Case Study
Overview
Due to the rapid growth in the number of universities in the world, there is an increasing competition between various universities in an attempt to attract qualified academic staff and students. This is to allow them to meet their needs as well as fulfill their core objectives. This paper presents a series of strategies that Missouri University of Science and Technology can use in order to remain competitive and productive. The essay considers various strategic management tools and strategic formulation that can be used by the university to enhance its performance. The feasible strategies are evaluated to give the recommended strategy for the university.
We propose that the university should embark on extensive marketing campaign, primarily through coordination with various marketing agencies in different countries using channels such as social media, interactive websites and print media. The use of a variety of marketing channels will ensure that a large number of audiences are made aware of the various programs that the university offers. Additionally, the university should partner with various stakeholders and collaborate with other foreign universities and colleges to offer its core courses to ensure that its programs are availed to international students. Moreover, by partnering with the university and various organizations in research, the university can receive funds and grants for its research programs, which will potentiate its abilities to offer higher education.
Vision Statement
Vision statement is an inspirational goal that describes the short term and long term aims and objectives of organizations. The vision statement helps describe where the company’s need of the future by setting the direction that company intends to take in its strategic planning (Bryson, 2011). The vision statement of Missouri University of Science and Technology is “To be the leading university in scientific and technological research and development”. This vision statement means that the university should put more effort in scientific and technological research so as to offer competitive courses in those fields to students. The vision statement aims at producing graduates who are more competent than graduate from other institutions.
The University’s vision statement is important in describing the institution’s purpose. In addition, apart from describing the university’s purpose and direction, the vision statement also articulates the university’s values. At this point, the vision statement becomes instrumental in giving specific direction of employees’ behavior geared towards motivating them to achieve better performance. The vision statement becomes an inspiration tool to clients, stakeholder and students, who strive to attain the Universities’ objective contained therein.
In striving to attain the highest performance, the vision and mission statement are vital tools that communicate the institutions goals and objectives. However, the main purpose of the Missouri University of Science and Technology vision and mission statement is to inspire, and motivate not only employees but also all the stakeholders affiliated with the university. Articulated in the vision and mission will not only be the responsibilities of the University owners, but also those of the employees, students and other stakeholders.
Mission Statement
A mission statement can be described as a sentence that describes an organization fundamental reason for establishment and existence (Bryson, 2011). An ideal mission statement should be able to identify the customers, products and services offered by the entity. The mission statement of Missouri University of Science and Technology is as follows: “To provide highest standards of university education; to train, innovate and disseminate knowledge; and to produce individuals with skills beneficial to society.” The mission statement of the university explains the main objective of the university. The mission statement requires the university to train the students adequately so as to be able to be productive in the society. This can ensure that the graduates from the university are innovative and contribute to the development of the society.
Integrating mission statement into strategic plan for betterment of university performance has always been a challenging undertaking. However, in this case, the university will emphasize the need for the current mission statement to be articulated by the employees of the university. Involving employees in articulating the mission statement will provide a clear clarification of the purpose and basic objectives of the university. By articulating the mission statement either in formal or informal settings, employees will be doing an additional job in increasing the institutions visibility out of their formal environment.
External Environmental Assessment
Opportunities
The availability of antitrust laws protects the university patents rights. This ensures that no other institution can duplicate the patent of the university acquisition of an appropriate license. This government will also have favorable policies and legislation that promote the efficiency of learning institutions in the United States. The political stability of the country will also attract various students and staff from a number of countries and this ensures that the university will have adequate staff and students for all its programs.
There is potential growth and development of the university as a result of the stable economic condition of the United States. The United States is experiencing rapid economic growth. This provides an opportunity for the university to acquire funds that can be used in the expansion of its programs and towards investments in research and development initiatives. The demand for technological and scientific skills is on the increase over the world and this makes the university’s programs to be on high demand.
The university will also take advantage of the emergence of new and innovative technology in the education sector. Currently students can engage in long distance learning programs and this can enable the university to reach a wide number of students around the globe. The high population in the United States provides potential for the University’s growth as it ensures that there is continuous growth in the enrollment of students. The US has a high population of approximately 316,668,567 people making it the fourth nation with high population in the world (CIA, 2013).
