spoken by Southern blacks living in Georgia and South Carolina; it is a combination of English and Western African dialects. The Coastal Southern dialect includes words such as dope (soda) and doughnuts (cookies) which are terms that are not used in other Southern regions. In addition, many people from ...

Print-On-Demand vs Offset Printing Which Is Better (with Examples)

Prints) Print-On-Demand vs Offset Printing: Which Wins? This is a guest post by Jessica Ruscello, a copywriter at Blurb, Inc. Jessica is also a writer, teacher, and photographer who makes her mark with empty coffee cups, ink spills, and red lipstick.The last ten years- even the last five- have seen game-changing developments in printing technology. Even if print-on-demand has been around longer than that, we’re now seeing these digital machines produce exquisite quality (depending on which service you use). Advanced inkjet technology now creates pages and covers that are nearly identical to those created with traditional offset printing, offering incredible advantages to self-publishers.How can you make sure you're getting the most return out of it? Let's find out.How print-on-demand works (in 6 steps)Choose your format. From coffee-table books to magazines to trade paperbacks, print-on-demand is compatible with any format you’d find in a bookstore. The more copies you order, the more cost-effective customization becomes (hi gher volume order makes it possible to try different endsheets, ribbon markers, or cover styles). That said, standard commercial sizes and papers are readily available across printers.Create a properly formatted book file. Your PDF (or another print-ready file) will stay with the printer and can be called up any time an order is placed for your book.List your book on major bookselling sites. You can do this using a â€Å"print-on-demand distributor† like KDP Print (for Amazon), IngramSpark, or Blurb.Every time someone orders your book, the order is sent to the printer. Digital printers print and assemble your book all in one place.The book is shipped to the retailer, who forwards it to your reader. In some cases, the customer will be able to get the print book in under one hour!Your reader pays the retailer. Your retailer will then send the net revenue to you (after deducting printing costs and retailer discounts- read more about these below). 100+ Client Services Pricing - $16.00/copy (Not including taxes or shipping) 1000 Copies Offset Printing - $7.50 /copy (Includes approximate shipping to US)Don’t overlook offset printing because of the large upfront costs, and don’t overlook print-on-demand, which offers greater speed, quality, and innovation than what has been available at any other time in print history. Whichever one's better for your project, there's no doubt that print-on-demand has done so many exciting things for book-makers, creating more options for beautiful end products.Have you tried offset printing on one of your books? What has been your experience with print-on-demand so far? Leave your thoughts (as well as any questions for Jessica) in the comments below.

The United Nations mission in Cyprus was initiated by the global Essay

The United Nations mission in Cyprus was initiated by the global community - Essay Example UNFICYP was initially developed by the Security Council in 1964 to avoid further hostility between the Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot population1. After the conflicts of 1974, the Council commanded the Force to execute certain supplementary functions. Without a political agreement to the Cyprus problem, UNFICYP has stayed on the island to supervise armistice lines, preserve a buffer zone, embark on humanitarian activities as well as sustain the proper offices mission of the Secretary-General. Subsequent to the 1974 Greek Cypriot overthrow and the Turkish offensive of Cyprus, the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) expanded and enlarged the mission to avert the dispute spinning into war, and UNFICYP was dispatched to patrol the United Nations Buffer Zone in Cyprus and support in the maintenance of the armed status quo. Since its founding, the force has further worked in conjunction with the special envoy of the Secretary-General and diplomats of the two communities to inquire about an amicable discreet solution to the Cyprus row. Primarily, UNFICYP consisted of armed and civilian groups drawn from Finland, Sweden, Australia, Ireland, United Kingdom and Canada, though over its long history the force has been the theme of various UNSC declarations and restructurings, and currently encompasses contingents from Hungary, Croatia, Argentina, Peru, Italy, Australia, Slovakia, Montenegro, Austria, Bosnia-Herzegovina, El Salvador Netherlands, India, Canada, Ireland, United King dom, and Ukraine. This paper evaluates the Cyprus problem from the perspective of the UN mission and its mandate on the island. At the heart of the discussion is the argument that the UN mission in Cyprus was initiated by the global community as a way of resolving the problem. In essence, the increasing hostility between the two warring communities - Greek and Turkish Cypriots- after independence in the 1960 was escalating, and the

