Strategic Management Of University Of The Sunshine Coast

Vision, Mission, and Goal of the University

Question:

Write an essay about the strategic management.
 

Strategic management is about identifying and describing the strategies that a manager of the organization should carry out to better achieving performance and bringing competitive advantage over the competitors (Chakrabarti and Sahoo 2014). The organization that is chosen for this study is University of the Sunshine Coast, which is popular university in Australia providing wide range of learning courses and place their students in international organizations. The study will describe the vision, mission and goal of the organization. Internal and external analysis of this university will also be described in term of SWOT, Porter 6 force and PESTLE analysis. The study will also describe the business level strategy and corporate level strategy of the university. Apart from that, the study will also describe three functional level strategies, structure and culture of the study. A financial analysis of the university will also be demonstrated in this study.

2.1 Vision

The Vision of University of the Sunshine Coast is to be a University of the International standing that will be the “driver of capacity building of sunshine coast and broader region and an unsurpassed community asset” (Usc.edu.au 2016).

The mission of University of the Sunshine Coast is to be the top international university through providing education of five stars quality. The core mission of this university is to provide personalized and inclusive support with combination with effective programs for allowing the students ample of opportunities in educational life (Usc.edu.au 2016). The university is also aimed at providing work integrated learning, opportunities of overseas learning and entrepreneurship.

• Engaging students and fostering their learning
• Being the best international university with regards to educational quality
• Proving wide range and collaborative learning in which knowledge can be explored and tested
• Respecting and supporting individual development of the student
• Discovering new ways of developing students through play (Zott and Amit 2013)

3.1 Strength

• Strength of this university can be seen in wide range of educational courses provided to the student
• The infrastructure of the university is so close to home that attracts the students to learn over here with high level of flexibility
• High quality professors of this university provide five star teaching to the university
• Integrated work related learning and professional training to the student
• The university uses new and modern technologies towards providing quality learning
• Overseas reaching of the university increases the number of students (Das 2015) 

• Limited resources and staff and faculty development
• Lack of adequate books in the online library of the university
• Unequal and high workload on the staffs
• High competition in diversified staff and faculty market
• Adjustment to the pressure for growth makes students tired (Ayub et al. 2013)

4.1 Opportunities and Threats

Opportunities

• Overseas reach of the university increases the market scope of the University
• Partnership for supporting the initiatives of the University
• Growing demand for graduates in all over the world
• Technological advancement increases the number of students
• Interest in expanding cultural activities in the society (Rios 2014)

Threats

• High competition among the universities
• Shifting of focus on qualitative achievement from numerical achievement in term of measuring learning quality
• The perception of society and student regarding the education is only to get a job
• State budget crisis may limit the educational program to be initiated in the university (Prezelj 2015) 

Threats of new entrants for this university seem to be low since there are many scopes for getting the support of government legislation and huge students in Australia. Many new learning courses are available in newly established universities. However, it is very tough for the new universities to compete with University of the Sunshine Coast in terms of providing wide variety of learning courses (Dobbs 2014). Furthermore, it can be found that Charles Darwin University and Torrens University Australia are the two universities of Australia are also providing numerous numbers of courses for competing with other universities.

Threats of substitutes are high for this university. Lower cost alternatives in terms of educational courses are regarded as the substitute products for this university. Many universities provide distance-learning courses in Australia for which the students do not have to go for university campus (Hamel and Prahalad 2013). Existing and emerging certified learning programs can also be assumed as threats of the university.

Due to numerous numbers of universities in Australia, the students can choose their university according to their preferences. The switching cost of the students is low because of greater scope of choices among the universities.

Bargaining powers of the suppliers seem to be high for this University. The book publishers and technology service providers have many opportunities to provide their service due to numerous numbers universities in Australia (Grünig and Kühn 2015).  The suppliers have also high power in regards to provide high quality professors, administrators and researchers.

Internal and External Analysis using SWOT, Porter 6 force, and PESTLE

Educational industry is in Australia is highly competitive with lots of universities. Rivalry among the university causes in price discounting, advertising campaign, service improvement and introduction of new learning courses. The main competitors of this University are Bond University and Australian Catholic University (Voss and Voss 2013). These universities have incorporated many new kinds of learning process for societal development.

Supportive educational policies of Australia encourage all the student of Australia to persuade higher education. Strong economy of the country leads the people to choose professional courses for entering in corporate sectors. Emerging trends of Australian people to develop their life leads them to persuade various learning courses (Bao et al. 2015). All these factors are positively influencing the university towards its growth.

