The principal objective of strengthening the community partnership - Coursework Example

?Module #4 – Final Paper on Strategic Management Executive Summary In this final report we will be discussing the principal objective of strengthening the community partnership with detailed SWOT analysis, extensive research examples and analysis, the critical success factors and the targeted industries, key issues which will make Atlantic Cape drive the local and international Strategic alliance for its college facilities and events. The Strategic Action Plan in accordance with the approved budget needs to be executed in the highest professional manner to achieve greater name for the institution in the global market. The research findings done so far will be further collaborated with detailed examples which will shed light on the importance of the findings. Based on the research and its various business examples, the report will give its recommendations and its conclusive analysis. Strategic planning is all about making the right strategy to be induced in the planning process to make it more effective. It is extremely important to know the basic environment of Atlantic Cape Community College, its faculties, the teaching process, the facilities and the goals and objectives of the institution which is to be known as the best college in the city and be a centre of learning and career growth. The final report will be extensively discussing the need of the strengthening of community partnership and the strategy employed for achieving it. To attain this objective, there is a need for local strategy plan and international alliance with business communities and learning centers. The report will discuss with examples that how Atlantic Cape Community College will plan strategically to achieve the goal and objective. With the advent of internet marketing tools, the college can focus on its facilities being marketed well, the comfort and the pricing advantages businesses have in renting their facility, the kind of constant up-gradation they are doing to gain competitive advantage and giving the learning and business communities the best of infrastructural and lodging facilities. “In order to survive the difficulties ahead, colleges and universities must have more foresighted management. But at the same time, universities must maintain their decentralized form and capitalize on the entrepreneurship and idea-generating abilities of the faculty.” (Keller, 1983) Keller has emphasized of the fact that strong leadership and entrepreneurship are the requisite area for the colleges to strategically plan and execute the college business partnership relation to newer heights. This will give a huge morale boost to the college as it goes on its quest for attaining the academic, learning and business excellence center of the region. SWOT Analysis The Strength, Weakness, Opportunities and Threats give a detailed analysis of the overall strategic position of the organization. Based on this analysis, analyst and members of the institute can logically and strategically plan the execution of its business plans. Atlantic Cape Community college wants to strengthen their community partnership ties with companies, colleges and learning centers where they can avail the infrastructural facilities for conferences, meetings, lectures and knowledge sharing programs. SWOT Analysis has already been dealt with in the earlier sections. This report will be taking up specific examples which are going to illustrate the analysis. Strength: Atlantic Cape Community College students were surveyed as part of the student’s Facilities and Services Satisfaction Survey 2011 where 7456 students were surveyed in 2010-11 out of which there were 156 respondents. 76% were satisfied with the overall facility at their campus. (Atlantic Cape Report, 2011). The college already has a reputation as a source of learning with facilities of a 500 seat theatre, 30 seat board room, lodging and restaurant / catering facilities & availability of satellite campuses in Atlantic & Cape May County. With the provision of advanced technology with Information Communications Technology being at the helm of assisting the drive of satellite campus, it has become easier to reach out to far off places rather than being concentrated only in the campus itself. “We offer one stop conference and meeting services for groups of 2-500+. Let us assist you in planning your next meeting, seminar or event. We have the technology, the facilities, and the expertise to help plan your meetings cost effectively.” (Atlantic Cape,2012) The training staff can be of assistance to any kind of learning programs or business consultancies which enhances the service quality of the college. Weakness: The weakness of the college in its conferencing and event department is that it still lacks the global IT facilities like Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity which is so important for business conferences. Budgeting constraints and a lack of external marketing is also a huge cause of concern. The marketing efforts locally is good as the college public relations and marketing efforts team had bagged 12 awards in four regional contests last fall. (Atlantic Cape, 2012). The concern is more on the budget and the spreading the college’s marketing to the global world. The non existence of Atlantic Cape Community College in the Events and Conference search in search engines like Google and Bing is an example of the fact that it has also got a poor internet presence. The college needs to work on Search Engine Optimization where they can have keywords like events and conference facilities, organizing events in Cape May County, business meetings in Atlantic City etc being optimized so that they are visible in the first page of Google. Opportunities There are opportunities galore for the college to come up with strategic marketing plans to work with various cultural organizations, do theatre for fund raising events, and have business conferences arranged for corporate and institutions. There is a huge need for proper conferencing facilities which includes video conferencing, distance training programs where world class facilities might not be available for. There are many businesses who have a onetime requirement and they like to rent facilities instead of spending huge amount of money creating one. Threats Colleges offering conferencing facilities like Richard Stockton College, Gloucester Community College etc along with hotels and catering business offering food and business space are the major threats to Atlantic Cape Community College. The limited budget constraints also contribute it. Evident examples of it are the college has not gone for Search Engine Optimization to increase its internet presence organically and neither it has resorted to Pay per click mode of advertisement in Google Adwords