BM561 Business Consulting: LSST Portfolio Management & Market Presence

This report clarifies the challenges faced by London School of Science and Technology (LSST), specifically the Birmingham campus, regarding expanding their product portfolio by introducing ACCA and CIMA courses. It breaks down the problem using STP model, PEST analysis, and Porter's Five Forces to understand the market environment, competitive landscape, and external factors influencing LSST. The report identifies the top three issues: increasing product portfolio, hiring qualified teachers, and high market competition. It concludes that regular analysis of internal and external factors is crucial for organizational productivity and profitability. The analysis includes segmentation, targeting, and positioning strategies, political, economic, social, and technological factors, and threats from new entrants, bargaining power of buyers and suppliers, substitute goods, and existing competitors.

BUSSINES
CONSULTING

Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Main Body.......................................................................................................................................3
Clarification of client and their main issue.................................................................................3
Break down of problem...............................................................................................................3
Top three issues of the client.......................................................................................................6
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................7
References........................................................................................................................................8

Introduction
Business consultancy is the process of understanding business issues well and make
corrective actions to mitigate those issues in such a manner where they can satisfy their clients
(Kindl and Casais, 2019). There are various kinds of business issues in different kinds of
businesses which can be analysed by scanning existing environment of the business and
matching it with marketing demands and needs. London School of Science and Technology
(LSST) was founded in 2003 by Mr Syed Zaidi. This college have four campuses in Wembley,
Elephant & Castle, Luton and Birmingham. Presently, it has around 4000 students studying
different courses like Business and Management, IT and Computer, and Health and Social Care.
The following report covers clarification of client and their main issue, break down of problem
and top three issues of the client.
Main Body
Clarification of client and their main issue
The client name is Harpreet Kaur and he is the Dean of LSST Aston Birmingham
Campus. The main issues of the client is they want to increase their product portfolio which
means they want to introduce new courses in their college to gain more admissions. They have
planned to introduce ACCA or CIMA course which is a highly specialised course in
management field. Hence, the main issue of the client is that they are facing problem to hire
qualified teachers for these coaching in their college which will help them to gain competitive
advantage by providing excellent learning techniques to students and help students to build their
professional careers. This will further aims to develop their brand image in market and reduce
the impact of their competitors strategies on their colleges.
Break down of problem
The problem of LSST college can be break down into few marketing models to make it easier to
understand and find how the issue is impacting upon college.
STP model- This marketing model is used to analyse marketing environment by targetting
customers from various segments and analyse how they will get aware about the product and
services (Ma, Pu and Wang, 2021).

Segmentation- This is the process of dividing market into various segments so that
company can understanding which segment is beneficial for them to select their targeted
customers. In context of LSST, they can segment their market into following groups-
 Geographical segmentation- They can segment their students for Wembley, Elephant &
Castle, Luton and Birmingham.
 Psychological segmentation- They can segment their customers for those students which
are more focused to learn management specialisation courses and have loyalty toward the
college to complete their academic task on time in a proper manner.
 Demographical segmentation- They can also segment their market for both genders
male and females and all religion and cultural students are also segmented by the college.
Targeting- This is the process where company select one or few segments from various
alternatives of segments in the market (Sutanti and et. al., 2018). In context of LSST, they can
target those students for their new courses which are studying in Birmingham because this issues
is related to Birmingham campus of LSST. They can target both gender male and female for
their new course and must target those students and influence their parents to opt for ACCA or
CIMA course by providing them details about benefit of this new course for better future.
Positioning- This is the process which is related to aware targeted customers about the
products and services of a specific company. In context of LSST college, they can aware
students by promoting their new courses well and hire qualified and popular known teachers for
teaching these courses so that the parents of students will trust more. Secondly, they can also
provide a Demo Class of their new course where they can teach those students for 2-3 days about
the course of ACCA or CIMA. This will help students to make a decision whether the college's
teaching style is helpful for them or not which will further help them to make the decision of
their admission in LSST college.
PEST analysis- This marketing model is used to analyse how external business environment
impacted a company and their performance. PEST analysis of LSST college is mentioned below-
Political factors- In context of UK, they are having no restriction on their trading
activities related to goods and services. Hence, LSST can attract migrants also for their new
courses. On the other hand, LSST is also gaining advantage of bank loans related to education
due to their low interest rates. Secondly, most of the students pay their fee through Public Purse
and Student Loan Company by proofing their eligibility.

