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Its name may raise some eyebrows, but there can be no doubt as to the tremendous success of the Richard Branson Virgin Group. Run as a cluster of separate and distinct companies that come together under the Virgin brand, this Group was first established by British entrepreneur Sir Richard Branson. With services that range from travel and music to wine, cosmetics, and even bridal wear, Virgin remains one of the most successful privately held corporations in the U.K., and indeed, the world.

For this entrepreneur, having his own company was his opportunity to run things his way. He retains complete control over the brand, and either minority or majority stakes in each individual company. While most of the original companies began as subsidiaries of Virgin, today, Branson often simply licenses the brand name to other outside companies. With revenues in excess of $7 billion and more than 35,000 employees, he must be doing something right.

Many of the brands that operate under the company are well known to people the world over: Virgin Atlantic Airways, Virgin Records, and Virgin Balloon Flights. However, the majority of his business ventures operate with much less fanfare and publicity. For instance, Virgin Limobike offers passenger bike service throughout London, while Virgin Nigeria is a Lagos-based airline offering regional, domestic, and international flights from Nigeria. Other companies include Radio Free Virgin, an Internet radio broadcaster, and Virgin Fuel, a venture capital firm that invests in fuel alternatives.

As the years pass, the empire of the Richard Branson Virgin Group only seems to get bigger. Consistently ranked one of the most respected brands in Britain, there are today over 200 companies that are joined together under the Virgin brand. It has indeed gone a long way from its mail order origins. However, the Group is not simply known the world over because of its large size and reach. It has also established a reputation as being one of the most innovative and unique brands in operation at present.

When it was trying to come up with fresh ideas for business travel, the group decided to place a rubber ducky in each and every one of the bathrooms of Virgin-owned hotels in order to make guests feel at home. When passengers aboard a Virgin Atlantic flight are watching a movie, they can also enjoy a Virgin ice cream. Virgin Megastores also became the first major music retail outlets to put Listening Posts in their stores, allowing customers to listen to entire CDs before making their purchase.

Time and again, the Richard Branson Virgin Group has seized every opportunity to not only expand its already vast range of services, but also to commit to continually improving them. Branson has demonstrated that both he and his company are game for anything, and willing to ride whatever waves come their way. “The conventional wisdom is you should specialize in what you know and never stray from that, but no other brand has become a way-of-life brand the way Virgin has,” says Branson. “And it wasn’t us setting out to become a way-of-life brand; it was me continually being interested in learning new things.”

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