• Entrepreneurs that have had a significant impact on the hospitality industry -
ID: 379320 • Letter: #
Question
• Entrepreneurs that have had a significant impact on the hospitality industry - Walt Disney, Kemmons Wilson, Dave Thomas, Ray Kroc, Charles Branson, Caesar Ritz and Bill Darden to name a few. Imagine you are the campaign manager trying to get one of these pioneers inducted into the “Hospitality Hall of Fame”. • Nominate any “hospitality pioneer” as the greatest of all time by either creating a Power Point presentation for the campaign or writing a speech about the person. Either must clearly illustrate why that person should go down in history as the greatest of all time. This means that you must persuade me by giving examples of how they changed our industry and what personal characteristics made them successful
Explanation / Answer
Richard Branson, the British entrepreneur is one such personality that has created an indelible mark on the hospitality industry with his entrepreneurial skills, adventurism, vigor and creativity.
Born in the year 1950, he dropped out of school at the age of 16 to start a magazine for youths known as "Student". He distributed initial set of magazines free of cost with resources gathered from advertisements. His next venture was mail order music record company called Virgin primarily to fund his magazine. From there on he moved swiftly to establish a full fledged music store and thereafter his own recording studio.
His Virgin Music quickly became among the top music companies of the world. With his zeal for constant creativity, entrepreneurial skill and adventurism, he expanded his area of operations into hospitality industry and established Voyager Group travel company. Thereafter he started Virgin Atlantic Airline and also opened a chain of Virgin Mega stores.
His airlines created a benchmark for others to follow with luxurious and extravagant offerings. It became the airlines for the rich, famous and glamorous. In a few years time his Virgin group spread out to nearly 35 countries of the world. He was knighted by the British Queen for his extra ordinary achievements and was also named in the Forbes list of World Billionaires. Today his self made fortune is estimated to be above USD 5 Billion. He also owns a couple of private islands.
With his adventurous zeal, he even ventured on sporting achievements by crossing the Atlantic and Pacific oceans on hot air balloons. In recent years, his space tourism venture Virgin Galactic created headlines around the world when the company tested a space ship. He offered space rides to ordinary folks and hundreds bought seats even before the venture became commercial.
His latest venture Virgin Voyages, a luxurious cruise line is set to debut in the year 2020.
Richard Branson therefore is a personality who deserves to be in the "Hospitality Hall of Fame".
Related Questions
Navigate
Integrity-first tutoring: explanations and feedback only — we do not complete graded work. Learn more.