What Do We Know About Managerial Talent? The Case-Study of Richard Branson as a Great Project Manager

This article is about the essence of managerial talent. It presents the case-study of Richard Branson, who is a talented project manager by all standards. The existing findings, which explain the essence of managerial talent, will be discussed. The Gallup organization’s study of more than 80,000 great managers worldwide will be considered and a new theory of managerial talent aimed at understanding the fundamental nature of this phenomenon will be described. According to the theory, the managerial talent emerges at the intersection of unique vision, unusual creative and innovative abilities, highly developed intuition and wisdom-related skills, excellence-based performance and entrepreneurial giftedness. Then the case-study of Richard Branson— who is the founder and owner of the highly successful Virgin group of companies, that includes approximately 250 companies, each of which can be considered as a separate project—will be presented.