1.0 INTRODUCTION

1.1 PROFILE OF INSTITUTION

Institut Teknologi Dan Pengurusan Lebuh Victoria (ITP) is a leading independent institution of

higher learning located at the heart of the city of Penang. ITP College was established in 1991

with the aim of providing higher education at affordable cost. ITP College was founded by Mr

Hoe Kean Soon, his tasks mainly on coaching students. In year 1996, his favourite student joined

his company as partner to in-charge on management and marketing department. Besides making

it affordable for students to obtain an engineering qualification, ITP College also aims to provide

quality engineering programmes to mould students to become dynamic, competent, critical

thinking and skill-oriented graduates to meet the demand of employers in the multinational as

well as SMI industries in Malaysia and abroad.

ITP College only focuses on providing up to diploma engineering courses. For students intended

to further their studies, ITP is collaborating with a few prestigious universities abroad and

locally. Below are the a few colleges or university that collaborating with ITP College:

i) London South Bank University `

ii) James Cook University

iii) Swinburne University of Technology (Sarawak Campus)

iv) University of Sunderland

In line with the ITP College mission to make their mark as a quality education provider, ITP

College strives to continuously improve the quality of education by employing higher qualified

and experienced academic and administrative staff, and upgrading the facilities of the institute.

Advancing in the Millennium Year, ITP College transforms and expands rapidly into a hub of

educational excellence.

Below are the programmes / certificate offered by ITP College:

Diploma/Certificate courses

Diploma in Electrical & Electronic Engineering (DEE)

Diploma in Electronic & Computer Engineering (DEC)

Certificate in Electrical Engineering (CEE)

Certificate in Electrical Technology (CET)

Malaysian skills certification courses (Sijil Kemahiran Malaysia)

Electrical Technician

Computer System Technician

2.1 COMPANY VISION, MISSION AND OBJECTIVES

Mission of institution

ITP provide excellent and holistic education to school leavers.

Vision of institution

ITP evolve as a highly reputable education provider and also to achieve university status.

Objectives

Respond to the Government's call to make Malaysia an industrialised nation by the year 2020 by

playing a significant role in educating, training, and developing a pool of strong, dynamic, and

innovative graduates endowed with good IT skills to fulfill the needs of the nation.

Business Strategy

Figure 2: Three Inputs to a Business Strategy

Strategy is an organisation’s action plan to achieve the mission. Each functional area has a

strategy for achieving its mission and for helping the organisation reach the overall mission.

Firms achieve missions in three conceptual ways, differentiation, cost leadership and response.

(Pearson, 2011) According to this model, a company can choose how it wants to compete, based

on the match between its type of competitive advantage and the market target pursued, as the key

determinants of choice (Akan et. al 2006).

From the three Strategies, the strategy implemented by ITP was differentiation strategy.

3.4.1 Differentiation

Differentiation strategy refers to a development of product or service that provide unique

attributes that are valued by customers and that customers perceive to be better than or different

from the products of the competition (Clay et al., 2002). Whereas according to Lee & Gosain

(2002) differentiation can be based on many elements or factors, including design, brand image,

reputation, technology, product features, networks, and customer service. Any successful

differentiation strategy must be based on elements that are difficult for competitors to imitate.

Differentiation is concerned with providing uniqueness. Every business needs to differentiate to

their other competitor so that they are able to compete with each other. With a company that lack

of business strategy will be kicked out of the competition.

There are plenty of colleges in Penang. In term of the good will and the size of the college, a lot

of colleges in Penang far beyond ITP college. For example, Inti International college, they are

international college and famous in Penang and other countries. To be enabling to compete with

other college, ITP must be different than the other colleges to outshine. The differentiation

between ITP College and the other college are as below

a) Specialization in engineering courses.

ITP is the first college in Penang that only specializes in engineering courses. All of the lecturers

are expertise in engineering courses and hired from different background. As of today, ITP is one

and the only college in Penang that focused in practical study instead of academicals study.

ITP is the first college in Penang that only specializes in engineering courses. The courses of

Engineering range from certificate to diploma level. Degree courses were made possible with the

collaboration of other universities abroad. ITP focuses only on Engineering courses as it foresee

the huge potential of this course in supplying sufficient blue collar wokers to the job market. In

Penang, there was a great need of blue collar workers due to the increasing number of

multinational company such as Intel, Dell, Seagate, Altera and etc. Besides that, all of the

lecturers are expertise in engineering courses and they were hired from different background.

