1800 Words

Contemporary Strategy Analysis : Text and Cases Edition by Grant, R.M. (2016) , Already attached some PPTs of this textbook
Outline:
1/Executive  Summary
2/Statement of problem and objective
3/Analysis of Situation
4/Industry analysis using Porter’s 5 Forces
5/Identification and Evaluation
6/Recommendation

CASE ANALYSIS

Executive summary

This study is based on the case analysis of Harvard Business School regarding identification and analysis of its issues. Harvard Business School is facing some major challenges in present situation. They are facing issues regarding identification of their primary customers, determination of value of their researches, providing efficient faculty members and specific resources, and others. Main objective of HBS is to make efficient leaders who can bring effective changes in the world. Due to all these challenges Harvard Business School is facing serious problems in terms of their administration process. In addition to this, it discusses industrial and situational analysis of HBS. Potential recommendations have been suggested in order to resolve such issues. In order to mitigate all issues administration of HBS need to analyze recent market trends, customer behavior, purchasing trends of the customer and individual need to ensure organizational success. Administration of HBS need specify different department for research projects in order to determine the proper value of their research projects.

Table of contents

Statement of Problem and Objectives

The main objective of Harvard Business School is making leaders who can contribute to bringing difference across the world. In order to meet this objective, they are involved in various fields of work. Harvard Business School creates and publishes wide range of case study related to different fields like finance, strategy, accounting, and others. It can create a major challenge due to requirement of wide range of resources and faculties. Selection and recruitment of faculty members can be a big challenge regarding this. Wide range of case study requires a large amount of proper and specific resources. Providing appropriate resource to the faculty members can be very challenging sometimes. In addition to that HBS is offering a different kind of selective executive and MBA program related to different areas of education like finance, accounting, strategy, and others. This wide range of programs can make it very challenging for Harvard School of Business to provide wide range of faculty members with knowledge from different areas. It requires selection of right choice of proficient people for the role of faculty members. Faculty members of HBS are also known for their contribution in research, articles, ideas to book and economic journals. Managing the whole system is becoming a challenge due to its complex network. HBS need to make different department in order to manage the whole system properly and effectively. HBS need to select and recruit a large number of staff for different department. It can increase the overall cost. There are some other challenges faced by HBS in order to manage this complex network of work. One of the major issues faced by HBS administration is to identify its primary customer. Identification of primary customer can be a point of concern; it can be students, employers, alumni or research community. Another big issue faced by HBS is determining the value of particular research. As they are involved in various kind of research program, it became more difficult to understanding and determining the value of each research. Harvard Business School has a complex structure due to diverse faculty members in terms of knowledge specialty. HBS faculty is comprised of members with knowledge in different areas like finance, accounting, strategy, and others. It can be very challenging sometimes to manage all of the faculty members together. Wide range of faculty member needs proper management, appropriate resource allocation, recruitment and selection of right employees who can be effective and proficient to give required service.

Situation Analysis

Harvard Business School is currently facing some challenges in order to meet target objective of the organization which is to make proficient leaders who can make effective changes in the world. In order to meet its objectives, Harvard Business School is providing a large number of services and products. In this current scenario, HBS administration is facing problems regarding management. Due to providing a large range of products and services, administration needs to create different departments in order to manage the entire system. Creation of department requires a large amount of workforce. In this context administration of Harvard Business School is facing issues of selection and recruitment of the proficient workforce and managing the workforce. It requires a lot of time, patience, and managing ability to control and manage the workforce. A large amount of resources is required for providing wide range of products. Harvard Business School is involved in contribution of wide range of case studies, journal articles, books, programs, and others. Thus it requires a large number of efficient faculty member and specific resources for the purpose of providing proper guidance and assistance. Fulfilling all those requirements regarding resources and faculty members became a challenge for the administration of Harvard Business School. It requires proper selection and recruitment of efficient people. Administration of Harvard Business School requires some efficient staff who can recruit and select right people as faculty members. Selection and recruitment of efficient workforce are very important for the achievement of organizational success. In the current situation, HBS is facing value determination of research related issues. Harvard Business School is contributing to wide range of research program in various fields like finance, strategy, accounting, and others. Administration of HBS needs to concentrate on the exact issue regarding value determination of their researches.

Industrial Analysis

Supplier power

In education industry scholars can be treated as supplies. HBS operates across the globe. Hence they consider the scholars of different countries as their suppliers. This allows them to receive a large amount of supply without considering any specific suppliers. Thus, the organization has no such specific restriction regarding the supply of raw materials in order to offer quality product. Price sensitiveness of the buyers is another factor that influences organizations to consider the price from supplier’s end. However, in terms of their programs, they are depended on the faculties. In this context, they also consider the management and staffs to ensure effective administrators. 99% literacy of UK is a significant factor in this context that determines the supply of workforce for the company. Thus, suppliers bargaining power in context of HBS is low enough. Hence, the organization is less concerned about this force.