or Yahoo Overture accounts. Internal and External Analysis Internal Factor analysis involves the strengths and weaknesses of the institution which can be worked on internally so that strengths can be capitalized on and weakness can be removed. It has already been discussed that what Strengths and Weakness Atlantic Cape Community College has and in this section we will look at examples and go through a thorough analysis on how it can minimize weakness and maximize the strength. The department has already taken measures which according to its website have put the meeting and conference hall facility to accommodate 2500+ members. This is accompanied by state of the art facility like audio video equipment along with quality catering services. Moreover there are professional staffs of the college to help them out in planning of the event. Weaknesses of not having Wi-Fi or Bluetooth should be immediately worked out. More staff needs to be inducted in order to channelize support and training facilities. External Analysis includes the external factors which are the opportunities the institution have and the threats they face from competitors. Stockton College is already working on expanding its facilities which involves a series of projects which will further enhance their capacity to offer events, conferences and training. “Hammonton Satellite Office This project consists of the renovation of a three-story, 15,000 square foot former factory in downtown Hammonton, New Jersey.  It will provide academic, retail and art gallery spaces for use by Stockton and the local community.  A designer has been selected and construction completion is forecasted for fall 2012.  Design documents are 50% complete.” (Richard Stockton College, 2012) Atlantic Cape already has good facilities like the College Open House but has to capitalize more on marketing especially internet marketing to widen its scope and simultaneously build on its existing infrastructure to provide world class services. Competitors like Brookdale Community college has various packages to offer for its clients like Platinum, Gold and Silver Package. Example of Platinum Package is given below. “Platinum Package – (Full-Day) The Executive Continental Breakfast Traditional Hot Buffet Lunch with 2 entree Choices Standard Technical Equipment Total Cost Per Person: $41.95 per person* Price does not include 7% sales tax if applicable and a 20% Service fee” (Brookdale, 2012) Key Industries and Company Success Factors - Identify with examples and analysis the company’s driving forces The Key Industries and Company Success Factor lies in its marketing abilities and its strategic planning to achieve that. The primary focus and the mother of all activity is the budget. There are Strategic Budget Funds which are recommended by Divisions Management Team or Cross Functional teams. This in turn is approved by the Dean of Administration & Finance of the college after due approval by other senior staff. The college management need to have a specific budget to acquire the below listed factor which will make the company successful in the long run. They are: 1. Reaching out to the Business and Communities through a. Traditional Marketing – Was used for many years and till now the testimonials and word of mouth along with local advertising are considered good. b. Internet Marketing – This is the most important arena which needs to be focused as the success factor totally depends on this form of marketing. Management needs to understand that just having a website of the college is not enough. There are questions to be asked like: i. Is the website interactive? ii. Does the site have a World Wide Internet Presence – In other words what are they doing in terms of Search Engine Optimization and Pay Per click mode of advertising on the web. The former is a cost effective and a long term solution than the latter which is quite expensive. iii. What partnerships and international alliance does the college have? 2. International Alliance and Partnership Program a. What offerings does the institute have to make it a win-win situation for both parties? Based on the Research Findings and the sending of the questionnaire to some of the colleges / universities in the region like Rowan University, Princeton University, Montclair University and Rider University where they have filled up an exhaustive list, the college management has hands on tool on what to expect from the customers and at what competitive price range. This kind of survey sets the benchmark to know the offerings given by your competitors. Similarly companies can be given similar surveys where they can be queried on their requirements according to which facilities and competitive pricing can be given to them. Strategic planning must involve the strengthening of the local community and international alliance with companies. The internet advertising and the interactive mode of communication can change the work culture of the college and make it more dynamic in its effort to strengthen this partnership. The success factor suggestions are listed below: 1. Websites need to have separate section for Community and International Alliance. 2. This section should be interactive with Live Chat options, scheduling meetings with prospective clients in audio-video conferencing. 3. Ability to show the facilities online through videos, 3D Graphics which will please the customers. 4. Have a rewarding contract of alliance with the international community who can visit the region, conduct their business and training operations by receiving state of the art infrastructure. 5. Professional accommodation / living standards. 6. Professional dining standards. 7. Wi-Fi internet and Bluetooth should conform to world standards. Business propositions and letters need to be send to corporate across the globe and business centers so that they can visit the facility online and check out the great facilities it is having. The management needs to fix the budget which will enable them to incorporate state of the art infrastructure and give all the world class professional facilities required for business groups. Constant interactivity with the international community and building on strategic international alliance can do wonders to the institution. The industries requirement needs to be carefully analyzed based on the surveys and research findings. Maximum industries need a big corporate space to have conference facilities, connect to overseas partners through the internet, have group discussions, board meetings and training facilities. For education and training modules, the college have professional faculty who can train the employees or the trainers as well. Competitive Analysis and Strategies Competitive analysis needs to be done locally as well as internationally. At the local level, the study has included the surveys of the local competitors