Richard Branson and Vijay Mallya
| Richard Branson | Vijay Mallya |
| Branson challenges market leaders. | Mallya likes to be market leader. |
| Branson talks social causes. | Mallya doesnt. |
| Branson doesnt have to deal with a rough business environment. | Mallya does. |
| Richard Branson,on the other hand,oversees the Virgin Group which has 300 branded companies worldwide,with group revenues exceeding 11.5 billion (approx.$18 billion) in 2009. | Mallya leads from the Bangalore headquartered UB Group which includes United Spirits (the worlds third largest liquor company),Kingsfisher Airlines and has divisions that make fertilisers and undertake engineering contracts. |
| Branson hailed from a middle-class background and made his fortune from scratch. | Mallya inherited a fortune even though it was a considerably smaller one. |
| Branson is a self-made millionaire who over the years has invested relatively small amounts of money, by Mallya standards, but he has invested shrewdly and then turned that into a fortune. | Mallya on the otherhand inherited a fortune and is used to growing his wealth by basically out-spending the competition. He made India’s Kingfisher beer a top-selling beer by spending millions on advertising and marketing. In other words, he effectively bought market share. |
| Branson has his fingers in several pies.He runs trains,financial services companies and none of his firms are absolute market leaders.They are challengers and thats the way he likes it. | Mallya likes to lead in his businesses be it alcohol or airlines.In the alcohol business too,he went after market share.Thats what he tried with Deccan and suffered. |
| The perception is that Branson’s Virgin Atlantic is a large airline. But if If you look at its fleet size you will see that currently it has around 38 aircraft. That’s not very big when compared to the likes of SIA and BA. Branson of course would argue that his fleet may not be big in number but each aircraft is big in size. But there is no getting away from the fact it only has around 38 aircraft. If you look at the amount of money Branson invested to set-up his Australian low-cost carrier Virgin Blue you will also see it was quite modest. Ten million dollars to be exact. | Dr Mallya’s Kingfisher Airlines has only been operating for a few years and its already got a fleet of over 100 aircraft. He has tried to beat the airline competition by outspending his competitors but aviation is a different business to beer and not even Dr Mallya’s pockets are deep enough to spend his way to the top. |
| In the summer of 2008,this correspondent met Branson.Branson had just jumped off a 35-storey five-star hotel to promote the launch of Virgin Mobiles operations in India.He turned up for the meeting on the dot,dressed in a white shirt and cream-coloured trousers.Throughout the interview,he avoided eye contact and was painfully shy unlike the brash public persona he oozes.Half my time is spent in creating new businesses,the rest is used to tackle social issues the world is facing, said Branson.Later in the evening,he would twirl actress Neha Dhupia like fiddlestick at a promotional event.He was 57 years old then. | In contrast,this correspondents first and only face-to-face meeting with Mallya was,well,unusual.In early 2004,Mallya was contesting the general elections and was generously giving television interviews.Outside his rather spartan political headquarters in Bangalore,a riff-raff of supporters and political wannabes had assembled not the crowd Mallya would be seen with otherwise.Inside his office,a photograph of a snoozing Deve Gowda held centre stage.Dressed in a spotless white kurta,Mallya delivered a bombastic speech about the need for a change of leadership and a revival of the youth in the country.The Janata Party,whose campaign Mallya headed in Karnataka,was routed. |
Source: Economic Times.