Buyer power

It is a low force in terms of HBS. Annual growth of the education industry of the US is increasing over the year by 1.2% in terms of revenue. Thus it influences revenue, business, and employment of the country. In this context, it can be demonstrated that the number of buyers in the education industry is increasing day by day. Along with that, price elasticity is also influential here. As the level price elasticity is moderate in education service industry, this reduces the bargaining power of the buyer. Increasing number of buyers can create more demand for the products and services. Harvard Business School has no restriction regarding amount of buyers. Thus in the context of increasing number of buyers, increasing demand helps to lower the bargaining power. HBS is operating its business all over the world with the help of online medium. Thus it can help to increase buyer number due to reaching a large number of target customers internationally.

Threat of substitution

Existing, as well as new organizations, are trying to substitute the service and product of HBS. Buyers are always intended to buy desired product at a lower cost. Different new organizations are offering products at much lower cost in order to substitute existing service. In this context, Harvard Business School is facing serious issue regarding threat of substitution. If the price of substitute products is much lower, it can increase the threat of switching of buyers. Buyers’ propensity to substitute is the extent for those who are always willing to consider different suppliers. Hence, this can be considered a strong force.

Threat of new entry

In education, industry competition is growing day by day. Existing, as well as new emerging organizations, are taking entry in the education industry in order to provide different educational products and services. In terms of initial capital, around $40000 is required to start service. Copyright Act 1976 is applicable here to avoid the infringement of copyright. Another threat in this context is the chances of imitation of products. However, it is a low force as products imitation will be subjected to copyright infringement. In terms of distribution channels, HBS can face certain challenge from new entrants as products can be served through online channels.

Competitive rivalry

Due to increasing number of competition, product substitution, and entry of new threat, competitive rivalry increases automatically. Due to increasing number of competitors like NCES and others along with product substitution in the United States, Harvard Business School is facing serious competition in order to achieve organizational success. Increasing number of competition leads to decreased product differentiation. Increasing industry rivalry leads to excess capacity of products and services. This includes APE, ARCL and FCC which makes this force strong enough for HBS.

Identification and Analysis

Harvard Business School is facing some major issues regarding identification of primary customers. Harvard Business School has two different types of organizational model regarding supply of products and services. The main problem for both of these charts is proper identification of primary customers.

Identification of primary customer

Regarding the first structure, secondary organizations who are mainly concerned about the organizational structure or faculty members can be the primary customer. This organizational chart is comprised of faculty unit which is playing one of the most important parts.

In the context of second structural chart, students or the people need educational materials can be the primary customer. Students are only interested in direct educational materials. They are not concerned about the structure of the organization or faculty members. So according to the second organizational chart students can be the primary customers.

Organizational chart which will serve the best for HBS

According to the first chart Harvard Business School requires a large number of workforces in order to maintain the overall structure. Faculty unit is one of the main parts of the chart. Faculty unit requires different people with knowledge in various educational areas such as finance, accounting, strategy, and others. Thus it requires selection and recruitment of a large number of efficient people for guidance.

In the second organizational chart, there is no need for faculty unit because it will directly deal with support system and educational programs. Thus there is no requirement of faculty unit. According to this chart, it can be easier to manage the whole process because of less amount of workforce. There is no need for concern regarding recruitment and selection process of proficient faculty members. Thus in this context, it can be demonstrated that the second organizational chart is more effective and beneficial for Harvard Business School. This second chart will serve the best for HBS due to less complex management system.

Recommendation

Harvard Business School is facing some serious issues such as identification of primary customers, determination of value of each research, and recruitment and selection of efficient faculty member. Administration of Harvard Business School can mitigate such issues with the help of proper strategies. In order to determining exact value of each research they can do specific market analysis. This will allow the organization to identify the trends of the market. Based on that, they can specializing their faculties as well as departments. It is also applicable for them to determine the educational program. Based on customer analysis they can focus on their faculties which will ensure value of their products and services. In context of administrations, the company can adopt hierarchical structure. This will consists of different functions based on organizational requirements. Second chart of the organization is focusing towards the customer interaction policies considering layers and procedures through which customer communication can be maintained in the company. According to the second chart there is no need of faculty unit because they are directly dealing with support members and customers. It makes the entire process easier in terms of customer interaction. In order to mitigate the issue of identification of primary customer HBS needs to analyze customer point of view, individual need of the customer, market analysis, purchasing trends, and customer behavior. Administration of HBS needs to acknowledge specific target customer as well as their need to determine range of products and services.