BM561 Business Consulting: Strategic Analysis of FSB Challenges

This business consulting report identifies and analyzes the key challenges faced by Fairfield School of Business (FSB) in its HR and marketing departments. The report focuses on the recruitment and retention of qualified staff, branding, and effective marketing strategies, particularly in the digital space. It employs industry analysis tools such as Porter's Five Forces and PESTLE analysis to assess the competitive landscape and external factors influencing FSB. The report highlights the importance of cost-effective strategies, differentiation, and targeted marketing to attract and retain students. It concludes by emphasizing the need for a strong HR and marketing foundation to achieve a competitive edge through consultancy services and digital marketing, enabling FSB to target wider market segments while focusing on niche areas.

BUSINESS CONSULTING

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................1
1. Identification of the clients and the problems that are faced by them.....................................1
2. Analysing and presenting the areas of importance to the client..............................................1
3. Top three issues that are faced by the client............................................................................4
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................4
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................5

INTRODUCTION
The current report is undertaken to highlight the issues that are faced by the higher
education providers in terms of human resource and the marketing segment. The major problem
is with the recruitment of the skilled employees in the organization who can provide the efficient
services to attract the clients to the education centres. The other major concern is related to the
training, development and the retention of the employees in the school. The other part of the
issue is the application of the efficient marketing techniques and providing the proper
consultancy services so that the target lot of the customers can be attracted to the organization
and the competitive advantage can be derived.
MAIN BODY
1. Identification of the clients and the problems that are faced by them
Client 1: The client 1 is the human resource department of the Fairfield School of Business that
is FSB-HR. The FSB is the provider of the higher education services and learnings and is facing
the major issue with the recruitment of the highly qualified employees in the business who have
the right skills, knowledge of the field and who are talented enough to participate in then
research work (Nissen, Nissen and Rauscher, 2019). Apart from that they are capable of
developing the career of the students so that the major proportion of the target audiences are
capitalized by the company. Further if the talented lot is being employed in the organization then
the other major goal is to train, develop and retain them for a longer period so that they can better
serve the education institution.
Client 2: The client 2 is the marketing department of the Fairfield School of Business which is
FSB- Marketing that is also facing severe problems with the branding and publicizing the image
of the education institute. They want the best applicants and students to enrol for the school and
retain the existing lot of students by efficiently meeting the customer needs and requirements.
The other major issue is related to entering the digital market segment to generate the brand
awareness of the products and services. The engagement of the social media, recommendations
from the alumni and promoting the diversity are some major solutions to the client problems that
are faced. Also undertaking the effective consultation shall be leading to widening of the market
and target lot of customers.
2. Analysing and presenting the areas of importance to the client
Industry Analysis
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COMPETITION STRATEGIES
Cost- In order to successfully provide the educational services the FSB has to lower down the
costs and the annual tariff from the students so that the affordability increases. This way they can
maximize the market share through the penetration pricing strategies.
Differentiation- The differentiation competitive strategy will better help the institute in
executing the plans and conquering market to get competitive advantage. In this the management
can diversify the portfolio, recruit the talented employee who can provide varied services for the
career development and optimize the operations with the use of better technology.
Focus- The focus strategy can be applied by limiting the target segments and developing the
focus over the niche market segments. In this way they choose the specific fields at the higher
education level.
PORTER'S FIVE FRAMEWORK
Bargaining power of buyers- The buyers of the educational service are the students who are
highly career oriented and have the best possible options in terms of the foreign ducationa;
institutes, distance learning etc. In this case the bargaining power of the buyers shall be more and
with this the best services has to be offered to them.
Bargaining power of suppliers- The suppliers for these institutes are the teachers and the
infrastructure and they are also not easily available. The institutes have to strive hard for
recruiting the talented staff in the company (Yunyi, Nontasak and Markwardt, 2018). So the
bargaining power of the suppliers is also high.
Threat of new entrants- The threat of new entrants is also but restricted to those who possess the
certified degrees, licenses, credentials and the certificates. So the existing competitors must try to
build the barriers for the entry of the new participants.
Threat of substitutes- The other variants that can substitute the efficiency of the educational