ITP focused in practical study instead of academicals study.

b) Job guarantee for students

ITP promised to give graduated student a job guarantee. For the student that graduated from the

institution, they are guarantee with a job. ITP able to deliver the promise because of the quality

of student deliver to the industry. ITP students, graduated with industry knowledge, because of

the quality of academic that focused on practical or hand on study.

ITP College has come into agreement with some factories to provide manpower to them. This is

a win-win strategy for both ITP and the factories, such that ITP can attract more students to

pursue their studies in ITP and they would not have to worry that they would be jobless after

graduated from the course. As for factory, they can get continuous supply of good quality

manpower to fulfil the need of technician in the smooth running of the company. As a student, it

would be an attracting point that they have a secured job upon graduation from college. This is

due to the fact that the main consideration of one would always be making earnings for the

living. For instance, ITP has agreement with multinational company such as Dell and Hewlett-

Packard to provide them with well-trained blue-collar worker in the field of computing and

engineering.

This is the strategy that implemented by ITP to attract more students to study in ITP because of

the job guarantee for students. This enables ITP to differentiate to the other college which there

is no job guarantee after graduate.

ITP promised to provide graduated student a job guarantee. For those students who graduated

from the institution, they are guarantee with a job. The job range from technician, computer

maintance technician to mechanical technician and etc.

ITP is able to make such a promise because it is confident that the students it produced fulfill the

quality that the industry looked for. The students were equipped with knowledge and skills

which was more than sufficient to handle different situation. ITP students, graduated with

industry knowledge, because of the quality of academic that focused on practical or hand on

study.

c) Target market

The target market of ITP College is different from the other colleges. Some of the colleges will

look at the qualification of SPM to decide whether the student can further their studies. Some of

the colleges are charging higher price to the students who are getting dual certificate.

ITP College focuses on the minority group of students. The main target market is SPM students

who got less ideal result and who do not get SPM certificate but intended to further studies. For

SPM holder, ITP provide the diploma courses for students. Whereas, for non SPM holder,

students can still get certificate in electronic field and Malaysian skills certification courses so

that students are able to contribute to the society. The intention of ITP is to train and teach the

low performing students who wanted to further their study.

ITP provides certificate for the students who are not SPM holder. Most of the college the basic

entry requirement must be a SPM holder, for students who got less ideal result in SPM, they will

need to take an additional paper in order for them to further diploma. However ITP provide

another course for students who are intended to further studies although they are not holding

SPM certificate.

OPERATIONAL STRATEGY TO ACHIEVE BUSINESS STRATEGY

a) Process and capacity design-Process simplification

To achieve the business strategy, the company process has to be simplified. This process

include the registration of enrolment, the analysis of students’ achievements and etc. For

example, the registration process for existing and new students can be simplified and take

less hustle. The minimum qualification was maintained, parallel to the term fixed by the

MOHE, however, the applicants only have to provide their basic proof of completion of

studies. For most of the colleges, the basic requirement to enter the course must be with

certain certificates or qualification. ITP College simplified the process, with a leaving school

certificate, they are qualified to further their study in this institution. Students may not be a

SPM leaver to entitle themselves to be a future blue collar worker.

b) Good and service design-Programs meet industry requirement

Currently industry needed the workers who have practical training or hands on skills instead

of academic study based on theory. This is the reason that explained why more and more

courses provided internship at the end of course, so that students can experience the real

working life and they can learn to handle real situation that occurred through this experiential

learning. If students only learn from books, they may not be able to apply their knowledge

correctly under emergency circumstances. They may not be able to react flexibly according

to the needs of the situation.

Henceforth, the program provided by ITP fulfill industry requirement. For example, the ITP

college provide more laboratory experiment than focused only in book. Each laboratory are

well- equipped with modern and up-to-date tools to enable students to work as if like a real

worker in factory. Students were also tested with certain context-based assessment to enabled

them to described the action that should be taken. At the end of the course, the students will

also be going for internship and will be evaluated by lecturers. ITP also helped to arranged

internship for students in order to make sure that they worked in the correct company so that

students get to apply what they had learnt throughout the courses.

c) Location Selection-Convenience location

ITP located at the heart of Penang, It is surrounded by offices and bank. Besides that its

strategic location has high traffic of people. It is more convenient for students to attend

classes.. It was strategically locate at the route of Rapid bus. Hence, students without

transportation could easily reach the college to attend lectures.

d) Human Resources and job design-Hired lecturer with industry experience

Experienced lecturer is the soul of an institution. ITP has high requirement and strict control

in their human resource. ITP focused to hire only industry experienced lecturers. All of the

lecturers from ITP colleges are experienced in engineering industry. Minority of lecturers are

part-time from factory at Free Trade Zone Penang. ITP decided to take part-time lecturer due

to the consideration that full time lecturer may be lacking of problem solving skills after they

stayed too long in academic industry. While part-time lecturer they are fresh to industry

requirement and they known about the recent changes within the industry. This group of part

time lecturers are expected to expose the students to more authentic situation in the industry

to provide a real picture to students.

