Question

QUESTION 5 (20) As a consultant from KPMG, one of your clients has entrusted you to do a competitor analysis in the Higher Education sector in South Africa. You are an established Higher Education Institution (MANCOSA, for example) and you need to have a detailed analysis of competitors to make a strategic decision. Prepare a report for your client advising him the way forward. (Please feel free to make assumptions but mention these assumptions in your answer)

Answer 1

Competitor analysis refers to the act of analysing the business structure of the competitors in terms of different company profiles, so that the strategies for the business can be made as per the competition on the market. It means studying the rivals strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. Competitor analysis is not an easy task and requires proper planning and strategy to implement.

Competitor analysis, in the higher education can be done as follows:

Being one of the established higher education institute, MANCOSA in South Africa have number of rivals in the market which are established to grab number of young students and offer them education. It has number of rivals in the market namely Milpark, SBS, Hanleyafrica etc

• Firstly understanding the market for the rivals will have to be done. The rivals of MANCOSA have a bigger market targeted towards newly graduates or young people who have completed their high school.
• Next, understanding the strengths and weaknesses of the rivals will help in framing the strategies accordingly. Such as the rivals in this case have the biggest strength of goodwill and long term loyalty on the part of the students. Moreover, the good & highly skilled faculty associated also serves as the strength.
• The weakness on the other hand can be the mismanagement and extra burden being imposed on the faculty members.
• Finding the opportunities for the rivals is yet another element of competitor analysis. Where the rivals have the revenue generation capacity of around $10.4 M more as compared to the MANCOSA. Hence the opportunity of the rivals can become your biggest threat, and need to be handled carefully.
• Also understanding the products being offered by the rivals is yet another element to be taken care of. The products so offered are the education and the study material (online and offline) to the students. All this are the products that rivals offer and the company need to decide what it can offer over and above the rivals.
• Lastly, the positioning of the rivals' name and products in the minds of the customers/ students need to be taken care of.

By taking care of all these elements of competitive analysis, the business can frame the strategies accordingly and make sure that the customers/ students are attracted and retained by the business/ educational institute for longer period of time.