institutes are online tutorials, programs, summer courses, life experiences which are all the part if
the mixed menus that are available as the alternative option (Porter’s Five Forces: Focus on
Higher Education Marketing, 2019).
Rivalry among existing competitors- There are existing competitors that are the threat to the
survival of the business which can be tackled either by acquiring the leadership in the cost,
differentiation or the focus segment.
TARGET CUSTOMERS
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Segmentation- The target market of the business is to be divided into the equitable segments
based on the geographic, demographic, psychological segments etc. So that the products and
services are accordingly marketed and they are separately been catered.
Targeting- The target market are the medium to high income group, those who are belonging to
the educated and the ethical background contributing to the building of the brand for the enriched
value system.
Positioning- The positioning of the brand shall be undertaken by promoting the qualified faculty
and the career development practices that are conducted by the company.
MARKETING
The marketing forms the major function that needs to be followed by the educational
institute as this shall be boosting the brand awareness and this shall be helping in attracting the
new enrolments of the students and also retain the existing ones (Malikova, 2020). Efficient
consultancy services shall be convincing the parents that the future of the kids are secure with the
institute. Majorly since nowadays the digital marketing campaigns are being conducted so that
the promotions can reach the wider target customers in the real time and the effective results are
being conducted. The most significant digital marketing strategies involve developing an
optimized company website so that the online admissions can be facilitated, the other can be
promoting the services with the most trending social media applications, publish the internet
advertisements, select the keywords to attract the crowd and use the alumni meets for the
recommendations and generating the positive word of mouth.
PESTLE ANALYSIS
Political- The political environment of the educational institutes is very complicated as is
affected by the change in the policies and the regulations of the government. Apart from that it
can also be identified that the higher education providers has the major restrictions in terms of
the fairness, equality in the treatment, highly qualified staff, changes in the curriculum with the
short lead time etc. Also, with the implementation of the Brexit policies the educational institutes
have been highly impacted.
Economic- In the economic environment as well the change in the interest rates of the
educational loans, purchasing power of the parents, economic stability, employment rates,
inflation rates in the market are all the major determinants of the enrolments that shall take place
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in the school. Also the participation in the extra curricular activities shall be dependent on the
incomes.
Social- The changing trends and the expectations are also one of the important factors that are
duly liable for the changing demands in the educational institutes. The inclination of the society
towards the high education requirements and independence are contributing positively.
Technological- The advancement in the technology and promotions through the use of the
digital marketing tools shall be effectively developing the operational efficiency for the business.
3. Top three issues that are faced by the client
The top three issues for the Fairfield School of Business are:-
1. The first and the most significant issue is regarding the recruitment and the selection of
the highly qualified staff in the enterprise who can provide efficient career development
services through the skills and knowledge as possessed by them (Pang, He and Cai,
2019).
 The other major problem is related to the laws and legislations as imposed by the
government of the country on the pattern of the education services. The regulations as
related to the higher education, fairness and the equality of the services and the age bar to
leave the school.
 Lastly is the effective marketing of the services through the means of the digital
marketing tools like social media platforms, optimized website and the internet ads. Also
effective consultancy services shall be helping the company in developing the
competitive advantage in the market.
CONCLUSION
From the above project it can be concluded that in order to achieve the competitive edge
in the market the human resource and the marketing department are to be strongly built. With the
due help of the consultancy services and the digital marketing the company can target the wider
market segments while keeping the focus on the niche segment and targeting and positioning
through the cost and differentiation strategy.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Pang, Y., He, Y. and Cai, H., 2019. Business model of distributed photovoltaic energy
integrating investment and consulting services in China. Journal of Cleaner
Production. 218. pp.943-965.
Malikova, D., 2020. Consulting services market of Uzbekistan. World Scientific News. 145.
pp.168-179.
Yunyi, J., Nontasak, N. and Markwardt, R., 2018. Consulting Services Needed for Chinese
Investors to Develop Business in Rayong Province, Thailand. HRD JOURNAL. 9(2).
pp.54-63.
Nissen, V., Nissen, V. and Rauscher, 2019. Advances in consulting research. Springer
International Publishing.
Online
Porter’s Five Forces: Focus on Higher Education Marketing. 2019. [Online] Available through:
<https://tempostrategic.com/porters-five-forces-impact-higher-education-marketing/>
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