Besides that, ITP have a bunch of experienced management team to arrange the student class

schedule, courses arrangement and class arrangement.

e) Quality-Quality of institution

To qualify be an educational institution in Malaysia, college must comply MOHE

requirement. ITP put a lot of focus in hiring lecturers to their college. ITP believed that only

quality lecturers are able to deliver quality education to their students. ITP meets regulatory

requirements in a country basis. ITP providing education and training at Polytechnics and

Community Colleges to fulfill the human capital needs of the nation through strategic

management, relevant and dynamic curricula, effective training and career development

programmes, continuous quality assurance and strong support services based on the National

Education Philosophy. ITP which sandwiched between the MOHE and the low-performing

students. It tried to maintained the quality of the lecturers and learning environment in lecture

hall to ensure that students have a comfortable and exciting learning experience.

f) Concurrent engineering

Concurrent engineering is a work methodology based on the parallelization of tasks (i.e. performing tasks concurrently). It refers to an approach used in product development in which functions of design engineering, manufacturing engineering and other functions are integrated to reduce the elapsed time required to bring a new product to the market.

ITP adapted this ?????

Recommendations

a) One stop service for students

Currently, ITP only provides up to diploma courses for student. It is suggested that ITP could

provide one stop service for student to further their study form certificate, diploma up to

degree. By using this way, they can increase the student confidence with the institution. This

is because, students may get frustrated after finishing their diploma. By providing degree

courses, students may able to further their study in one stop station at ITP.

There are plenty of opportunities for ITP College to go further in the education business. It

may offer Degree courses for students. It may help to attract more students because it will

become one stop station for student to complete their certificate from diploma continue to

degree.

Get a new building for a new campus instead of 3 campuses that scattered around. To get a

building and provide accessibility for students within a compound will attract more students.

Taking the issue of car park as an example to be discussed, the school facing problem where

students are unable to find public car park and the existing private car park was too

expensive, 1 hour RM3 which is very costly for student who have a full day class.

Moreover, the college could expand their market by offering more courses. Currently,

Management course was one of the popular courses in the market. By providing other

courses, it is able to attract more students and it helps to build up the honorary of the

institution.

b) Motivation and self enhancement training provided to students

Students typically learn more and are more productive when they are intrinsically motivated

(Ormrod, 2008). In order to make sure that the graduated students are able to compete with other

college’s student, extra learning section is compulsory for students. For example this can be done

by providing self- enhancement series -mind management for personal effectiveness training. By

providing this type of training, it enable students to explore intrinsic and extrinsic motivation.

Harter (1992) recognized the possibility of adopting intrinsic and extrinsic motivation

simultaneously important for students to enhance themselves.

ITP focuses on low-performing students who were not motivated to learn. In fact, they could not

do well in their study and they have low self-esteem. By making self enhancement training

compulsory for this group of students, it would boost up their confident and making them able to

find their target in life. They will be motivated all-rounded including in their students as well as

in searching for success in all field. Indirectly, the students will improved and they will be the

wanted group that carries good working attitudes.

c) Simplified the process- In this technologies era, majority of process go on computerized. Using computer to minimized the error make by human. Currently ITP College is still manually keeping all the students’ registration forms, students’ particulars, customer enquiry forms, and customer contact information. This has caused ITP a trouble as it needed a space to keep all the paper and after few years, the room is full of paper.

In this case, computerized would help ITP college to go towards paperless. Where ITP can use the current store room as extra classroom for students or even use it as an office.

The computerized system is able to record all the students’ particular, preference courses. This may help the college to arrange the schedule/time table.

Besides that, interested applicants can register themselves through online by providing the necessary information. This may bring convenience to both existing and new students as they can do their own registration for enrolment into new courses when a new semester starts.

ITP is able to have a widen view on the students preference by using the computerized System. It enable ITP to pull reports and better understand the preference of students.