Figure 1: Porter’s Five-Force Model

(Source: Chakrabarti 2014) 

6.1 Political Factor

Stable political environment encourages the enthusiasm of the University in providing consistent quality learning to the students. Minimum tax policies imposed on the universities has facilitated this university in saving cost (Oh, Cho and Kim 2015). This savings are used by the university in developing its infrastructure.

Economic growth rate of the country has led the central government to fund in the university that has improved the financial condition of the university. Monetary policy of the country increases price stability and reduces the cost of raw materials to be incorporated in the university (Chari et al. 2014).

Modern trends of people in leading their life tends to adopt various new learning processes that enhance their quality of life. Changes in the organizations to hire employees with high valued qualification seem to an opportunity to the university, in proving quality-learning process (Hamel and Prahalad 2013).

The university use modern technologies for proving quality learning to the students. IT help desk provided by the university helps the students in getting instant helps through online channels from anywhere they want (Voss and Voss 2013). Apart from that, the university provides 24 hours Wi-Fi service namely “eduroam” to the students that facilitate them in accessing online information regarding education easily.

The university follows all the rule and regulation of Australian Government for providing right employment practice in the university. In order to protect the health of the employees, the university maintains all health related rules and provide flexible working hours (Prezel 2015).

The university maintains environmentally sustainable strategy for protecting the environment. Water Refill Campus program of this university provide several other option to the student for which they do not have to buy bottled water (Chakrabarti 2014). In this way, it has reduced the usage of plastic bottle and minimized the wastage of landfill.

Figure 2: PESTLE Analysis

(Sources:)

7.1 Strategies to use strength in pursuing opportunities

In order to provide high quality of education, the organization uses modern technology through which the student can get high-level of educational information. The strategy of expanding in the overseas market has increased the chance of the university in making partnership with worldwide universities (Chakrabarti and Sahoo 2014).

The university should practice proper leadership program for minimizing unequal workload of the staff so that they can be supportive to the students. Apart from that, the university should get source more number of suppliers of raw materials in terms of books and technology for improving education in overseas level (Zott and Amit 2013).

Business Level and Corporate Level Strategies

Integrated work related learning provided by the university would positively influence the perception of people, as it will greatly help in getting jobs in the corporate organization. Diversified courses provided by the university will enhance the ability of the university in competing with other universities (Rios 2014).

Effective training and development program should be provided to the staff and faculties of the university so that they can provide high quality education to the student. It will enhance the ability of the university to compete with other university through competitive learning programs (Zott and Amit 2013).

The university offers affordable course fees that make all kinds of students to persuade these courses. The university provides wide range of learning courses including arts, science, health, engineering, humanities and social science and laws. These wide ranges of learning courses bring competitive advantage to this university over their competitors. The university sources high quality staff and faculties, who are able to provide quality learning to the university. The university uses effective promotional strategy to promoting their learning courses. The university uses mass media channels like TV and newspaper and radio for reaching to the student in short period of time (Dobbs 2014). Apart from that, the university also uses social media network that enhances the ability of the university promote their education to in an effective way. The university can also get the experience of various students for with social media channel. The globalization of this university can be seen in sourcing of materials related to the education and placing the student in international companies. 

Corporate level strategy of this university can be seen in making value of the learning courses for attracting more numbers of students. The university provides courses learning under two categories namely art and science. Apart from that, the university also provides law, humanity and social science courses that help the students in developing the student in other educational areas apart from traditional ways (Grünig and Kühn 2015). Value neutral strategies of the university can be seen in allocating resources in right way and amount for enhancing the quality of the education. The organization sources their material like books and technology from foreign market. On the other hand, the university also places their students in international organization that enhances their career development scope.  The university also minimizes discrimination among the students and incorporate disable students in their university that can be regarded as diversification strategy of the university (Hamel and Prahalad 2013).

The functional level strategies are implemented to create the backup plan for any activity done at the workplace. It is an area of the operational management that is used to make a discipline within the organization. The functional level strategy the university means that the university has developed the strategy for building the modern library and attracting the students.

The functional strategy of the university is to develop the competitive advantage to build the more modern libraries. The aim of the functional strategy of the sunshine coast university is to develop the competitive advantage in terms of perceiving the importance by management and to perceive the actual impact on organizational performance in Australian manufacturing companies.

Functional Level Strategies, Structure, and Culture of the University

The second functional strategy is to consider the all the factors of the university. The main strategy is to inspect the factors such as the research and the development and the human resources factors so that the result of the research can include the findings that the functional strategies are preferred by Australian manufacturers. It is noted that a mix of functional strategies was beneficial for performance of the university task (Lenehan et al 2015).

