Background Information and Challenges of the Virgin Group
From 1968 to 2007, Richard Branson leads the Virgin group to become a conglomerate of more than 200 companies with business in music, airlines, rail transport, soft drinks, radio broadcasting and etc. (Grant 2005a:309) The Virgin Group followed many other companies during the 1950 to1980 period in adopting diversification as a mean for corporate growth. The boom of unrelated diversification of the early 1960s and 1970s was halted abruptly however by the failure of many large diversified companies (Grant 2005b:447). The simple action of bringing various businesses together under a single ownership itself was clearly not sufficient in creating shareholder value. The following years
As Mary Parker Follet stated, “The best leader has not followers, but men and women working with him.” This statement catches the spirit of Branson’s vision and the ideologies promoted within the Virgin Group, and which had become an integral part of the Virgin culture (Davidson and Griffin 2006:44).

The Background Information of the Coca-Cola Company
The Coca-Cola Company is the world's largest nonalcoholic beverage company, figuring four of the world's top-five soft-drink brands: Coca-Cola, Diet Coke, Sprite and Fanta. Started off as a company producing the famous coca-cola soft drink, the company then diversified through over 400 soft drinks, juices, teas, coffees, waters, sports and energy drinks and operations in over 200 countries (coca-cola website). As with many consumer goods companies, the Coca-Cola Company’s brand is its more vital asset. Customers don’t buy a product, they buy a brand. The value of leading consumer brand companies is an embodiment of identity and lifestyle, and not always a guarantee of quality. The soft drink can be replicated, but the image which goes with the Coca-Cola’s brand cannot. (Grant, 2004:289).

The success of the Coca-Cola Company was a result of a combined strategy of brand