Threats
There are high numbers of universities that are established in the United States hence increasing the level of competition for student enrolment. This can hinder the university from achieving its objectives. Some of the established universities in the country include Stanford University, Princeton University, Yale University and Duke University.
Funding of the university could also be reduced in the future due to changes in the demographic structure of the population which indicates an increasing number of old individuals in the country. The age structure of the country indicates that approximately 40 percent of the population constitutes individuals in the old age stage (CIA, 2013). This shows that education funds could be reduced in the near future to provide funding to take care of older people in society.
Internal Environmental Assessment
Strengths
The university has adequate qualified and skilled staff that can deliver education and training to the students. Lecturers at the University are qualified in various fields and have diverse experiences and expertise that enable them to offer quality training to the students.
The university also has adequate training and education facilities. The education and training facilities at the university are modern and able to meet the current requirements of students (MUST, 2013). For example, it has a modern library, classrooms, study rooms and laboratories equipped with modern facilities such as computers and internet services.
The university also offers courses that are in high demand. Many organizations are nowadays in need of professionals in technological and scientific fields to help in the development and growth of the companies.
Weaknesses
There is inadequate financial funding to enable the university to carry out its research and development initiatives effectively. The university also lacks enough sources of income to run its operations effectively. This undermines it from achieving its goals and objectives.
The university is also characterized by few courses that cater only for students interested in technological and scientific studies. This makes it unable to attract students interested in other courses hence makes it less marketable.
Analysis of Alternative Strategies
The university can use a number of strategies to ensure that it remains a competitive and reputable learning institution in the United States as well as throughout the globe. The strategies include extensive marketing, diversification of its learning programs and investments (Bradford et al, 2000).
Marketing of the university within and outside the country can ensure that it is able to reach a large number of students through creation of awareness. This can lead to more enrollments in the university hence lead to its growth and development. This strategy is however subjected to budget constraints since it will require extra funds to be used in various marketing campaigns.
Diversification of the university programs can also increase its competiveness by ensuring that it enrolls large number of students from various fields. This can lead to the growth of the university as well as help build its reputation. This strategy may also affect the objectives of the university by making it to lose focus on specific area and hence reducing its competency in science and technology programs.
The university can use investments as a means of generating revenues to be used in its research and development initiates. It can invest in various businesses that provide revenues. This strategy however may shift the focus of the institution from education institution to a profit making organization making it lose its academic standards and reputation.
The best strategy that the university can use to ensure competitive advantage in the country and the world is to market its program in various countries around the world so as to attract a large number of students and professionals. This strategy has a little impact on the quality of education standard of the university and can ensure that the university generated extra revenues that can be used for research and development initiatives.
Implementing the Strategy
The marketing strategy can be implemented using various techniques that include advertisement of the university programs through various channels such as websites, newspapers, radio, television and trade shows and exhibition.
The marketing strategy can also be ensured through introduction of various online programs that caters for international students in different countries. This can enable the university to increase its enrollment rate and revenues. The university can also collaborate with other universities and colleges around the world to offer its core courses. It can also form alliance with various research institutions and organizations so as to be able to obtain funding and accomplish its objectives. This strategy has been used successfully by various organizations that are not profit oriented hence is suitable implementation strategy (Drucker & Hesselbein, 2010).
The Implemented Strategy
The university has been able to initiate a program that allow student from foreign countries to enroll and pursue academic programs that it offers. The availability of online learning programs has attracted various university students as well as qualified academic staff from foreign countries. This has helped improved the image and performance of the university in the world. Again the revenues of the University have increased due to the extra funds received from international students hence enables it to invests in various programs such as research and development initiatives. Investing in research and development can allow the university to improve quality of education and also encourage innovation and development of new ideas.