To provide an integrality inn the functions is also a functional activity of this university. To improve the total quality management is also an appropriate strategy for improvement of competitiveness given the need for a holistic approach. The functional strategy is to improve the management of the information assets of the university. This functional strategy was developed after conduction of many workshops such as research, administration and applications.

The functional strategy of the university of Sunshine coast is to provide the best educational experience to the local students so the management of the university used the different programs such as improve the infrastructure and the study programs by appointing the experienced faculties and by improving the values in action. Too improve the values in actions such as scholarship and providing a social justice to the students are the functional strategies of the University of the Sunshine Coast (Salmon et al 2016). 

The organizational structure of this university can be seen as hierarchical. The board of directors of this university sets the policies for the university. The marketing manager of the university controls the marketing executives for promotional activities and interacting with the customers. Apart from that, all the financial staffs work under financial managers for properly allocating organizational resources for its proper uses (Voss and Voss 2013). Al the courses of the university have a head of the department and the faculties of each of the department have to follow the instruction of the respective head of the department. There are some IT managers, who are responsible for taking care of technological department and repairing the technological fault faced by the university.

The board of directors set policies, which the other members of the university have to follow for balancing between the educational quality and cost of the university. The marketing manager will have their target in sourcing the student for taking admission in the university. The faculties of the university have one set of measurement that they have to meet in proving quality education of the university (Chakrabarti 2014). It facilitates the university in providing consistent high quality education. The financial manager also set a specific budget that the university should maintain in keeping balance of the cost of the university.

The organizational culture of the University can be as open culture where the entire employees are able to work in collaboration with each other. Low-level employees are able in easily interacting with high-level management. The leaders of this university are running transformational leadership approach. The faculties of the university are able to participate in decision-making process where they can share their view in regards to the educational system to be incorporated in the university (Bao et al. 2015). Thus, the faculty member becomes encouraged in proving high quality education to the students. This is because their views and values are regarded in the university process. The leaders of the university are supportive and sympathetic to the employees of the organization that make them to work in the workplace happily through increasing the quality of learning process.

Financial Analysis of the University

As a part of internal analysis, financial analysis has been taking key financial data and financial ratios from the annual report of University of sunshine coast.                                        

		2015	2014
	Extract of Income Statement	Budget	Actual	variance	Actual	Variance
		$’000	$’000	%	$’000	%
	Revenue from continuing operation	201607	215774	1	215370	0
Less:	Expenses due to continuing operation	189128	200618	3	176834	13
	Surplus/(Deficit) after tax	12479	15156	-18	38536	-61
	Gain/(Loss)on revaluation of fixed asset	0	19705	100	28316	2637
	Surplus attributable to share holders	12479	34861	89	66852	-48
	Extract of financial position
	Current Asset	85250	67566	10	83862	-19
	Non-Current Asset	247748	310463	4	257493	21
	(a)Total asset	332998	378029		341355
	Current Liability	28733	28971	19	25494	14
	Non-current Liability	12607	12825	-7	14490	-11
	(b)Total Liability	41340	41796		39984
	Net asset(a-b)	291658	336233	5%	301371	12%
	Reserve	83027	116639	19	96934	20
	Retained surplus	208631	219563	-1	204437	7
	Total Equity/Net asset	291658	336202		301371

Table 1: Financial Data

(Source: Stahl et al 2012)

From the above table 1, it can be understood and analysis can be made on whether University of sunshine coast has been able to meet its target set for the year 2015 and whether its performance level has increased or decreased from previous year i.e. 2014 (Jansen, Ramnath and Yohn 2012). The above financial data gives an overview of the standing of University of sunshine coast among other educational institute and universities.

It can be seen that revenue from operation for the year 2015 has increased from its budgeted figures as it has a positive variance of 1%. Whereas it is almost same compared to previous year i.e. 2014, which must be a worrying factor for the trustee and management of University of sunshine coast since it may result in no growth for the university (Stahl et al 2012). Management must take steps to increase its revenue in future years.

On the other hand, expenditure has increased by 3% in comparison with 1% increase in revenue for the year 2015, which is not at all a good sign from the view point of University of sunshine coast. The management of sunshine coast must take measure to control its operating expenses (Shih et al. 2014). Expenses have also increased from previous year 2014 by $ 23784 (200618-176834) whereas revenue has remained stagnant which show a negative influence on the financial position of University of sunshine coast.