Helping teens grow emotionally Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Helping teens grow emotionally - Essay Example These two minds together shape our destiny. When we talk about the main theme of Emotional Intelligence in teens, as mentioned by Geoff Maslen in his article, we may see that several other writers also mentioned and explained the same concept. Daniel Goleman writes in his book â€Å"Emotional Intelligence† that the main idea or the concept of Emotional Intelligence, basically, argues the IQ. He further mentions that there are extensive areas of Emotional Intelligence that can further indicate that how successful a person is. Success desires something more than Intelligence Quotient. Intelligence Quotient is used to measure the intelligence only, and pays no heed to the essential behaviors and several other elements. There are many people who are rationally and academically brilliant and successful in their lives but they are socially inept. So it is not necessary fact having high IQ level directs to a totally successful and brilliant life. Teenagers mostly appear to be arousing, touching, unpredictable and sometimes violated as well. However, teenagers are always dependent on their teachers and parents. As far as teachers are concerned, they are responsible to supervise the students and to manage all the rising tensions and conflicts among them. So, teacher is always obliged to understand the emotional levels of the class. There is a need of proper consideration about emotional intelligence to manage the whole class. Robert Needlman, M.D, also mentioned in his article ‘Emotional Intelligence’ that the teachers should have the aptitude to forecast or predict and influence the student’s emotions. This is most significant and vital skill that a teacher can have. Actually teens always need inter personal intelligence to be established and accepted in the class, by their peers as well as teachers. Furthermore in this article, Karen Hansen says that it is a theory that teens with elevated levels of emotional intelligence can attain better than students

GRID (Clustered) SAN computing standards Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

GRID (Clustered) SAN computing standards - Essay Example 2. A storage system which consists of network elements such as storage devices, computer systems, servers, control software (such as server administration and site server) that will communicate over the network. Storage networks are distinguished from other forms of network storage devices simply by their low-level access method they use and is very similar to such network devices as ATA, disk drives and SCSI hardware. Inside a storage network, the server will issue a request for specific blocks of data and this device on the storage network will then send requests across the network. In the clustered GRID infrastructure would be a series of SAN devices that would then integrate as part of the larger network in order to share the storage capabilities inside the GRID. As such, each device would then be added to the larger network that can be used by other networked devices such as a computer workstation. An example of this computing infrastructure, courtesy of Force10, shows how this cluster/GRID computing network is positioned to utilized these storage devices GRID computing is the transformation of a computer infrastructure into an integrated Virtual Organisation that allows for dynamic collaboration and the ability to share resources from anywhere in the world. This sharing provides users with an unprecedented amount of computing power, especially for those in the field of scientific investigation and collaboration in which the needs of the computer power cannot necessarily be handled by one such computer. Through integration inside the GRID of such supercomputers will enable users to access power without the need to purchase larger systems. GRID computing is based on three concepts as outlined by Reddy (2004) "as: Virtualization: severing the hard-coded association of resources to systems Resource Allocation and Management: dynamically allocating resources on demand, and managing them and finally, Provisioning: configuring resources whenever and wherever needed." (Reddy, 2004) Kalzar Amin, Gregor von Laszewski and Armin R. Mikler Kalzar, et al describe the term Grid computing as commonly referred "to a distributed infrastructure that promotes large scale resource sharing in a dynamic institutional "virtual organisation" (VO). A computational Grid forms a closed network of a large number of pooled resources providing standardized, reliable, specialized and pervasive access to high-end computational resources." Typically, in order to establish a computational Grid, several institutions pool their resources such as computational cycles, specialized software, database servers, network bandwidth, and people. As a result of this "pooling" global policies will be set for the virtual organisation which will in an essence identify each of the participating entities' roles and responsibilities, much like in a LAN server networking scenario. Each of the site institution administrators, who are generally trained as network administrators will then enforce these policies at the domain level. The GRID administrators will then provide each of the GRID users their appropriate credentials and through these credentials will the users access