Business Level Strategies for IDP Education

Running head: BUSINESS MANAGEMENT
Business Management
Name of Student
Name of University
Author Note

1
BUSINESS MANAGEMENT
Week 10
Introduction
Business level strategies are detailed actions that are taken to provide value to the
customers and ensure that a competitive advantage is gained in the market. It is usually
applied in organisations that deal with the development of products and services so that it can
have an advantage in the existing market of business (Mackay and Zundel 2017). Business
level strategies can be of different types that are used as per requirement of the business. The
essay focuses on two business level strategies that IDP Education, an institute that provides
opportunities for the development of IELTS coaching and tests, usually utilises for enhancing
its current business model (Idp.com. 2019).
Two business level strategies that companies utilise
Cost leadership: Cost leadership implies offering the best prices that can be related
with the products. In the modern world, globalised markets ensure that prices become a
significant factor for success. In the case of IDP Education, the institute may indulge in
providing the IELTS coaching to the Australian students at a cheaper rate than its
competitors. As observed by Leonidou et al. (2015) the prices are usually affected based on
the equipments required for providing the courses to the students. Therefore, the application
of the cost leadership strategy can help IDP Education to identify the correct prices required
for providing coaching in IELTS so competitive advantage can be gained in the education
industry over rival companies like The Test of English as Foreign Language (TOEFL),
Occupational English Test (OET) and so on.
Differentiation: This particular business level strategy can be considered as important
for IDP Education as the courses such as accounting, business, economic and law are also

2
BUSINESS MANAGEMENT
provided by its rivals (Idp.com. 2019). Therefore, differentiation needs to prevail either in the
approach towards imparting the course or in terms of pricing and longevity of the courses
(Uhl and Gollenia 2016). For example, IDP Education can provide a practise test for its
IELTS courses in the form of audio recording that provides the students with the answers
relevant for passing the examination. This can be worthwhile for the students as they need to
pay about AUD$340 for booking the test.
Development of blue ocean strategy
In this regard, a Blue Ocean Strategy can be developed that can help in determining
the factors that may affect the development of IDP Education. As stated by Kim and
Mauborgne (2017) blue ocean strategy is a marketing theory that helps in creating an
advantage for the value of the companies. In the case of IDP Education the development of
the IELTS coaching classes can be considered for the development of the value elements that
may be used for developing the blue ocean strategy.
The competitors identified for the development of the blue ocean strategy includes:
TOEFL, OET and Pearson Test of English (PTE). These tests provide similar opportunities to
the students to score and gain recognition for possible future success. The competitive factors
that are considered as value elements for the tests are ranked on the scale of 1-10 with 10
being the highest. For example, while IELTS starts courses from AUD$340, TOEFL costs
AUD$170. Therefore, TOEFL costs rate is lower which means that the pries are favourable
for the children. The canvas map is presented:
Value Element IELTS TOEFL OET PTE
Price 6 8 6 7
Coaching classes 7 4 5 6
Learning environment 5 7 7 4