Slide 3

NSBM is one of the leading higher educational institutes in Sri Lanka and it was established in
2012 as a small institute in Nugegoda. From the very beginning itself the founder Dr. E.A
Weerasinghe had a good strategic thinking and direction to make the institute in to a university
with all world class facilities. So the innovation was the main strategic direction of the NSBM.

They have achieved the competitive advantage through innovation in terms of providing real
university life in a private educational institute in Sri Lanka. All the facilities including modern
lecture rooms, sports complex, swimming pool, canteen, bank, laboratory, modern study rooms
etc. to provide everything in a one premises as a town. Also the Green concept is one of the
innovative ideas for a university where the paper work are minimized and the electric usage and
the water wastage is minimized through recycling.

Further it consists with variety of degree programmes from high ranked universities in the world
where other institutes are not affiliated with such high ranked universities. Those universities has
been carefully selected and created the affiliation to provide students with consistent educational
experience. Because being a higher educational Institute, NSBM has planned well for not
making troubles to students’ in between their study years to make changes due to the issues with
affiliated universities. However all the universities it has, have a long term healthy relationship
with the NSBM.

Slide 4

Strategic thinking of the founder can be identified from the inception where their founder has
tried to provide the exact need of the students in the private educational sector where they are
provided in facilities as in a state university. So the real university experience is given for the
students in NSBM. To make the recognition among the parents and students, the government
recognition has been obtained through the affiliation with a ministry. Also the academic
members are carefully selected considering the highest achievements in terms of academically
and professionally.

The major example for the strategic thinking of the founder is the decision for the reallocation
for giving more facilities to students from Nugegoda to Homagama where majority of student
target has been proved. At the same time the ultimate goal of the founder is to develop a unique,
local degree programme at NSBM it would be par with other degrees which are offered by other
state universities in Sri Lanka. So the introduction of the NSBM UGC approved local degree
programme and the encouragement they provide for the students to be enrolled to that
programme as well as the quality they maintain for the local degree would be very good
examples for the strategic thinking of the founder of NSBM.

The ultimate purpose of the founder is to create a good way of preserving foreign exchange
within country which otherwise have been flowed out from the country in terms of foreign
exchange.

Slide 5

Porter’s five forces analysis has been used to analyze the attractiveness of the industry where the
organization is operated. Porter, M.E. (1979).

1. Threats of substitutes
The threat of substitutes for the NSBM is coming from three main sources of organization types.

1. National Universities – All the national universities who are providing free higher
education is one of the substitutes as there are certain categories of students who are
indifferent between state university opportunities and private education when they
have the opportunity to enter in to a government university.
2. Private owned Institutes – All the private institutes who are providing private
education such as SLIIT,APIIT,ICBT,ACBT,NIBM all of these are the substitutes for
NSBM where the biggest competition is created among these parties as the main
focus group of all these entities are the same set of students in the market who are not
eligible in to state universities.

2. Threats of new entrance

The threat of new entrance is coming from the new private higher educational institutes keep
coming in to the industry with same degree programmes but with affordable prices such as
Horizon and small scale institutions with lower cost ranges and good degree programs of same
countries the NSBM has focused on.
 3. Bargaining power of suppliers
For NSBM, the main suppliers are the degree providing bodies of different degrees that they are
providing. As an example, the University Grants Commission for the Local degree programmes
and the University Plymouth, Victoria University, University College of Dublin etc.

4. Bargaining power of Buyers

In NSBM the main buyer group is the students where the constant demands are coming from. So
the educational requirements such as quality, timeliness, relevancy of the content,
understandability, extra support as well as other demands such as on transportation facilities,
timely service, other facilities like sports, foods, accommodation are come under the bargaining
power of students where the student are indifferent with NSBM and other institutes over the
level of fulfillment of their demands.

Slide 6

The strength of the resource base of NSBM is measured using the VRIO model where it asses
how strength full the resource base they have to meet the competitive advantages.

1. Value

At NSBM the resource base helps to the organization to minimize the cost and increase the
revenue through modern university complex and providing “real university experience” where
others don’t have in Sri Lanka. The Green concept helps them to maintain the cost at a minimum
level.

2. Rarity

The resource base the NSBM possesses is very rare in Sri Lanka where the competitive
advantage for the NSBM very high as the available facilities in the university premises is
unfound in anywhere in the competitor’s institutes and the expansion in to that level is
impossible in a shorter period.

