Business Consulting for LSST: Analysis of Competitors, Target Market and External Factors

This report provides an analysis of business consulting for LSST, focusing on the problems faced by the organization, areas of importance such as competitors and target customer market, and external factors. The report also identifies the top three issues faced by LSST.

Business Consulting

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
TASK...............................................................................................................................................3
Clarify who is client and what is the problem they are facing...............................................3
Critically analysing and presenting the areas of importance to clients such as competitors,
target customer market and influencing factors from external environment.........................3
What are the top three issues which are faced by clients.......................................................6
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................7
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................8

INTRODUCTION
Business consulting is a procedure of providing professional advice to individual, group or
organization. The expert advice are provided in particular area such as human resources, finance
control, accountancy, management, security, law and many others. The main motive business
consultants are to provide guidance to companies so that they can accomplish goals and objective
effectively and gain competitive advantage in market (Dong, 2020). Business consultant is
important for firm as they focus on improving its performance and efficiency. The project
highlights about business consulting in which different problems which are faced by organization
is discussed. The chosen organization for this report is LSST, it is privately managed college
which generally provide knowledge and learning benefits to their students so that they can gain
career advancement opportunity. LSST has also expanded their business in Luton, Birmingham
and London. The College is specialized in IT, Health, business management and social care
courses.
TASK
Clarify who is client and what is the problem they are facing
The main client is London School of Science and Technology but they have hired HR
officer to deal with the issues on behalf of organization. The senior management of LSST has
decided to increase its product portfolio and also introduce their next academic year professional
specialist qualification that are related to accounting and finance subject. Issue which is faced by
LSST is lack of highly skilled lecturer of accounting and finance. The college has also requested
to its Human resource department to identify the specialized and qualified academic staff by
aiming at ACCA and CIMA certificates. The main motive of college is to attract the candidate
who has degree in ACCA and CIMA. In order to attract educators, the college is including
appropriate hygienic and motivating factors for meeting their requirements (Jokakuu, 2018).
Critically analysing and presenting the areas of importance to clients such as competitors, target
customer market and influencing factors from external environment
Competitor analysis
Strength:
The Strength of LSST is that they are specialized in providing IT, business management,
Health and social care courses. The motive of college is to enhance the knowledge of students so

that they can achieve great height of success. LSST also focus on providing flexible timetable to
their students so that they can fit their studies with their responsibility. They also offer quality
learning experience to individuals (Kindl and Casais, 2019). LSST is known for student centered
nature due to which their staff also provides direct one to one support to their students. The
college delivers the qualifications at levels 3, 4, 5 and 6.
Weakness:
The weakness of LSST is to recruit highly talented employees who have expertise
knowledge of accounting and finance. They focus on hiring the staff who have certificates in
ACCA and CIMA. LSST have lack of professionals for accounting and finance subject which
influence the performance and productivity of college.
Opportunities:
Opportunity which can be gain by LSST is to recruit talented employees in order to
overcome the weakness of lack of accounting and finance professionals. It is important for LSST
to hire highly qualified candidates who can share their knowledge and improve the career aspects
of students. The other opportunity which can be grab by college is to increase their brand
awareness by promoting and marketing their product portfolio and campus (Meijer, Straub and
Mlecnik, 2018). They must also focus on developing positive working environment so that staff
can contribute their better performance and foster learning environment in campus.
Threat:
The threat which can be faced by LSST is high competition in market. LSST have several
competitors who also provide various courses to students at affordable price. It is important for
college to identify the strategies and moves of competitors so that they can frame strategies
accordingly and gain competitive advantage in market.
Target customer market
Segmentation:
Segmentation is a process of dividing a group of people on the basis of their interest and
characteristics. There are various factors of segmentation such as demographics, psychographic,
geographic and behavioral (Moses, 2019).
Demographic: Demographic segmentation mainly divides the group on the basis of age,
education, occupation and gender. LSST focuses on 18-30 age of students who have interest in
their courses.

Geographic: In this, the group is divided on the basis of country, city or religion. LSST
welcomes all countries and cities of students which also helps in improving its brand image and
gives an opportunity to expand their business.
Psychographic: In psychographic segmentation, he group is divided into lifestyle, values and
personality (Mullany, 2020). LSST generally focus on enrolling students who have knowledge of
the courses and know where they can build career.
Behavioral: In behavioral segmentation, the behaviour of students are determined while studying
course and enrolling in campus.
Targeting:
Targeting generally means dividing students in small groups on the basis of their interest
and the course which they offered. LSST targets students of 18-30 age. The college also focuses
on targeting the students who want to carry their studies while doing part time jobs.
Positioning:
In London, the position of LSST is strong due to which they can attract and retain their
students by offering various types of courses. For gaining competitive advantage in market,
company also promote their product portfolio through advertising and magazines (Nikolaevic,
2019).
External environment
Political factors:
Political factors are one of the important factor which must be analyzed by college while
running business in UK. It is necessary to identify the political determinants that can create an
impact on the performance and efficiency of LSST. In UK, there are certain laws and regulations
which are imposed by government, it is essential for college to implement those laws in order to
stay away from any legal conflicts (Nissen and et. al., 2019). Organization must focus on
maintaining positive relations with government of the country in which they are operating
business.
Economic factors:
There are various economic factors which influence the performance and profitability of
business such as inflation rate, labor, exchange rate, tax rate and many others. LSST must focus
on understanding the inflation rate of the country in which they are operating as it can create an