Economic factors- In context of UK, they are having high employment rate which help
LSST to hire new teachers for their new courses and conduct a practical interview of their
teaching style to get to know whether they are eligible to teach this course or not. The
infrastructure and GDP of UK is well developed to help the college to maintain their college
building well and have all services to attract more students.
Social factors- UK's population is having more concern about their literacy rate and are
more focused to provide good education to their children (Alava and et. al., 2018). Hence, this
factor can help the LSST college to promote their new courses by mentioning the advantages of
learning new courses for students to make their career.
Technological factors- UK is well known by their technological factor. They are having
advance and modern technology which can help them to grow their economy well by helping
various companies to solve their technical issues. In context of LSST, they can also have the
option for online classes for those students who are living far from college location and unable to
attend college daily. More options for teaching new courses will help them to gain more
admissions.
Porter five forces- This model is used to analyse the competitive environment for a specific
company or institution and to understand that how the present competition can impact a specific
company. The Porter five forces for LSST is mentioned below-
 Threat of new entrants- This factor will define the threats for LSST by new entered
institution in their existing market (Isabelle and et. al., 2020). In context of LSST, they
are having high brand image in the market. In case any institution enters education sector
of UK then they require high promotional techniques and low fees to gain competitive
advantage. Hence, there is low degree of threat of new entrants upon LSST.
 Bargaining power of buyers- It is essential for every organisation to focus on their
customers because due them they are able to get success in market. There are 4000
students in LSST institute for their different courses. Hence, a good number of customers
trust the college. They can also gain more trust and loyalty of customers by promoting
their new courses well and make them understand the advantages which they can get by
new course. They can also set lower fees as compared to their competitors to increase
admission numbers.

 Bargaining power of suppliers- Suppliers play an important role in success of any
company (Chesula and Kiriinya, 2018). It is essential for LSST to use those publications
books which are popular and famous and have more trust of students. They can also build
a good relationship with those suppliers who provide them black board, technologies of
smart classrooms and many others so that they will provide good quality of material and
resources so that their students will get high quality of learning through visualize learning
technique.
 Threat of substitute goods- To defend from this threat LSST must use different
technique of teaching method and always adopt different teaching styles which is
beneficial for students and having difficulties for their competitors to copy their teaching
techniques.
 Rivalry among existing competitors- There are various competitors of LSST in market
such as Oxford university, UCA, NSBM and many others. They are having good
competitive strategies for their market and they are also having high number of students.
LSST is having high threat from this element and they can mitigate it by reducing their
fee for new courses and become the first institute to opt unique teaching style for the
students.
Top three issues of the client
There are few issues faced by LSST and top three issues of the client is mentioned below-
 Increasing product portfolio- The main issue of LSST is to increase their product
portfolio which means introducing new courses. Here, they decided to introduce ACCA
and CIMA which is high specialisation course in management. They can conduct
marketing research first and analyse whether these courses are having high demand in
market among customers or not. In case the courses are not demanded then it is wastage
of money and time to invest in adopting these courses.
 Hiring qualified teachers for new courses- It is another issue of LSST where they focus
on hiring high qualified teachers for the new courses (Hanegraaff and Berkhout, 2019). It
is suggested for the management of LSST to advertise their vacant job well and check the
skills and teaching style of candidates in a Demo class in front of students. Taking
reviews from students that whether they like the teaching style;e or not and in case they
god positive response then they can hire that candidate for their new course.

 High competition in market- It is another issue of LSST because they are having high
competition in market and their competitors are having good competitive strategies in
market. Hence, LSST can gain competitive advantage by lowering the fee of their new
courses and adopt unique teaching technique for their students.
Conclusion
It is concluded that analysing business issues is compulsory for any organisation so that
the issue can be mitigated as soon as possible before it impacts negative upon overall
performance. STP model is used to analyse customers behaviour and how company target
customers for their products and services. PEST analysis is used for analysing external business
environment and Porters Five Forces is used to analyse competition in the market. It is essential
for firms to analyse their internal and external factors on regular basis and make decisions for
increasing organisational productivity and profitability.

References
Books and journals
Alava, R.P. and et. al., 2018. PEST Analysis Based on Neutrosophic Cognitive Maps: A Case
Study for Food Industry. Neutrosophic Sets and Systems, 21(1), p.10.
Chesula, O.W. and Kiriinya, S.N., 2018. Competitiveness In The Telecommunication Sector In
Kenya Using Porters Five Forces Model. International Journal of Research in Finance
and Marketing (IJRFM), 8(7), pp.1-10.
Hanegraaff, M. and Berkhout, J., 2019. More business as usual? Explaining business bias across
issues and institutions in the European Union. Journal of European Public Policy, 26(6),
pp.843-862.
Isabelle, D. and et. al., 2020. Is Porter's Five Forces Framework Still Relevant? A study of the
capital/labour intensity continuum via mining and IT industries. Technology Innovation
Management Review, 10(6).
Kindl, E.M. and Casais, B., 2019. Motivations and perceived opportunities for partnerships
among international business consultancy firms. Review of International Business and
Strategy.
Ma, Y., Pu, L. and Wang, G., 2021, December. A Business Analysis for the Taier Company
Based on STP Model and Market Forecasting. In 2021 3rd International Conference on
Economic Management and Cultural Industry (ICEMCI 2021)(pp. 1282-1287). Atlantis
Press.
Sutanti, S. and et. al., 2018. Application of Segmenting, Targeting And Positioning (STP) and
Networking, Interaction, Common Interest and Experience (NICE) Model On Startup
Company of Service Provider in Indonesia. Scientific Journal of PPI-UKM, 5(1), pp.12-
17.