who have been extremely helpful in answering the exhaustive set of questions. Various questions were given in the survey which included their student size, facilities availability to students / external clients, campus facilities, staffing requirements, events hosted including meetings and conferences, maximum number of participants the campus facility can allow including catering, night stay etc. With this kind of detailed study from the various colleges and universities, the college has gathered a database which will enable a focused competitive analysis on where Atlanta Cape Community College stands in competition to the rest of the colleges. This kind of transparency in survey makes way for better productivity and requires a great deal of strategic planning and foresightedness. For strengthening international alliances, it is essential to have similar online surveys conducted with multinational companies whose requirements and existing facilities might help the management to align their strategies accordingly. Budgeting and Strategic Planning can be done only with proper inputs. For example it is a common requirement for multinational companies to have cross culture exchange program where people from different countries meet physically and online to know each other and share their knowledge, culture and way of working. To have a social orientation program required great skills and the moderators, trainers and organizers needs to work out the finer points with them which will enable them to know the other’s culture and way of working or communicating. International Analysis of multinational company requirements can help a long way in strategizing the right plan for executing a partnership agreement with them to induce them to use the college facilities and what extra they will get from it so that they know that they are fully equipped for using the facilities. Facilities do not include only space, catering, accommodation and technology but also the people to organize, manage and train people. Therefore recruitment of the right staff to help organize such an event along with a qualified workforce to serve to their training, educative and informative demand including social values are of much importance to the global community. There needs to be an appropriate Performance Measure Indicator report for the management to analyze the performance level, percentage of companies renting out its facilities, number of events which has been organized etc. with a previous year comparative statement. Co-sponsorship with external alliance is also one way of teaming up where the sponsorship approval needs to come from the board of trustees and the management. Co-Sponsorship events will totally involve the college staff and personnel deputed for the job where the college facilities usage and its guidelines need to be strictly followed. Strategies can involve the need to build up the college business partnership and the up-gradation of the conference facility with state of the art infrastructure is the most important segment. The planning department should be able to include all the infrastructure related matters to be executed in the next financial year so that they are on track of being the best choice of the region as per their goals and objectives. Conclusions and Recommendations Strategic Planning is all about putting a goal to the plan and the best way it can be achieved. It is all about knowing the direction the institution is currently heading to and the vision of the planning department. To achieve this task in a clinical and well crafted fashion, there needs to be a mix of precision, creativity, intelligence and foresightedness of the strategic planners. They need to know the environment of the institution, the space offered, the facilities currently provided, the lack of facilities the college currently faces, and identifying the room of improvement. A lot of stress needs to be given to the marketing arena from where the college can get a global presence and strike international alliance for its facilities. By getting into partnerships with international communities, the college will have further ammunition to fuel the growth of its business facilities and organizing important events. Reaching out to the international community requires a planned strategy which involves internet marketing, search engine optimization through which the college website can be displayed on the first page of major search engines like Google, Yahoo and Bing. Social Networking sites like facebook, twitter are also an important tool for reaching out to international companies. Graphical display of campus facilities will boost customer registrations as the 3D representations followed by audio-visual display mode will lend more credentials to the college with more and more interested visitors going through the link. Examples of how 3D campus tours are conducted can be seen at 3D Virtual Campus Tours Website. The internet has opened the doors for the entire world to come and have a view of what Atlanta Cape Community College has to offer which are the right way to go for striking international strategic alliance and furthering the development of satellite campuses in far off countries as well. Striking partnerships with international companies can be facilitated with attractive discounts and membership facilities for partner companies who can utilize the campus for their own use. These international companies will have a share in the profits made by bringing in more companies as clients. It can be concluded that the right strategic planning can do wonders to the college in its quest for strengthening the community partnership addresses along with the much needed international alliance. This will help the college to be a center of learning, education and business. Referencing: Keller,G.(1983).Academic Strategy: The Management Revolution In American Higher Education. The John Hopkins University Press Atlanta Cape.(2012).Customized Training for Business. Retrieved on 13th March 2012 from http://www.atlantic.edu/conted/businessServ/index.htm Atlanta Cape Report.(2011).Institutional Outcomes Report Draft. Retrieved on 14th March 2012 from http://www.atlantic.edu/about/research/documents/AtlanticCapeOutcomes2010.pdf Richard Stockton College.(2012).Facilities Planning & Construction. Retrieved on 14th March 2012 from http://intraweb.stockton.edu/eyos/page.cfm?siteID=106&pageID=7 3D Virtual Campus Tours.(2012). 3D Virtual Campus Tours Demo. Retrieved on 14th March 2012 from http://www.3dvirtualcampustours.com/demo Brookdale.(2012).Weekday Conference / Meeting Specials. Retrieved on 14th March 2012 from http://www.brookdalecc.edu/pages/2728.asp Atlanta Cape.(2012).Atlanta Cape’s College Relations Team Captures 12 Awards. Retrieved on 13th March 2012 from http://www.atlantic.edu/about/news/article.php?article=1248 Read More