The University of East Anglia - Case Study Example

Marketing and Strategy Table of Contents Table of Contents 2 Executive Summary 3 Introduction 3 Critical Discussion of the Value Curve and other strategic management and marketing theories / models 4 SWOT Analysis 8 Porter’s Five Forces Analysis 9 Analysis of future market 10 Recommendations 11 Conclusion 13 References 15 Bibliography 17 Executive Summary University of East Anglia is one of the newest universities in UK (University of Miami, n.d.). University id located in Norwich. This paper provides a critical analysis of the value curve model and some other strategic model. The paper also provides various strategic recommendations for the university to stay ahead in the competition till 2018. Some of these strategic recommendations are based on the value curve analysis which is done in the context of education industry of UK and University of East Anglia. Introduction University of East Anglia, one of the most prestigious universities in England, was founded in 1963. There were only 87 undergraduate students in the beginning (University of East Anglia, n.d.). University has always tried to provide education in a uniquely distinct way as the main objective of the university is to ‘do different’. Currently there are almost 300 courses which are offered to the students (University of East Anglia, n.d.). Currently there are almost 13000 students in the university (Study Abroad Office, n.d.). UEA pays lot of attention on maintaining healthy business relationships with different international, national and local organizations. University offers various facilities to different organizations. It allows using its infrastructure; it allows organizations to work with its students as well as academics and stuffs. University also provides help in terms of funding, training and development etc. (University of East Anglia, n.d.) Such a well established renowned university in UK can adopt various strategies to improve its current market situation and develop new markets within 2018. This could be done by critically analyzing the value curve and various other marketing and strategic management theories. Critical Discussion of the Value Curve and other strategic management and marketing theories / models Value curve is basically a very effective tool used to create new market space for a particular company or industry. It is a graphical representation that provides an overview of the present performance in a market place which is a known one. It also helps to understand the main focus of competition regarding investment, role of various factors in the competition and different offerings to the customers. In the horizontal axis of a value curve represents various factors which determine the competition and investment, whereas the vertical axis represents the level of offering which is received by the customers (Yang, B. n.d.). W Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne first proposed the concept of value curve in a paper named "Value Innovation: The Strategic Logic of High Growth". This paper was published in Harvard Business Review in 1997. According to them there are four important questions that need to be answered in order to create value curve. These are 1) What are those factors that the industry has taken for granted and need to be eliminated? 2) What are those factors that need to be reduced significantly below the industry standard? 3) Which factors need to be created that has never been offered by the industry? 4) Which factors need to be raised much above the existing standards of the industry? Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne found that there are certain factors that actually have no requirement in providing value to the customers although organizations compete on them. These are taken for granted by the industry. First question actually forces management to consider these factors. The second question make managers to find out whether the products and services are properly designed or they are overdesigned to stay ahead in the competition. Often organizations try to add some extra product features just to stay ahead in the market. These features are actually not value adding as a result they don’t have any requirement in real. Identifying these factors and reducing them is important for creating value curve. Third question make mangers to think about delivering and creating totally new and innovative sources to provide value. Managers should always try to provide some real value added services to the customers and come up with unique source of value. Fourth question pushes managers to eliminate and uncover the compromises that the industry forces customers to make (Kim, Mauborgne, n.d.). An example is provided below. If key elements of software that is used solve financial problems and a pencil which is substitute of that software is compared, the result could be represented by a value curve. Industry has chosen the financial software is chosen over pencil because of its high level of speed, accuracy and other value adding functions. High Relative levels Low Price ease of use Options availability Speed Accuracy Key elements of goods and services In the above value curve in the horizontal axis there are various key factors like price, ease of use, availability of options, speed and accuracy and in the vertical axis relative levels of these factors are presented. Price of any financial software is much higher than that of a pencil but a pencil is much easy to use than software. On the other hand users get many options while using advanced software as it has lot of value adding features. It is quite natural that an analysis can be done much faster and with minimum errors by software as compared to a pencil. If the hotel industry is concerned, a two star hotel provide more value added services as compared to a one star hotel. If the value curve is designed for the hotel industry considering a one star hotel and a two star hotel following graph is obtained. Here key elements are price, eating facility, hygiene, bed quality, architectural aesthetics, room size, lounges, availability of receptionist etc. High Relative Levels Low Price eating facility hygiene bed quality architectural aesthetics room size lounges Key Elements for Hotel Industry Apart from value curve there are other strategic management and marketing theories like porters five forces analysis, SWOT analysis which would be effective tool in strategic decision making process. Porters five forces model is a useful strategic model that analyze the nature of competitiveness of a particular industry. Model provides an insight of the threat of new entrants and substitutes, bargaining power of buyers and suppliers and finally rivalry within the industry (The College of St, Scholastica, n.d.). On the other hand SWOT analysis would provide an extensive analysis of organizations external and internal environment. Internal analysis provides an insight of organizations strengths and weaknesses, whereas external analysis focuses on upcoming threats and opportunities (Kotler, Keller, 2006). SWOT Analysis Strength: University of East Anglia is already a well established university in United Kingdom. University offers almost 300 different courses to 13000 students. It is one of newest university in United Kingdom. As a result its infrastructure facility is much better than others. Weakness: University of East Anglia is only operating in United Kingdom where University’s main campus is located in Norwich. But apart from Norwich there are no other campuses in