ADMS 2511 Lecture Notes - Lecture 7: Richard Branson, Virgin Galactic, Virgin Green Fund

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ADMS 2511 Lecture 7 Notes Undercover Leaders
Introduction
Not all leaders are heroes, but many have exhibited courageous behaviour.
CEO Richard Branson may or may not be a hero, but when he launches his latest
attempt to set the world record for an around-the-world balloon flight or sloop sailing,
he exhibits the same courageous behaviour when he is leading conglomerate Virgin
Group.
Virgin Group now includes more than 400 companies, including Virgin Galactic, a space
tourism company, and Virgin Fuels, whose goal is to revolutionize the industry by
providing sustainable fuels for automobiles and aircraft.
Same leader, same heroic behaviourin work and in life.
Are we really to believe that Richard Branson and other courageous leaders are just like
everyone else?
The W Network television show Undercover Boss Canada features a leader working
undercover in his or her own company to find out how the organization really works.
Here, we consider the ethical leadership lessons it might offer.
Executives from Mexx Canada, Calgary Transit, Sodexo Canada, and Mr. Lube have been
featured on the show.
Typically, the executive works undercover for a week.
Then the employees with whom and under whom the leader has worked are summoned
to company headquarters and rewarded, or punished, for their actions.
In one episode, Andy Clark, the founder and CEO of Edmonton-based Clark Builders,
strapped on a tool belt for the first time in 30 years and added a moustache to work
beside his employees.
He wondered if, at 62 years old, he could keep up.
He made a lot of rookie errors, but when he heard about the wife of one of his
employees who was quite sick, he called a doctor friend to see if he could help with her
cancer and offered to pay the full medical cost for treatment.
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