Business Analysis Report and Reflection: McGraw-Hill Education Project

This report provides a comprehensive business analysis of McGraw-Hill Education, focusing on the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic. The first part of the report includes a project case study and explores the business problems faced by the company, such as school closures, the shift to digital learning, and the need for online content. It utilizes a PESTEL analysis to assess the macro-environmental factors impacting the company. Strategic solutions are then proposed, including a focus on digital education, digital content development, expanding online content offerings, and enhancing resources. The second part of the report offers a reflective analysis of the learning experience, utilizing Kolb's reflective cycle to evaluate the use of key skills in the initial learning process and the analysis of the business case. The reflection covers the application of communication skills, teamwork, and problem-solving within the group project context. The report concludes with an evaluation of working in the class and the use of action plans for skill development.

Report and Reflection

Table of Contents
PART 1............................................................................................................................................1
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................1
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................4
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................5
PART 2............................................................................................................................................7
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................7
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................7
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................9
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................11

PART 1
INTRODUCTION
Business Analysis refers to analysing the overall business in the right manner using the
appropriate methods as well as techniques (Grant, 2016). It can be very useful in finding out
more about a particular business in a highly effective manner. Its use is very important from the
point of view of the firms to analyse their problems and issues which they are facing in the
business effectively and efficiently. This report is based on McGraw-Hill Education. It is a
company which provides educational content to the various customers in the market. In this
assignment, focus will be made on summary of the project case study, exploration of the
business problem. Additionally, specific analysis will be made on impact of potential strategic
solutions as a part of this assignment.
MAIN BODY
Project Case Study-
McGraw-Hill Education is a company which provides a wide variety of educational
content to its different customers in the market. Due to the impact of COVID-19 there are
various challenges which the company has been facing. After the impact of COVID-19 pandemic
the situation created for the company in its macro-environment is as follows-
PESTEL analysis-
Political factors- These factors create an impact due to the changing political situations
(Komarova and et.al., 2019). The political dynamics have witnessed a change in different
countries after COVID-19 which impacts the business of McGraw-Hill Education.
Economic factors- The economic conditions have witnessed a change after the impact of
COVID-19 pandemic. Therefore the business of McGraw-Hill Education has witnessed an
impact due to this as the company has suffered loss of business.
Social factors- After the impact created by COVID-19 pandemic there have been a lot of
social changes. The business of McGraw-Hill Education has witnessed an impact as a result
because the company has to face the changing social dynamics.
Technological factors- The changing technology affects different people in the market.
Therefore the impact of technology has been seen after the COVID-19 pandemic as the focus has
been put on online learning as well making the use of technology in an enhanced manner in
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Education. Therefore the business of McGraw-Hill Education has seen an impact due to these
factors.
Environmental factors- Nowadays the customers are conscious towards the
environment. After COVID-19 pandemic, there has been a rise in consciousness towards the
environment from the customers. Thus McGraw-Hill Education has to incorporate changes in its
environmental policies as a result.
Legal factors- Every company needs to respect the law of the country in which it is
operating. McGraw-Hill Education has to adjust its operations according to a change in the laws
of the different countries.
Exploration of the business problem-
Due to the impact of COVID-19 the companies have been facing various types of
problems. Some of these problems have been identified as follows-
 Closure of the schools and universities- The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in many
schools and universities being closed in different countries. They have been operating on
online mode only since the pandemic has started and thus the students are being provided
online education only. Thus due to this reason an impact has been seen on McGraw-Hill
Education's business as it has seen a reduction.
 Digital learning- Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, a detailed focus has to be put on
digital learning. Therefore digital learning has been a challenge for McGraw-Hill
Education's business. This has impacted the business of the company because earlier the
company used to deal only in offline content for education.
 Online content- The impact of COVID-19 pandemic has seen online content getting
popular among the students. Therefore due to this reason McGraw-Hill Education's
business has been impacted. It is due to the reason that the availability of online content
with the company was very limited earlier.
 Availability of resources- The COVID-19 pandemic has forced the companies to
consider the situation of their resource availability. Due to this reason McGraw-Hill
Education's resources have been impacted and there is a low availability of the resources
with the company to cope up with the situation which has been created by the pandemic.
Strategic solutions-
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Different types of strategic solutions are available for the company to use so that the
business problems can be solved effectively and efficiently. The strategic solutions for McGraw-
Hill Education's problems due to COVID-19 pandemic are as follows-
 Digital education- A strategic solution which has been adopted by schools and
universities since the advent of COVID-19 pandemic is that digital education has been
given preference by schools, universities and students (Williamson, 2016). Therefore
McGraw-Hill Education has an option of diverting its resources more on Digital
education which will help a lot in attracting students towards it during this time.
 Digital content- Digital learning has a lot of challenges. One of them is the availability
of digital content (Galimova and et.al., 2019). Thus, In this manner McGraw-Hill
Education can focus on making more digital content available for the students which will
help them a lot in Digital learning.
 Expanding the online content- As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic the focus of the
firms has been on the expansion of their educational content to stay relevant in the market
in this dynamic situation. Thus, McGraw-Hill Education can put its focus on ensuring
that the online content can be expanded by it in diverse fields of education to better serve
the students by making this content available for them.
 Enhancement of resources- The COVID-19 pandemic has led towards problems related
