Case Study Proposal for Virgin Atlantic
Question
Task: Case study proposal: Virgin Atlantic
Please read the following information about Richard Branson and Virgin Atlantic. You are then required to present a case study proposal based on the question below.
Sir Richard Branson has built a global empire and is a highly successful entrepreneur. However, the future of his empire depends heavily on travel and leisure businesses, which has been widely disrupted due to the coronavirus. Branson is determined to save his airlines Virgin Atlantic, which is struggling to survive, as planes remain largely grounded globally, due to the pandemic crisis. The airline is one of many to have brought in drastic measures to cope with a fall in passenger demand, due to global travel restrictions and the reluctance to travel due to the disease. Branson has even said he will mortgage his private Caribbean island to raise money to help his Virgin Group empire, and has asked the UK government to step in and save his Virgin Atlantic airline from collapse.
The company is therefore looking for funding. Branson is selling shares in the Virgin Galactic space tourism venture to raise capital to assist his other businesses. He is also looking for new investment opportunities.
Question
How can Richard Branson raise capital to assist his other business and attract investors and new customers in a global crisis situation What problems must he address and what strategic decisions are needed to solve these problems
Case Study Proposal for Virgin Atlantic
1. Provide a well-structured and clearly written proposal for a case study of a chosen business in report format (10%)
2. Explain the nature of a case study strategy and the theoretical framework used (15%)
3. Provide a short, descriptive overview of the company (15%)
4. Provide an outline analysis of the problem situation (10%)
5. Explain how you will how you will analyse the data, identify the decision options and the risks involved (15%)
6. Outline which problem-solving tools from recommended learning sources are to be used and how these will be applied (20%)
7. Summarise any actions that will result from your analysis and how you will propose your recommendations to the company (10%)
8. Provide a minimum of 10 Harvard references. At least 6 must be from academic sources (5%)
Answer
Nature of the Case Study and Theoretical Framework
There are different forms of case studies like Illustrative case study, Exploratory Case study, Cumulative case study and Critical instance case study. When it comes to the case of Sir Richard Branson,s Virgin Atlantic, it has to be an Exploratory Case study. Usually, the main concept of exploratory case study is to answering certain questions before taking any kinds of decisions or strategies (Tardi, 2019). Here the company is suffering due to coronavirus outbreak and it is planning to raise capital so that it can further operate its business and provide salaries to its employees. The purpose of this case study is to find out the best capital raising solution for the brand. These attributes of the case study effectively illustrate the Explorative nature of the case.
Overview of the Company
Virgin Atlantic s was established 30 years ago by Mr. Richard Branson. From the first day Branson’s vision was to make the airline experience exciting, stylish and enjoyable for the travelers. In the year 1984 the Virgin Atlantic took its first takeoff through its first flight from London Gatwick to Newark in the US (Virgin, 2020). Mr. Branson is an enthusiastic chairman. There are a lot of innovative actions he has taken to get attention from the industry and from the customers, such as ballooning and abseiling down Manhattan high rises (CAPA, 2020).
Outline of the Problem
The core problem behind the case is Coronavirus outbreak which has taken place in this year 2020. Due to the pandemic globally the tourism and hospitality sectors are suffering (Ranasinghe, et al., 2020). Most of the airlines are bound to ground their planes in the airports, as the international travelling has been stopped almost. Virgin Atlantic is an airline company and it has also become a victim of this pandemic. In order to fight against this critical situation Mr. Branson has made a decision to raise capital so that they can provide salaries to their employees. Mr. Branson does not have an attitude to lay off their employees, because to him his employees are the biggest assets for the company. There are certain plans Branson has initially considered to raise capital. The first strategy is to mortgage his private Caribbean island and to take loan against that. The second strategy he has considered is to ask UK government for help. Thirdly Branson is currently selling Virgin Atlantic ’s shares to Virgin Galactic Space tourism venture. Apart from these he is also looking for other fund-raising opportunities as well.
Data Analysis method, Decision Options and Involved Risks
In order to perform this paper secondary data analysis method will be considered. Under this method previous literatures, news articles and articles from authentic websites will be identified and then analyzed. After collecting the data those will be analyzed in Deductive manner (Azungah, 2018). Through this data analysis method, the paper will be able to address the main objectives. There are certain decision options regarding raising fund for Virgin Atlantic s. The options are mentioned below:
• Taking loan against mortgage
• Selling shares of the company
• Allowing government intervention (Neilson, Brouardand Armenakyan, 2012)
• Finding some opportunities.
There are several risks behind performing this paper, and one of the major one is to select the best possible fund raising strategy for the company, because in this condition all types of fund raising strategies can be helpful at a first glance, but all of this strategies have their own drawbacks which may affect the company in the long term.
Overview Problem Solving Tools
• Taking loan against mortgage: It is one of the most method of taking loan or raising fund for the business. This process of raising fund is popularly known as Loan Against Property (LAP). There are some major benefits it has such as competitive interest rates, long repayment period and continuous ownership of the property (Van Loon, and Aalbers, 2017).
• Equity: Raising fund through selling equity is another major option and it is very common as well. It has certain benefits as well, such as lower risk, deliver significant solution for credit problems, it does not affect the cash flow of the business and long term expectation from the equity investors is there (Raude, Wesonga, and Wawire, 2015).
• Government Intervention: This is another effective method of raising fund. Here the government of the country put its step to support the company which is facing crisis (Ay, and Uçar, 2015). In this covid-19 pandemic governments across the country are providing economic packages to help the local businesses.
Way of Proposing the Recommendation
The way of proposing the recommendation will be deep. Before recommending the best fund-raising option to Verging Airlines all the options will be analyzed deeply. All kinds of risks associated with the options will be considered so that in the long term the brand will not face any sort of issue because of this single choice of fundraising option. At the end of this report it can be also possible to go for multiple fund-raising option because of the intensity of the financial crisis the company is facing.
Reference list
Ay, H. and Uçar, Ö., 2015. Global Crisis and Government Intervention: Economic Crisis. In Regional Economic Integration and the Global Financial System (pp. 152-161). IGI Global.
Azungah, T., 2018. Qualitative research: deductive and inductive approaches to data analysis. Qualitative Research Journal.
CAPA, 2020. Virgin Atlantic Airways. [online] Available at:
Neilson, L., Brouard, F. and Armenakyan, A., 2012. Fundraising methods: Past, present, future. [online] Available at:
Ranasinghe, R., Damunupola, A., Wijesundara, S., Karunarathna, C., Nawarathna, D., Gamage, S., Ranaweera, A. and Idroos, A.A., 2020. Tourism after Corona: Impacts of Covid 19 Pandemic and Way Forward for Tourism, Hotel and Mice Industry in Sri Lanka. Hotel and Mice Industry in Sri Lanka (April 22, 2020).
Raude, J.M., Wesonga, W. and Wawire, P., 2015. Equity financing strategy and the performance of small and medium enterprises in Kenya. International journal of business and management, 10(4), p.193. Tardi, S., 2019. Case Study: Defining and Differentiating Among Types of Case Studies. In Case Study Methodology in Higher Education (pp. 1-19). IGI Global.
Van Loon, J. and Aalbers, M.B., 2017. How real estate became ‘just another asset class’: The financialization of the investment strategies of Dutch institutional investors. European Planning Studies, 25(2), pp.221-240.
Virgin, 2020. Virgin Atlantic. [online] Available at:
