Sir Richard Branson

Describe Branson’s leadership style in terms of the leadership models addressed in Chapters 10 and 11 and evaluate the likely effectiveness of that style in the U.S. today.
In terms of leadership model addressed in Chapter 10 and 11, Branson exemplifies a transformational leader. Transformational leadership involves anticipating future trends, inspiring followers to understand and embrace a new vision of possibilities, developing others to be leaders or better leaders, and building the organization or group into a community of challenged and rewarded learners. Visionary, inspiring, daring, and ethical are words that describe transformational leaders. They are risk takers who seize or create new opportunities. They are also thoughtful thinkers who understand the interactions of technology, culture, stakeholders, and external environmental forces (Hellriegel & Slocum, 2011, page 329).
The interrelated core components of transformational leadership include individualized consideration, intellectual stimulation, inspirational motivation, and idealized influence. Individualization and idealization in the case study is reflected in line 18 “We’ve gotten it wrong when we’ve taken on a giant with a product or service where we can’t differentiate.” This signifies importance of a niche market in any business and in this case Virgin had thrived to be the provider of eccentric product and services of best quality that is of best value to customers. He is not as much concerned about industry-specific expertise as he is with recruiting employees with strong communication and teamwork competencies that mesh with the Virgin culture. He truly feels that getting other peoples input and listening to what people have to say are a core value to him. He carries a notebook in his pocket all the time just in case he hears something interesting from people that he interacts with on any level.   He loves to take high-risk decisions if in the end he feels it's worthwhile He has admirable...