impact on the decision of students. If there is high inflation rate in London, the students doesn’t
enroll in campus for studying.
Social factors:
Social factors creates a great impact on the functioning of business there are several factors
which affects the performance of college such as wealth, religion, students attitude and
behaviors, etc (Ooi and Richardson, 2019). It is necessary for LSST to provide positive learning
environment to students that changes their behaviour while studying and make more proficient in
their respective courses.
Technological factor:
The technology factors also affect the performance and growth of college. It is important to
focus on implementing advance technology in order to sustain in market for long run. Due to
pandemic, colleges are adopting modern ways for teaching and making learn their students. They
are offering classes via online platforms so that they can encourage their students for studying.
LSST must also focus on implementing new technology and provide online classes to their
students.
Environmental factors:
Environmental factor also influence the productivity and brand image of company. LSST
is focused on reducing use of plastic within campus so that they can also participate in reducing
negative impact form environment (Rukuni, Maziriri and Mofoka, 2020).
Legal factors:
There are various laws and legislation which are passed by government in order to
maintain harmony and peace within organisation such as health and safety act 2010 and any
others laws. It is necessary for LSST to implement the laws in order to run business effectively
without facing any legal disputes.
What are the top three issues which are faced by clients
 LSST is facing problem related to hiring highly qualified professionals who have
certificated in ACCA and CIMA. In order to meet their next year academic year
professional specialist qualification, they are focusing on recruiting expertise who can
provide knowledge to their students in accounting and finance subjects.
 The college is also facing issue related to providing working environment that
competitors do not offer to achieve the competitive advantage over its competitors. It is

necessary for LSST to provide better working environment to staff so that they can attract
highly skilled employees towards the campus.
 The other issue which is faced by LSST is to identify the ways for recruiting relevant
academic staff in the areas of accounting and financial management. LSST is facing
problem related to attracting employees into high education with right knowledge and
skills.
CONCLUSION
From the above information it is being concluded that business consultants plays a
significant role in providing guidance to company so that they can improve their business
performance and attract more students towards the college. Business consulting is a process of
planning, implementing and educating business. They generally focus on providing expertise in
specific market, identify the problem which is faced by company, initiate change, train
employees, supplement existing staff and also revive organization. Thus, the main role of
business consultant is to identify the problem and give appropriate solution.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Dong, L., 2020. Business Opportunity of Platform-based Automotive Consultancy Bridging the
European and the Chinese Markets (Doctoral dissertation, Wien).
Jokakuu, M.A., 2018. Assessing the Effectiveness of Management Consultancy in Operations of
Construction Firms: A Case of Willy Enterprises Ltd in Arusha Tanzania. Asian Business
Research Journal, 3, pp.26-32.
Kindl, E.M. and Casais, B., 2019. Motivations and perceived opportunities for partnerships
among international business consultancy firms. Review of International Business and
Strategy.
Meijer, F., Straub, A. and Mlecnik, E., 2018. Consultancy centres and pop-ups as local authority
policy instruments to stimulate adoption of energy efficiency by
homeowners. Sustainability, 10(8), p.2734.
Moses, L.G., 2019. Growing and Nurturing Your Evaluation Business When Your Independent
Consultancy Becomes an Employer. New Directions for Evaluation, 2019(164), pp.115-
126.
Mullany, L. ed., 2020. Professional Communication: Consultancy, Advocacy, Activism. Springer
Nature.
Nikolaevic, D.D., 2019. The role of trust in the Small Business-Consultancy Relationship: The
case of St. Petersburg.
Nissen, V. and et. al., 2019. On the current state of digital transformation in the German market
for business consulting. In Advances in Consulting Research (pp. 317-339). Springer,
Cham.
Ooi, S.M. and Richardson, C., 2019. The internationalisation of service-sector SMEs in an
emerging market: Insights from business training and consultancy firms in
Malaysia. Review of International Business and Strategy.
Rukuni, T., Maziriri, E. and Mofoka, T., 2020. Social Media Strategies on Brand Awareness at a
Small Business Consultancy Firm in South Africa.