Surplus has increased from its budgeted by 89% for the year 2015 which is a very good sign but at the same time it has decreased from previous year 2014 by $ 31991 (66852-34861) which is a bit worrying factor for the management (Wu et al. 2015). The management should try to reduce its cost to increase its surplus and at the same time take initiatives to increase its revenue.

Calculation of various ratios from the above data is given below which will give an insight view of the financial position and standing of University of sunshine coast.

	2014		2014
Ratios	Budgeted	Actual	Remarks	Actual
Surplus Margin (Surplus/Revenue*100)	6.19%	7.02%	Increased from budgeted	17.89%
Liquidity ratio or Current ratio (Current asset/current liability)	2.97	2.33	Decreased from budgeted	3.29
Return on equity (ROE) (Surplus/Equity*100)	4.28%	4.51%	Increased from budgeted	12.79%
Return on Asset (Surplus/Total asset*100)	3.75%	4.01%	Increased from budgeted	11.29%
Asset Turnover (Revenue/Total Asset)	0.61	0.57	Decreased from budgeted	0.63

Table 2: Ratio Analysis

(Source: Heikal, Khaddafi and Ummah 2014) 

From the above Table 2, it can be seen that surplus margin has increased by 0.83% from the budgeted for the year 2015, which is a good sign. However, at the same time it has it has decreased by almost 10% from previous year 2014, which is a huge worrying factor for the trustee and management of University of sunshine coast (Pratiwi and Nuswandari 2016).

Liquidity ratio of sunshine coast has decreased from its budgeted but it is well above 1 which is a promising from the view point of its stakeholders i.e. the asset of University of sunshine coast  is well enough to meet all its liabilities in case of any emergency (Heikal, Khaddafi and Ummah 2014). Though its liquidity ratio has decreased from previous year it is not a worrying fact for now but the management must make sure that it does not fall below and become lower than 1.

Opportunities and Threats

ROE has increased from its budgeted by 0.23% which shows that the surplus available to its shareholder is increasing which will boost their belief on the management of University of sunshine coast. However, it has decreased by almost 8% from its previous year, which is a worrying factor for management as well as trustee (Jansen, Ramnath and Yohn 2012).

Return on asset, though increased from its budgeted in 2015 has decreased by almost 7% from 2014, which is not at all a good sign for Sunshine coast. Asset turnover for 2015 has decreased from both its budgeted and 2014, which is a worrying factor for management since higher the asset turnover ratio the better the position of the university as its asset are being used efficiently (Dewi 2016).

12.1 Impacts of the technology:

There was a technology named the enthusiastic implemented for the planning to give the access for their own e-portfolio to the staff and the students of the university that may cause of the award winning. The students of the university won the award for this technology usage. The professor of the university won the platinum award for the advancement of learning and teaching technology implementation (Coolbear 2014).

For the growth of the university, there are various strategy implemented by the management of the university. There is a high competition in the universities for the various study programs. Various universities such as Cambridge and oxford are the main competitors of this university but this university provides the degree for the student that the students can work in any industry (Ross et al 2015).

The globalization strategy of this university is the ability to create and maintain the best logistics and distributed networks. It is an important ingredient in the success of this world leading university of Sunshine coast. A text has been designed to help the students and the staff of the university to keep the pace with the global departments in the supply chain management and for the future planning of work (Simon et al 2015).

Strategic management of organizations can be regarded as taking bundle of decision taken by the managers in achieving better performance and creating competitive advantage over the university. SWOT analysis of this university is regarded as the internal environment like strength and weakness and external environment like opportunity and threats of the university. Porters Six force analyses the external environment that affects the university in terms of threats of new entrants, threats of substitute, rivalry, bargaining power of buyers and bargaining power of suppliers. Business level strategy of this university can be seen in creating unique value to the students for creating competitive advantage over the competitors. The business level strategy can be seen in providing diversified courses and affordable course fees.  

14.0 Conclusion

While concluding the study, it can be said that University of the Sunshine Coast is a renowned university of Australia that provides wide range of diversified learning courses to the students. The strength of the university can be seen in high quality staff and diversified learning process. However, the university has not any program for developing the staffs and faculties in providing learning to the students. The organization faces tough competition from University Bond University and Australian Catholic University, who are able to provide wide variety of learning courses including social development program. Business level strategy of the university can be seen in providing wide range of learning courses and affordable course fees for the students. The technological advancement of can be seen in proving IT help desk for helping student all the times.  

Reference List

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