United Kingdom, although there are some partner colleges of UEA. This is main weakness of the university. University also does not have any center outside UK. Opportunity: It has been found that every year almost 3, 25,000 international students choose UK universities and colleges to study. These students come from different places in the world. UEA can find out which are those places where most of the students come from. Once this is done then UEA can try to get into some agreement with some of the universities which are located there. This would increase the number of international students in UEA. This is a huge opportunity for the university. Threat: Threats for University of East Anglia are likely to come from its competitors that are other universities in United Kingdom. If any other university provides better educational services then automatically students would not prefer UEA anymore. Universities that are providing better training and development programs or better infrastructure facilities as compared to University of East Anglia would be the automatic choice of students in UK. Porter’s Five Forces Analysis According to Michael Porter there are five distinct forces that determine the intensity of the competition in a particular industry. These are 1. Bargaining power of suppliers 2. Bargaining power of buyers 3. Threat of new entrants 4. Threat of substitutes 5. Rivalry among existing players [Figure 1: Porter’s Five Forces, Michael Porter] Bargaining power of suppliers: In education industry bargaining power of suppliers is less important compared to other industry. Since it is not a hard core business industry, it is less affected by various market ups and downs. Moreover there are number of suppliers is also sufficient. As a result switching cost for the university is much less. So, suppliers’ bargaining power is also much less. Bargaining power of buyers: Bargaining power of buyers’ increases when there are many service providers and the switching cost is low. In education industry buyers are students and service providers are universities. There are many universities in United Kingdom which enhance the intensity of the competition among different universities. As a result students have enough bargaining power. Threat of new entrants: Starting a new university in United Kingdom requires permission from several authorities of government. There are various rules and regulations which make the entire process more complex. As a result new entry in the education sector is not a big threat for the existing ones. Threat of Substitutes: Since there are many universities in United Kingdom, number of substitutes to the students is quite high. As a result for any university in UK should be aware of other universities operating in UK. Rivalry among existing players: Since there are large number of universities in UK, intensity of competition among them is also quite high. These two analyses (SWOT and Porter’s five forces) would help the University of East Anglia to make strategic decisions regarding creating new market space. Analysis of future market University of East Anglia is operating in such a system which is large and competitive in nature. It has been found that almost 3, 25,000 international students choose UK universities and colleges to study. The value of total annual export of education and skills of UK is around 12 billion euro. It is a proven fact that the UK education sector has played a leading role in making e-learning and distance learning programs popular. So from these facts it can be predicted that there would be a significant increase in the number of international students as well as domestic students and there would be more demand of advanced industry oriented training and development programs and e-learning programs. This increase in demand is quite natural because there would be more and more economic development around the world in the next decade or so. As a result there would be lot of opportunities for University of East Anglia in the future. Recommendations There could be various strategies that would be effective for University of East Anglia in stay ahead in the competition up to 2018. These strategies include developing more effective training programs for other industry. University should focus on developing more and more industry oriented training programs. Presently university of East Anglia is one of the most renowned institutes that provide effective teacher training program. In future to stay ahead in the competition university should develop advanced online teacher training program. It is important to increase the market coverage in order to gain competitive advantage in the long run. East Anglia should also focus on increasing its market coverage by increasing the number of study center all over the Europe. This can be done by forming alliances with some of the renowned universities of other European countries. University can provide training and funding aid to some of the growing universities inside and outside of UK. Considering the four important questions that are already mentioned in this paper, University of East Anglia should try to focus on those factors which are not actually value adding for the customers. Once these factors are identified, they need to be eliminated. University should also try to come up with some new offerings that have never been offered by any other university in the education industry of United Kingdom. These offerings should be in terms new courses which might be various new online distance courses because with the increase in number of internet users popularity of these courses are getting more and more popular. University should also focus on providing extraordinary infrastructure facilities and some innovative world class training and development programs. These programs should be designed considering both for university’s own faculty and corporate personals. Following value curve is made on University of East Anglia considering key elements that are relevant in the education industry in United Kingdom. These factors actually determine the competition among various universities in the industry. These important factors are Course Fee, Courses Offered, Infrastructure, Faculty, and Online Courses and they are represented in the horizontal axis. On the other hand there in the vertical axis there are relative levels of these factors. Based on a general view, if university of East Anglia wants to create new market by improving its existing offerings or by inventing some new value adding offerings then the following value graph might be obtained. High Relative Level Low Course Fee Courses Offered Infrastructure Faculty Online Courses Analyzing this value curve it can be said that the University of East Anglia should focus on the enhancement of various advanced industry oriented courses as well as various e-learning programs. It should also focus on infrastructure development and various faculty training and development programs. Conclusion University of East Anglia is one of the most renowned universities in England. University is offering various educational programs since 1963. University is also engaged in various training and development programs and some funding assistance. University operates in a competitive market and to stay ahead in the competition for a long time it needs adopt certain strategy. These strategies could be adopted by using value curve analysis and other strategic model like porters five forces and SWOT analysis. References Kotler, P. 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