Week 8

WEEK 8

Make a list of competitors for Islington College.

Islington College has many competitors. Among them following are few of the competitors:

Ø  The British College

Ø  Sofwarica College of IT and E-commerce

Ø  Apex College

Ø  Ace Institute of Management

Ø  Kathmandu College og Management

Ø  Kathmandu University

Ø  Tribhuwan University

Ø  Kathmandu Institute of Science and Technology

Ø  Asian Institute of Management and Technology

Ø  Northampton University

Ø  Lord Buddha College

Develop a porter’s five forces model for Islington College.

Michael Porter developed the theory of five forces model in order to identify the different types of competition within the industry, to identify the current position of the firm in the industry as well as to identify and analyze the attractiveness and captivation of the industry. In the external environment there are various factors which create competition. Porter’s five forces model helps to analyze and identify those factors. (Jim Riley,
2012).

 Porter’s five forces model includes the following:

Ø  Competitive rivalry within an industry

Ø  Threat of new entrance

Ø  Threat of substitute products

Ø  Bargaining power of suppliers

Ø  Bargaining power of customers

Porter’s five forces model for Islington College are as follows:

1.     Threat of new entrance/Barriers of entry

Every profitability industry has a threat of new entrance as others are also attracted to profitability industry. The only thing which prevents the entrance of new competitors is barrier of entry. The new firms have to get over barriers of entry so that they can enter in the industry and successfully compete with the existing firms.

International Degree in Nepal is very expensive. There are barriers like huge amount of investment and difficult to acquire license from the Government of Nepal as it challenges the local degree. Islington College has invested huge amount as well as acquired license from the government to run the college. It is one of the well known college which provides international degree for BIT and BBA. It is the market leader in the industry because it was one of the first college to introduce international degree in Nepal. Other colleges will find difficulties in competing with Islington college because of the facilities like: excellent lecturers, brand image, digital classrooms, quality education, friendly staffs, latest technologies, good environment etc.  

2.     Competitive Rivalry

Competitive rivalry comes into existence when other firms enters in the same industry and facilitates same customers with same kind of products and services. Students of Islington College and other college which provides international degree are those who do not want to leave the country and wants international standard education in the country itself. In Nepal, there are only few colleges which provide international degree. Islington college as well as Lord Buddha college is one of the oldest but the difference is that Lord Buddha provides Indian degree whereas Islington college provides British degree. Recently colleges like British college and Softwarica introduced international degree but they have not been able attract students since they are new in the market. From this we can say that currently Islington is one of the best college providing international degree without much threat from the rivals but the college should try even hard to assess its competitive position so that they can do better in future as well and be ahead of their competitors.

3.     Bargaining power of buyers and suppliers

This is the relative power of the customers/buyers to influence a firm. Buyers have this power when they have more choices and they purchase high volume of products and services form the suppliers. 

Islington College currently is providing its services to around 800 students. There are many who want to study in this college and every semester there are hundreds of students applying for the college. This is because Islington College provides quality education and few colleges providing international degree. The students have very few choices and thus bargaining power of buyers here is relatively low and the bargaining power of the college is very high.

4.     Threat of substitute products

Substitute products of same quality and satisfaction level may reduce the demand of the firm’s service and product. Consumers may prefer substitute goods because of increase in price, decrease in quality and so on. Substitution can be in the form of products or needs. For Islington College, there are various threats of substitutes like Computer Engineering courses, short term certified IT trainings and Computer Application Development courses. Also, the later trainings are cheaper and are of short duration too. Many people these days in order to save time and money attend trainings and short term courses. Thus, this shows that there exists high level of threat of substitute products for the college. 

References:

cgma. (2012). Porter’s Five Forces of Competitive Position Analysis . Available: http://www.cgma.org/Resources/Tools/essential-tools/Pages/porters-five-forces.aspx. Last accessed 23/04/2013
Jim Riley. (2012). Porter's Five Forces Model: analysing industry structure. Available: http://www.tutor2u.net/business/strategy/porter_five_forces.htm. Last accessed 23/04/2013.

Educate Nepal, 2011. Higher education in Nepal: issues and challenges. Available at : <http://www.educatenepal.com/contributors/articles/higher-education-in-nepal-issues-and-challenges > [Accessed 23/04/2013].

Higher education in Nepal Available at< http://www.criticalthinkingblog.org/on-line-ct-resources/ct-research/higher-education-in-nepal-prospects-and-challenges-in-new-millennium> [Accessed on 23/04/2013] 

Higher education in Nepal: challenges and way forward.  Available at: <http://www.telegraphnepal.com/national/2011-12-14/higher-education-in-nepal:-challenges-and-way-forward.html > [Accessed on 23/04/2013].