Recommended Strategy
Since the global world is characterized by competiveness, it is advisable for the university to adopt strategies that will ensure that it remains competiveness in the global market. This will help build its reputation and enhance the rate of students’ enrollment as well as attract qualified academic staff. It is therefore important for the university to implement a number of strategies so as to ensure that it remains relevant in the education sector. One of the strategies that the university should adopt is to embark on extensive marketing campaign. This can be achieved through coordination with various marketing agencies in different countries. The marketing campaign should involve the use of various channels such as social media, website pages and print media. The use of a variety of marketing channels will ensure that a large number of audiences are made aware of the various programs that the university offers.
Another recommended strategy for the university is to partner and collaborate with various stakeholders throughout the world. This can be achieved through collaboration with other foreign universities and colleges to offer its core courses. This strategy will ensure that its program is made available to international students hence enhance its performance and presence. Partnership between the university and various organizations with regard to research can also increase its effectiveness as well as enable it to receive funds and grants for its research programs. This again is important in improving the quality of education in the university.
Best Strategy to Improve University Performance
The success of academic institution depends on the strategies that are developed by the management towards improving the education standard. The most important strategies that have been used by various academic institutions involve the use of research and development programs. The university can therefore invest in strategic research program with aim of making it the centre of academic excellence in the country. Although the program requires huge investments, it can help put the university on the front of global research. The latest trend suggests that research is becoming more and more favorable in identification and solving the current life’s challenges. Embarking on research will therefore increase the university’s visibility within educational sphere.
Another important strategy is to increase investment in infrastructure to accomplish the expected research plans. Key university stakeholders have endorsed the scope and scale of this development program. The expansion will boost student admission as well provide money needed for innovation and development programs. This strategy is important given that key economies are achieving success due to immense investment by higher education institutions towards knowledge development. For effective delivery, the research program will be incorporated in the University’s mission and vision statement. Expansion of the university’s infrastructure is critical and effective in responding to changes in high education-learning environments. Some of these shifts include; technological shifts in the way current humans are performing their work, increased need to diversify income and increased competition within education sector, with more emphasis being placed on quality of education.
Although the delivery of the above strategies will be encountered by various challenges, the university has formulated, consulted and confirmed with major stakeholders that the strategies are viable and beneficial and will improve the performance of the university. It is also important to note that these strategies have been formulated with consideration of the needs and wishes of the immediate community.
Implementing strategy
It can be concluded that implementing any strategy has always been a precarious and challenging matter. This is because implementation implies inevitable changes that have to take place. Therefore, in implementing the above strategies, the university acknowledges that resistance to change and other challenges are bound to occur at the implementation stage. In admitting that such challenges are bound to occur, the university has instituted a team of experienced senior management staff led by Vice-Chancellor, Chief Finance Officer, the Chief Registrar and Chief Operating Officer to execute the strategy.
The above team will be charged with formulation and implementation of appropriate education model. The objective of the team is to develop appropriate structures, controls, integration frameworks and incentives so as to implement and realize the actual intentions of the university. Additionally, the implementation team will use the framework of strategy change to understand various stages of project implementation. The Framework of strategy change requires an understanding of forces against and for implementation process. It will also initiate parameters and tactics to ensure enhanced academic performance. The implementation team will also initiate incentives and controls mechanism to cater for people or departments that will be affected during implementation process. This will act as away to motivate staff so as to ensure high performance in spite of the ongoing changes.
Although implementation strategies can be quite challenging especially in the face of ongoing and sustained performance, but with the implementation team in place, the university needs to establish key performance indicators during the implementation process, which will be important in managing improvement and performance in the face of ongoing changes.
References
Bradford, R., Duncan, P., & Tarcy, B. (2000). Simplified strategic planning, Worcester, Mass:
Chandler House Press
Bryson, M. (2011). Strategic Planning for Public and Nonprofit Organizations: A Guide to
Strengthening and Sustaining Organizational Achievement. (4th ed.). John Wiley & Sons.
CIA. (2013). United States. WorldFact Book. Retrieved from
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/us.htm on December 2, 2013
Drucker, P. F., & Hesselbein, F. (2010). Managing the Non-Profit Organization: Practices and Principles, New York: Harper.
MUST (2013). Missouri University of Science and Technology home page retrieved from http://www.mst.edu/ on December 2, 2013