Moreover, this brings convenience for ITP College to do follow up students who make enquiry. By using computer, the information can easily be retrieved and able to contact customer to make any follow up.

In terms of management wise, computerized system can helped to sort out students who did not pay fees and etc. Most of the office work and be done in lesser time and it consume lesser human work force.

d) Customized courses

In order to be a good institution that is able to meet the industry requirement and to be different from other colleges. ITP need to customize courses for students based on their preferences and interests. For example, the students taking electronic engineering but he would like to have basic mechanical engineering knowledge. In this case, ITP college should be able to customized the different course structure for the students. This is different with the other current colleges where Electronic engineering students may only learn about electronic knowledge. On the other hand, ITP intended to train a manager level employees, it is recommended that students should take more than two subjects per semester, to gain knowledge from two different field, based on individual capability.

e) Flexibility schedule

ITP should arrange a flexible schedule for students. The flexibility of schedule may make the students who unable to attend for one class may able to join another class at different hour. In this case, since almost 50 students sign up in each subjects. ITP may reduce the number of students in each class and setup two different slot for each subject. In this case, this may bring convenience and flexible for students who are busy with their work.

f) Online courses

The drastic change of technologies has positive impact on education and has help to develop

various industries. Nowadays, there are more virtual classes for student to learn through online.

It can make the student learn in anywhere at anytime when they need it without attending to

class. This rapid change in technology has also influenced the management of ITP as to equipped

the college with latest technology tools and to upgrade the facilities in the college. Moreover, the

teaching methods used in lecture must also be improved by integrating latest technology

available to enhance the quality of teaching and learning in the lecture. This would definitely

create meaningful learning experience for the students as well as practically, get them to apply

and practice the skills they learned with the most-up-to-date tools.

Possible organisational barriers

a) Difficult and high cost incurred to hire experienced lecturer

Lecturer is easy to hire, but to hire an experience and quality lecturer is never an easy job. Especially for ITP the lecturer’s requirement must be using hand on study for students instead of academic basis.

Besides that, lecturer with industry experience is high demand in the market. The cost to hire an industry experience lecturer may higher than hire an academical lecturer.

b) People resist to change

Staffs who have works in the company since start up, they are used to the manual process to update information. They may not feel comfortable to use computer to setup and search for information. They may feel more comfortable to use paper to fill up all the information and do not trust on computer able to lighten their job. Staff may resist changing to computerized era.

c) Barriers and limitations from government

In countries with governments of limited competence the company will not perform to its real

potential (Palma, 2005).

The new rules and regulations enforced on private institution is a barrier for ITP College.

Government set a lot of new rules for institution to improve the quality of education. A small

institution like ITP College, it’s a threat to meet the regular changes on rules and regulation from

the government. The capital and liquidity assets are limited, to meet the regular changes

requirement, they have to spend huge money to upgrade the college. To be specific, taking an

example of library, after the inspection of government staff to the college, they issued a letter and

request for upgrading and expending of the current library to meet the needs of students. Yet, no

funding was given to the college for upgrading.

The key to salvage any business in hard times isn’t to reduce your marketing activities but to

replace them with low-budget marketing (Watts et al, 2008).

Government is part of the macroeconomic, the local political issue is of major concern of ITP

College. Besides the allowance, subsidy and tax from government to education institution can

help to maintain and increase the quality.

New regulations from government are always a threat to ITP. There are some qualifications to

meet for private education centre. For example, cafeteria, library. Initial startup of the ITP

College, it does not provide library for students, but with the new regulation, in order for ITP to

continue to get the renewal of license, it needs to provide library. To setup a library is not cheap,

it was struggling for the owner to have to spend RM300k for library.

Besides that, the competitors is a threat to ITP, there are a lot of colleges which provide the same

courses, so customers have a lot of choices other than ITP. Customers can easily switch to other

college if they don’t like to study in ITP.

d) The cost involve during the changes.

ITP has only 1 owner and in order to change the admin system into a computerized one, it would

like a large sum of money. Hence, money served as the biggest barrier and without money, all

the recommendation about online courses and computerized admin system would just be an

empty thought.

Personal Reflection

The topic that I have done in this assignment is regarding operation strategy. This assignment has enhanced my knowledge and I gained a clearer picture on operational management. Quoting an example of ITP College, by looking at the strategy that was used by this college, I realize that a college will not be able to function optimumly without a smart and detailed planning on the operational management.

Talking about how do you feel la… you feel that it was time consuming but you feel exciting when you figure our the strategy applied by a college.

