Virgin's greatest challenge
- Jan 13, 2009
Since I've been working with Richard at Virgin our biggest challenge has been entering into the rail industry and bidding for the franchise. At the time this was very new. The government was privatising the railways and it was a very difficult and highly competitive process.
At that time the rail industry had a poor reputation. We really questioned if this was the right area and whether we really need to do this, particularly as it was such a competitive process. However, we have always been an organisation that looks for challenges and to set new standards. Once we won the franchise it was then very difficult to take it over and was certainly our most significant challenge. We're very proud that Virgin Trains is now a very successful and profitable business.
Looking forwards, the greatest challenge the Virgin Group faces is maintaining scale and growth. We are a large national company that continues to grow and diversify internationally. Diversifying internationally across different countries and cultures poses new signifcant challenges. However, we need to take on greater challenges and meet these challenges head-on.
