Assignment Scenario/case study

You have just been appointed to the role of senior consultant within the area of Business Development for one of the UK’s leading health clubs, Virgin Active. In 2015, the Virgin Group sold 80% of Virgin Active to the South African investment firm Brait, owned by the billionaire Christo Wiese, with the Virgin group maintaining 20% ownership.

The new owners are very keen to seek a return on their investment and are keen to further internationalise their business. Currently Virgin Active operates in ten countries with South Africa being their largest market with over 120 clubs. Management are aware of the massive emerging trend of health and fitness across the world and are keen to catch leading rival Fitness First which is present in sixteen different countries. The aim is to further growth of the business within high growth emerging markets. Management are mindful to maintain existing high growth rates to
keep shareholders satisfied.

The senior business development manager has asked you to prepare a business report focusing on 1 of the following geographic regions together with an assessment of the general external environment and existing levels of  competition within 1 country in this region.

The key geographic regions that Virgin Active are keen to expand are:
(a) East Africa (Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda etc)
(b) The Gulf states (Saudi Arabia, UAE, Qatar etc)
(c) East Asia (China, Japan, South Korea etc)
(d) C.I.S states (Russia, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan etc)

You have been directed to select 1 country within the region. For example if you chose region (a) you could decide to focus on Kenya.

You must analyse the company’s general and competitive environments and put forward key recommendations as to Virgin Active’s international expansion. The overall strategic goal being to achieve long term growth opportunities for the business.

Assignment Tasks:
1. Organisational Structure and Leadership style. Backed up by relevant theory, briefly examine how the Virgin Group is structured and analyse the leadership style adopted by Richard Branson. (20 marks)

2. General External Environment
Conduct a PEST analysis on any one country within the regions listed above. Analyse how these PEST factors may affect Virgin Active if they chose to enter this market. Conclude whether this country is a suitable and feasible option for investment for Virgin Active. (40 marks)

3. Competitive Environment
For your selected country, conduct a competitive analysis utilising the five forces of competition analysis as outlined by Michael Porter. Address whether the threat/power of these forces is weak, medium or strong. (20 marks)

4. Conclusions and Recommendations
Draw conclusions as to the issues that you have analysed and put forward key recommendations as to how Virgin Active should proceed in the future in terms of their international expansion. (10 marks)

Assessment Criteria
Where you are asked to: analyse, evaluate and recommend in a task it is important that your answers are not descriptive in nature but should provide clear evidence of a deeper understanding of the issues surrounding the task under consideration. Your answers to these tasks must be supported by evidence of wider academic reading, industry reports, UN reports, Regional reports from the World Bank or Development banks etc.

The assignment also requires you to demonstrate various skills such as Intellectual, Practical and Transferable skills. These skills include aspects such as intellectual originality, imagination, presentation and communication. Please see the Grading Criteria sheet below for more detail about what skills are expected at each grade.

Your paper must comply with the business report format and the Harvard referencing guidelines. There is no correct number of academic references to be utilised as the student must draw on as many references as required to provide a high quality answer. However, a minimum of 8 academic sources are expected, and a majority of these should be current, internationally peer reviewed articles/journals or accredited textbook references. Sources such as Wikipedia are not accepted.

You must be mindful that marks will be allocated based on the level of information and understanding and on your ability to define, explain, apply, analyse and evaluate the key concepts.