Virgin Rail was a franchise of the
Government of UK. It provided the services in the UK west coast regions. It was
stated that the franchise decisions made by Government had affected Virgin
Groups. Richard Brason had indicated that decisions made by the Government with
respect to revenue management, pricing strategies and customer services was
highly ineffective and wanted to end the franchise to make independent
decisions for the customers (Trotman, 2017). Non-programmed decisions are made
based on the judgment and intuitions (Kusluvan, 2003). It is clear that non-programmed
decisions were planned to be made in this scenario as the firm had decided to
formulate mew strategies based on the current scenario. 

Apparently, the franchise was due by 2012
and the Government had provided the franchise to FirstGroup. Virgin Train had
lost 15-year bid to the rival organisation FirstGroup. In accordance to the
views of Branson, the brand had failed to win the bids as it did not examine
the bids placed by the rival organizations. From the case study, it is evident
that Virgin Rail had privatized in 1997. It had adopted the low pricing
strategies for the customers. The brand had provided additional services such
as free breakfast for the first-class passengers and 100% rebate of money spent
on tickets for the trains which are delayed (Virgintrains, 2017). This had
increased the satisfaction levels of the customers. From the case study, it is
clear that the financial returns and customer ratings on the services provided
by the firm had increased drastically when it had started operating privately.
The programmed decision making refers to the process of making decisions based
on the routine problems (Kusluvan, 2003). In this scenario, Branson had failed
to examine the rival bids. Thereby, the brand had failed to win the 15 year
bids. Thus, it is clear that programmed decision making process was adopted by
the founder of Virgin Rails in this scenario.