The Composition Of Virgins Portfolio Marketing Essay
The Virgin Group is a multi national corporation with a hugely diversified business portfolio. This essay examines how the Virgin Groups corporate strategy has allowed it to sustain competitive advantage. The first area that is covered is the composition of Virgins portfolio, namely what businesses Virgin is in and what is the logic of their portfolio. Within the composition section it puts forward two models that help to show why Virgin has chosen particular avenues for achieving growth and sustaining competitive advantage. The Core Competence Theory and Parenting Concept are then reviewed critically in regard to Virgin. Porters three tests are then related to the Virgin Group. Next the co-ordination of Virgins portfolio is addressed, how Virgin has managed its portfolio in its quest for growth and a sustained competitive advantage. Within the composition section of the essay is the issue of control versus the co-operation of Virgin and its business units. It then handles the four concepts of corporate strategy and how Virgin can and has used them to add value to its business units. The link between Virgins Corporate and Marketing strategy is then discussed before the other side of the argument is considered, looking at how Virgins corporate strategy destroyed rather than added value. Finally having synthesised the various diverse elements the essay concludes by using the knowledge gained to raise questions for Virgin about their future corporate strategy.

The Virgin Group itself does not compete, it is only its Strategic Business Units that do. ‘Successful corporate strategy must grow out of and reinforce competitive strategy.’ (Porter, 1988) It is Virgins strategic business units and not the group as a whole that attempt to create and sustain competitive advantage.
Diversification can come in two forms,