In contrast, the Virgin Group was a much less interventionist parent. This is
understandable since it is led from the UK, on the other side of the world. Within a
few years, it had floated VB on the Australian stock exchange as an independent
company. Branson's flamboyant style influenced VB's product market strategies, but
VB had autonomy to devise its own labor market practices as a "greenfield"
enterprise. In these circumstances VB's labor market policies were inspired less by
those of the Virgin Group and more by those of SWA and of other exemplars of best
practice human resource management in Australia and overseas.