BM561 Business Consulting: Fairfield Business School Analysis

This report provides consulting services to Fairfield Business School, addressing their business challenges through environmental and competitor analysis. It identifies the increasing competition in the higher education industry as a key problem and explores the viability of introducing specialist qualifications to enhance their product portfolio. The report uses Porter's Five Forces to analyze competitive rivalry, buyer power, supplier power, threat of new entrants, and the threat of substitution. STP analysis focuses on segmentation, targeting employees seeking higher education, and positioning Fairfield Business School as a supportive institution. SWOT analysis identifies strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats, while PEST analysis examines political, economic, social, and technological factors impacting the school. Recommendations include adopting a marketing strategy to attract employees and offering specialist courses to enhance their professional credibility.

Business
Consulting
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Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
Problem of client....................................................................................................................3
Competitor’s analysis.............................................................................................................3
STP analysis...........................................................................................................................5
SWOT Analysis......................................................................................................................5
PEST Analysis........................................................................................................................6
Recommendations..................................................................................................................7
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................8
REFRENCES...................................................................................................................................9
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INTRODUCTION
This report involves providing consulting services to Fairfield business school on ways to
solve their business problem. This is completed by conducting environmental analysis and
competitor’s analysis of the client and recommending solutions for their business problem. In
addition to his SWOT analysis is also used for providing effective consultancy service to the
client.
MAIN BODY
Problem of client
Fairfield business school is a community based learning institution which has premises
located in Birmingham and London. The company is known to be one of the best institutes for
seeking higher education in field of business. The company has created a multicultural and
inclusive environment so that students of all backgrounds are able to gain quality higher
education services.
The competition in higher education industry is increasing as apart from London school
of science and technology many new organizations have entered this industry. It is important that
Fairfield school of business takes action to improve competitive positioning in order to survive
during the rise of competition in the higher education industry of United Kingdom.
In order to deal with the rising competition in the UK higher education sector, the
company is focusing on enhancing the product portfolio by including new specialist professional
course to attract more students. This decision is taken with the aim of improving competition
position of the company.
The specialist course which will be added to the product portfolio of Fairfield business
school include the ACCA or CIMA which are specialist qualifications. The problem of the client
is to understand the viability of introducing specialist qualifications which are not offered by
other organizations. Research and external environment analysis emphasising market positioning
of the company can help determine the suitability of product portfolio expansion.
Competitor’s analysis
Porter’s Five forces analysis
Competitive Rivalry
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The first element of the Porter's five forces analysis looks at the level of competitive intensity in
an industry (De Haan, Donner and Swaan, 2018). This refers to the number of competitors
present in them industry and their ability in gaining market share which reduces no market share
of each individual company. In context of the UK higher education industry, the level of
competition is high. The Reason for such a competitive intensity is the number of players present
in the UK higher education industry which include London School of science and technology,
Regent college, Richmond University and BPP University.
Buyer’s power
The ability of consumers to affect on the prices of a product in a specific industry is
looked at the second element of the Porter's five forces analysis. In context of riot dictation
industry in UK the level of bias power is high because of the presence of alternatives to buyers.
Students not only have alternatives in the form of high competition in the UK high education
industry but also can gain their higher education through virtual and online classes are available.
This increases their price into duty and power over organization in the UK higher education
industry.
Supplier’s Power
The power of suppliers in the industry refers to the ability of suppliers to affect on price
of a product. In higher education industry this applies power is high because the suppliers are
mainly the staff and higher education faculty. The actually provides educational services to
students and There is not an abundance in talented teaching staff in United Kingdom which
increases the individual power of each teacher over organizations.
Threat of New entrants
The ability of new companies to easily enter the market and actors head to the market
share of existing organizations first to the threat of new entrants. There is a low threat of new
entrants in the UK education industry because of various entry barriers such as high capital
investment and legislative barriers.
Threat of substitution
The substitute product is defined as an alternative product or service which fulfills the
same demand of the consumers (Ian, 2018). Online and go jewel educational courses I'm not a
perfect substitute two higher education in United Kingdom because of lack of student teacher
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interaction but still can be used by student for substitution to enrollment in higher education
organizations. This makes the power of substitution in UK education industry moderate.
STP analysis
Segmentation
This part of the model looks at the different consumer segmentations which are suitable for the
product of the company. Employees who are looking for continuing their higher education and
gaining completing professional specialist courses our target segment for Fairfield Business
School. This segmentation is identified through demographic segmentation divides consumer on
the basis of their occupation profession or income level (Magalhaes and Roseira, 2020).