3. Imitability

The imitability of resources the NSBM has is very difficult as the initial investment is massive
and the world class facilities the NSBM provides is not possible to be imitated and developed by
someone in a shorter period. Also the high ranked universities NSBM has is not available for
others in Sri Lanka. .

At the same time the very limited academic staff is with NSBM and the higher package they
offer for them is not possible for other organizations.

4. Organizability

The ability to organize the recourses at NSBM to deliver a high quality service is very high as
the human resource is very carefully recruited to match with the academic requirements of the
degree programmes as well as the physical resources are well designed to meet the student
requirements at a universal level. So once put all together there is a 3very good match between
every resource to deliver a best service in the industry.

Slide 7

The Vision statement of the NSBM as given in the slide is to be changed according to the current
market demand for degree programmes. Even though it has been emphasized on the Business
school, there is a big demand for computing degrees as well as engineering degrees. So the
vision statement should be aligned according to those demands in the market. So the vision
statement should include regarding computing school and the engineering school as well as what
they will be achieving through offering those degrees at NSBM to students.

Apart from that the NSBM can think of introducing local degree programmes for computing and
engineering fields with the government and the UGC approval to cater to students who are
having the need of getting a local degree as a requirement for many government employment
opportunities. They can provide degrees for different emerging areas of computing and
engineering such as robotic, data analysis, big data techniques to create new job opportunities in
Sri Lankan context.

At the same time when achieving this vision the company should focus on the different parts of
the country without focusing the students in Colombo. So the marketing campaigns can be
extended to different parts of the country such as Galle, Kandy, Jaffna, Polonnaruwa,
Anuradhapura etc. Then the awareness of NSBM and the awareness of the degree programmes
can be created to expand the student base which is represented the entire country of Sri Lanka.
Slide 8

At the same NSBM can spread the awareness about the institute and its degree programmes
internationally through international exhibitions and higher education agents. Especially
countries such as Maldives, India, China and Japan would be very good countries to focus
students and encourage them to do the degree in Sri Lanka at a cheaper price than their countri

In order to achieve the vision, when it is included with the computing and engineering areas, the
strategies for that would be increasing the relevant facilities for computing and engineering
studies such as well equipped laboratories, testing centers, IT incubation centers, facilitating
internships etc. Further adding a new bunch of high ranked universities for the affiliation list of
NSBM with innovative degree programmes such as fashion designing, robotic technology etc.

Further NSBM can think of some other faculties to provide some new areas such as Law studies,
Biological studies and Nursing degrees where there is a high demand for those programmes, but
still the supply of the market is not properly designed with properly recognized university and a
significant level of government recognition. So NSBM can introduce well designed degree
programmes for such lacking areas in Sri Lanka, but still there is a huge demand for that.

Slide 9 and 10

Blue ocean strategy refers to that companies can reach the success not by fighting with
competitors, but through creating ″blue oceans″ of uncontested market space. Amit,R.(1993). So
for adopting the blue ocean strategy to NSBM, main tasks of blue ocean application would be as
follows.

1. Eliminate

Through elimination of excessive marketing for newspaper advertisements and TV

advertisements and those can be directed towards effective marketing strategies such as
improving awareness of customers and direct marketing. So the frequent TV advertisements,
Newspaper advertisements and expensive stalls in exhibitions can be eliminated from the total
portfolio of marketing programmes and those funds allocated for such activities can be directed
to develop more customized marketing programmes for the potential customers. Such
customized programmes are direct marketing, Visiting schools, Social responsible activities, and
social media and creating a good word of mouth marketing etc.

2. Reducing

NSBM can save their huge budgets over non value adding events where the resources are
wasted, but the value is not created. So those proposals for such events should be carefully
analyzed for the final impact on its brand name and the value addition where non value adding
expenses can be reduced as much as possible where it can be used for innovative value creation.
So every sort of sports activities, Dancing and singing activities should be reduced and the
academic activities to be taken in to a higher level as the other things are happened if the
required student count is recruited.

3. Raising

As NSBM now has been developed the almost every facilities for studentsin the university
premises, it should be more valued through the quality education. So the NSBM can more focus
on raising the quality of the programmes through the proper feedback mechanism as well as
continuous review of syllabuses and amendments for the syllabus based on the feedback of the
students.y’i5i6;’

4. Create