Mentioned that you interviewed Mr. Hoe, the founder of ITP college to know about all the details and during your conversation, he accepted some of your suggestion and you’re very happy. He promised that he will bring out those suggestion during the board meeting to seek for approval.

Conclusion

Operational management played a key role in the development of a company,

3.0 COMPETITVE ENVIRONMENT

The environment is what gives an organization their means of survival. In the private sector,

satisfied customers are what keep an organization in business.

3.1 EXTERNAL ENVIRONMENT ANALYSIS

3.1.1 PEST Analysis

PEST analysis stands for "Political, Economic, Social, and Technological analysis" and describes

a framework of macro-environmental factors used in the scanning component of strategic

management (Johnson & Scholes 2008). Identifying PEST influences is a useful way of

summarising the external environment in which a business operates. However, it must be

followed up by consideration of how a business should respond to these influences. (Riley, 2012)

External analysis is largely uncontrollable by a company. An organisation wishing to plan ahead

must take into consideration the various external environmental factors which may have an

impact on the success of an organisation in future. Through the interview with the owner from

ITP, they have a simple yet clear PEST analysis.

i) Political

The rules and regulation to operate a college has become more and more strict. For the existing

college they must meet certain criteria and requirement to be able to renew their business license,

whereas for the new entrances they are controlled by a lot of rules and regulation before the

license is distributed. For the existing small college, it is very struggling to survive due to the

frequent change in regulation. For a small business with little profit, it is hard to achieve the

every requirement fixed by the government.

ii) Economic

The impact of economies is very important to a company especially SME. The economy changes

will have large impact on the SME, for example during the announcement of budget, the

government want to increase the minimum wages, this will definitely affected the decision made

in an organization. In other words, with the change in external environment, it will influence the

company strategic management.

Malaysia's inflation continues to climb, October CPI up 1.3% on-year. (TheStar online, 2012)

Inflation rate is very important to the economies of a country. As forecast, next year inflation is

going to climb higher, the company need to prepare the strategic management to compete in the

market during these difficult times.

iii) Socio-Cultural

BN coordinator reminds pupils on importance of education. (TheStar Online, 2012)

People nowadays aimed for better lifestyle and higher standard of living. They are aware of the

importance of education. The cultural had changed compared to last 20years. Consumers realised

that they need to further their studies and more public university was newly setup in a few states

like University Malaysia Kelantan, University Malaysia Pahang. Higher education is able to

increase the standard of living for a country. Knowing the fact that Malaysian is in need of

producing more work force I the blue-collar industry, ITP has modified their strategis to

accommodate the change in socio-cultural and focuses on Engineering course.

iv) Technology

The drastic changed of technologies has positive impact on education and has help to develop

various industries. Nowadays, there are more virtual classes for student to learn through online.

It can make the student learn in anywhere at anytime when they need it without attending to

class. This rapid change in technology has also influenced the strategic management of ITP as to

equipped the college with latest technology tools and to upgrade the facilities in the college.

Moreover, the teaching methods used in lecture must also be improved by integrating latest

technology available to enhance the quality of teaching and learning in the lecture. This would

definitely create meaningful learning experience for the students as well as practically, get them

to apply and practice the skills they learned with the most-up-to-date tools.

v) Lack of complete facilities

The facilities in the college provided by ITP are not complete, they have a total of 3 campuses in

Georgetown, Penang. However, they have only one library and two test room which is available

in the main campus, for students who are intended to use the facilities they have to go to the

main campus. The reason for the facilities to be scattered around is because they have limited

building space. The expansion of college is nearly impossible as they will need to lease buildings

that are in the surrounding of the college.

3.2 INTERNAL ENVIRONMENT ANALYSIS

3.2.1 SWOT Analysis

The SWOT analysis provides information that is helpful in matching the firm’s resources and

capabilities to the competitive environment in which it operates (Chapman, 2007). However,

according to Tuckwell, 2007 clarified SWOT analysis is involves specifying the objective of

the business venture or project and identifying the internal and external factors that are

favorable and unfavorable to achieve that objective.

i) Strength

Over a twenty-one years span, ITP has attained a first-class reputation for its top quality and

uncomprising academic standards based upon the results and international awards that has

been consistently achieved. Besides that, ITP offer competitive prices for each courses and

high in academic standards. The price offered was among the cheapest compare to the other

colleges in Penang.