Targeting
Employees who are looking to continue their higher education or a suitable target demographic
for the professional specialist courses offered by Fairfield Business School because they will be
looking for affordable courses as well as a supportive environment to continue their education
while being a part of a workforce.
Positioning
Fairfield Business School needs to position itself as a organization which helps employees
continue their education and provides support during distance education courses
SWOT Analysis
Strengths Weaknesses
 The intercultural and inclusive
brand image created by the
company is the strength of the
organization.
 Fairfield Business School has
the strength of affordable
higher education services and
supportive environment (What
makes us different, 2021).
 The respective educational organization is not
famous and known on a global scale for
providing quality higher education services
which is a weakness.
 The lack of availability of human resources in
order to launch new professional specialist
courses in the university is a weakness of the
company.
Threats Opportunities
 High competition in the UK  Fairfield Business School has the opportunity to
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higher education industry is a
threat to Fairfield Business
School.
 The increasing consumer
preference towards online
education is a threat to
traditional education offered
by Fairfield Business School.
offer students specialist professional courses and
attract larger number of consumer base.
 The breakthrough organization has the
opportunity to offer students horses in field
which are not offered by other universities to
increase profitability.
PEST Analysis
Political Factors
UK higher education universities are affected by Brexit.
Positive Impact
The implementation of Brexit increase difficulties of UK based tends to gain education in
European Union which is beneficial for UK colleges because it increases dependency of UK
students domestic educational institutions.
Negative Impact
The implementation of Brexit has created labor shortage in United Kingdom as European Union
employees are not able to freely travel to the country which increases difficulty for Fairfield
Business School in hiring talented teaching staff for providing professional specialist education.
Economical Factor
The economic downturn in UK has impact on educational institution of the country.
Positive Impact
The slowdown of economy can motivate students to choose professional specialist courses in
order to increase their employability and benefit Fairfield Business School in introducing
professional specialist courses.
Negative Impact
The negative impact of slow economy in United Kingdom because of the pandemic is that it
reduces purchasing power of the consumer and students.
Social Factor
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The rising consumer preference towards learning specialist courses is a social trend affecting
higher education companies (Rengifurwarin, Akib and Salam, 2018).
Positive Impact
Fairfield Business School will be able to benefit from this social trend by offering professional
specialist courses.
Negative Impact
The competition present in UK higher education industry can act as a threat to the success of
professional specialist courses offered by Fairfield Business School.
Technological Factor
The rise of online education effect higher education institution in United Kingdom.
Positive Impact
The Fairfield Business School will benefit through this trend as the company provides virtual
education to students.
Negative Impact
The prediction model of education offered by Fairfield Business School will suffer a loss
because of increasing trend of online education in United Kingdom.
Recommendations
 It is recommended that the Fairfield Business School adopts a marketing strategy which
helps attract employees through the professional specialist courses offered by the company.
This these are justified recommendation because it will help the company attract target
consumer base of employees.
 The company is recommended to offered provisional specialist courses which increase
professional credibility of employees in different industries because it will attract the target
demographic of working employees who are seeking to continue their higher education and
gain professional certification and credibility.
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CONCLUSION
From the above report it is concluded that conducting an environment analysis using
tools such as PEST and SWOT supports determining effective solutions for the client. In
addition to this application of Porter’s five forces analysis tool for competitive analysis also
determine the current situation of the company which helps give suitable recommendation for the
future of the client.
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REFRENCES
Books and Journals
De Haan, E., Donner, C. and Swaan, N., 2018. The consulting process as drama: learning
from King Lear. Routledge.
Ian, S., 2018. The Ultimate Route to Market: How Technology Professionals Can Work
Successfully with Global Systems Integrators, Outsourcers and Consulting Firms. Routledge.
Magalhaes, G. and Roseira, C., 2020. Open government data and the private sector: An
empirical view on business models and value creation. Government Information
Quarterly. 37(3). p.101248.
Rengifurwarin, Z. A., Akib, H. and Salam, R., 2018. Snapshot of public service quality in the
center for integrated business service (CIBS), cooperative micro small and medium
enterprises (CMSME), Maluku Province, Indonesia. Journal of Entrepreneurship
Education. 21(3). pp.1-12.
Online
What makes us different, 2021. [Online] Available through < https://fsb.ac.uk/what-makes-us-
different>
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