to resources in the organization (Aoyama, 2016). In the context of McGraw-Hill
Education it is quite important that the level of resources is enhanced so that the problem
related to availability of resources can be solved. It can be done by expanding the range
of educational content which is available with the company and providing a wide choice
of subjects which are available to the different customers.
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CONCLUSION
From the above report, it can be concluded that Business Analysis refers to doing a
proper analysis of the business organizations by making the right use of the available approaches
, techniques and methods. Project Case Study can be undertaken to find out more about a
particular company. The business problems related to the company can be explored after
understanding the Project Case Study. Different types of strategic solutions can be provided to
the organization so that it is able to solve its various problems in a highly effective manner.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals:
Grant, D., 2016. Business analysis techniques in business reengineering. Business Process
Management Journal. 22(1). pp.75-88.
Komarova, A. and et.al., 2019. Organisational educational systems and intelligence business
systems in entrepreneurship education. Journal of Entrepreneurship Education. 22(5).
pp.1-15.
Aoyama, M., 2016, November. Bridging the requirements engineering and business analysis
toward a unified knowledge framework. In International Conference on Conceptual
Modeling (pp. 149-160). Springer, Cham.
Williamson, B., 2016. Digital education governance: data visualization, predictive analytics, and
‘real-time’policy instruments. Journal of Education Policy. 31(2). pp.123-141.
Galimova, E. G. and et.al., 2019. Digital educational footprint as a way to evaluate the results of
students’ learning and cognitive activity in the process of teaching mathematics.
Eurasia Journal of Mathematics, Science and Technology Education. 15(8). p.em1732.
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PART 2
INTRODUCTION
Reflection refers to ensuring that the use of appropriate models and techniques is made so
that an overview of the past experience can be provided (Barrineau and et.al., 2016). It can be
quite useful for recounting one's own experience of the past. In this report, focus will be made on
reflecting on the use of key skills in the right manner in the initial learning in the unit and
analysis of business case of the project. It will identify how the use of key skills was made
appropriately so that the business case of the project was analysed effectively and efficiently.
MAIN BODY
Kolb's reflective cycle can be used for the purpose of providing a detailed reflection on
the past experience (Cavilla, 2017). The cycle has 4 different stages. These stages are explained
as follows-
 Concrete Experience- This refers to the experience of the past (Ghanizadeh, 2017). In
the university, we were given a group project to work on which was based on McGraw-
Hill Education company and the challenges which it is facing due to the COVID-19
pandemic. Initially I faced different problems as I had never worked in a team before.
Thus by working in a team I developed my communication skills as I had to use them a
lot to communicate with my different team members.
 Reflective Observation- This refers to reflecting on the experience. After working on the
group project I can say that the experience of working in a team was quite good for me. I
learned how to work well in a team and cooperate and coordinate in the right manner
with the other members of the team. I can say that this is quite useful in the achievement
of goals and objectives. Therefore in this way I ensured that I developed my working
with others skills since I learnt how to understand others in the right manner and
therefore cooperate and coordinate effectively with them to achieve the goals and
objectives of the project.
 Abstract Conceptualization- This refers to learning from the experience. After working
in the group project, I was able to conclude that working in a team can lead to an increase
in the overall level of efficiency, effectiveness and productivity easily. This also helps in
development of a person's personality in the right way leading toward goals and
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objectives. Thus I can say that working in a team for my group project in the university
was quite helpful for me in ensuring that I learnt the skill of problem-solving as while
working in a team we faced different problems and made the use of problem-solving
approaches to solve them in a highly effective manner.
 Active experimentation- This means planning out the way experience can be used in an
appropriate manner. Working in the group project I was able to enhance my ICT skills as
we had to make use of computers actively while working in this assignment. In the future
when I am involved in any group project I will make the use of these skills so that I am
able to work in a better manner with my team members for achieving the team goals and
objectives.
Evaluation of working in the class-
While working in the class we were divided into specific teams and were allocated
different tasks to perform while completing out group project (Healey and Jenkins, 2018). We
had to use Tuckman's team development theory so that we were able to work clearly on our goals
and objectives thereby achieving them. In the Forming Stage, we had to form a team comprising
of different members. In the Storming Stage, we began to understand each other and ensured that
we knew each other pretty well. In the Norming Stage, we identified each other's strengths
effectively so that the tasks were allocated accordingly. In the Performing Stage, we began to
perform in the right manner and thus completed our group project on time. In the Adjourning
stage, we had to disband the team as the goals and objectives for which the team was formed
were achieved. Thus in this way we were able to ensure that Team was able to complete its goals
and objectives easily by making the use of this model.
Use of Action plan-
Communication skills-
Goals Tasks to be performed
Specific More involvement in teamwork and group
work so that the communication with different
people can be done.
Measurable Setting particular targets and standards for the
purpose of communication which have to be
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completed in a set duration of time.
Attainable Tracking the performance in improvement of
communication through the use of Statistical
tools and techniques.
Relevant The use of relevant communication
improvement tools and techniques will be
made to improve communication skills.
Timely The improvement in communication skills will
be made within a time-period of 1 year.
Working with others-
Goals Tasks to be performed
Specific More involvement in teamwork and groupwork
by becoming a member of different teams
which are formed for group projects in the
university (Moore and et.al., 2019).
Measurable Setting of targets to be followed while working
in teams which will help a lot in the
achievement of specific goals and objectives.
Attainable Tracking of performance regularly by setting
particular target while working in the team.
Relevant Use of team development models and methods
will be made which will help a lot in learning
the way to work in a team.
Timely The improvement in Working with others skill
will be made within a specific time-period of 1
year.
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CONCLUSION
From the above report, it can be concluded that reflection is a skill through which a
person can reflect back on the experience of the past. Its use can be made in order to ensure that
the overall experience of the past can be recounted in an effective manner by making use of
appropriate methods as well as techniques.
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