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) ii) iii)
iv)

London South Bank University` James Cook University Swinburne University of Technology (Sarawak Campus) 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 organisations 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 difcult 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 HewlettPackard 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 colleges 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 processIn 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 lecturers 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, its 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 isnt 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 dont 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 youre 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 firms 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 dont like to study in ITP.

3.3 PORTERS 5 FORCES

Figure 3.1: Porters 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, its 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.