Strategic Management Midterm
1) Having a business model that is successful is really important. Without
a business model it would be really easy to fall apart as a business or in our case a
university. In the article we discussed in my Strategic Management class called “Why
Business Models Matter” by Joan Magretta I learned that writing a business model
isn’t all up to the writer. All business in someway relate to each other. This makes it
way easier for the people who are writing them. They don’t have to start from
scratch. They do need to do their research and determine what business model with
some alterations would help them become a thriving business. You don’t just want to
copy someone else’s business model because then there would be no differentiation
between you and the competitor.
The business model that I think OC should follow to overcome the rise of
online universities, community colleges, and increasing government oversight is one
that focuses on the community that have here at OC. The rise of all of these things
are good for getting a degree quickly and then leaving college, but the model that OC
needs to differentiate themselves from everyone else in a world with all of these
changes happening is to focus on our strength which is OC being a “home” not just to
get a degree.
I think that this model will passive the Numbers test. It passes because it’s a
really cheap model that virtually costs almost nothing. If we can market it correctly
to the right group if people who are searching for a place to call home then I don’t
see us failing. This model also passes the narrative test because the story does make
sense. There is a market out there for a University that is a home. If there wasn’t
then this model would fail this test, but there certainly is market for this exact thing.
People want a home and we need to show them where it is.
2) Strategy is positioning your business in a unique position by doing things in an
out of the box way. There are multiple desirable positions that you can intend for your
strategy to position you in. Strategy and operational efficiency are directly correlated with
each other. A company can only outperform all the other competitors in the industry if
they can keep and maintain the differences and the separation that they have created
between themselves and the rest of the competitors. Specifically how this relates to our
company is that we need to have a written strategy that explains how we will separate
ourselves from the rest of our competitors by doing things better or even different then
everyone else. This strategy needs be detailed and look at the long term. We don’t only