Moreover, ITP focus in small class study. Each classes contains not more than 20students,

making it easier for lecturers to take care of every students in the class and to make sure that

every student understand thoroughly on the content taught.

Lastly, ITP is the only Engineering education institution in Penang, the expertise was

centralize in the institution. The entire lecturers in the college were experts in the field, their

knowledge on Engineering are specific and in depth.

ii) Weaknesses

The facilities in the college provided by ITP are not complete, they have a total of 3

campuses in Georgetown, Penang. However, they have only one library and two test room

which is available in the main campus, for students who are intended to use the facilities they

have to go to the main campus. The reason for the facilities to be scattered around is because

they have limited building space. The expansion of college is nearly impossible as they will

need to lease buildings that are in the surrounding of the college.

iii) Opportunity

There are plenty of opportunities for ITP College to go further in the education business. It

may offer Degree courses for students. It may help to attract more students because it will

become one stop station for student to complete their certificate from diploma continue to

degree.

Get a new building for a new campus instead of 3 campuses that scattered around. To get a

building and provide accessibility for students within a compound will attract more students.

Taking the issue of car park as an example to be discussed, the school facing problem where

students are unable to find public car park and the existing private car park was too

expensive, 1 hour RM3 which is very costly for student who have a full day class.

Moreover, the college could expand their market by offering more courses. Currently,

Management course was one of the popular courses in the market. By providing other

courses, it is able to attract more students and it helps to build up the honorary of the

institution.

v) Threat

New regulations from government are always a threat to ITP. There are some qualifications

to meet for private education centre. For example, cafeteria, library. Initial startup of the ITP

College, it does not provide library for students, but with the new regulation, in order for ITP

to continue to get the renewal of license, it needs to provide library. To setup a library is not

cheap, it was struggling for the owner to have to spend RM300k for library.

Besides that, the competitors is a threat to ITP, there are a lot of colleges which provide the

same courses, so customers have a lot of choices other than ITP. Customers can easily switch

to other college if they don’t like to study in ITP.

3.3 PORTER’S 5 FORCES

Figure 3.1: Porter’s 5 Forces

(Source: Adapted from Porter, 1985)

i) Threat of the New Entrant- Medium

The threat of new entrant in this industry is medium due to the control on the new entrant

into this industry that has been enforced by the government. Private Education / Learning

institution license is not easy to obtain especially in Malaysia. There are plenty of criteria to

be met for example, facilities, lecturer qualification, and equipment in the institution.

Moreover, it’s required to obtain approval from the Ministry of Higher Education through the

Department of Private Education and need to submit letter of proposal to the Department of

Private Education. With the above barrier, it is not that easy to enter education industry. ITP

is the only college in Penang that providing only engineering courses.

ii) Bargaining Power of Buyers- High

The bargaining power of buyers is high since ITP College is not only the college that

providing engineering courses in Penang and their market is limited due to the fact that they

only focus on engineering. There are plenty of colleges that compete with ITP in Penang for

example, Inti College, KDU, Segi, Taylor and PSDC where the colleges are more strongly

established and well-known. Besides that, the two main concern that customer will usually

compare are the price and value of certificate. Choosing a college major is one of the most

important decisions you will make (Lawrence K, 2010). ITP is unable to compete with the

other college in Penang on reputation and value of certificate, but in-term of price, ITP

transcend the other college. ITP was providing affordable fees to those who are interested to

further their studies.

iii) Threat of substitute product and services- High

The threat of substitute products and services for ITP College is high, this is because there

are plenty of colleges that are providing the same courses, For example, PSDC. Customers

can choose to go any colleges that they want, and the switching cost is low. The products

provided by ITP were easily replaced by the other colleges/competitors.

iv) Bargaining power of Supplier- Low

ITP is a college that providing education or learning services to students. It does not have any

supplier in the business, so that bargaining power of supplier is low. The rivalry among

existing competitors is high.

v) Rivalry among existing competitor- High

The rivalry among the other existing competitors is high, there are plenty of college in

Penang that are providing the same services and products. Besides that, the other colleges

they are providing more products/courses compare to ITP. Students may choose to go to

other colleges because they have multiple choices. Moreover, for students that intended to

further their studies to degree or even higher, they can still stay at the same college. But the

courses provided by ITP is only up to Diploma, for studies intended to further studies, they

need to go to the collaborating college.

References

Visich, John K. and Khumawala, Basheer M., "Operations Management Curriculum: Literature Review and Analysis" (2002). Management Working Papers. Paper 15.