個案資料

Educomp Solutions Ltd. was established in 1994 with the aim of providing for a customer’s entire education lifecycle, from pre-school to higher education/vocational training, and appropriating value from the same customer multiple times. This strategy, over a period of 17 years, enabled Educomp to become the largest player in the education technology sector in India. Educomp took the organic route to growth, which it achieved largely through acquisitions and alliances. Its flagship brand, SmartClass, brought technology into the classroom with a vast repository of digital modules on every subject. However, in 2012 the government of India proposed changes in its education policy that — along with the country’s economic uncertainty — threatened to erode the competitive advantage that ESL had gained over the years. The CEO of Educomp wondered how he could maintain his organization’s leadership position. He was contemplating a three-pronged strategy that involved 1) expanding into the untapped Indian rural market segment with school learning solutions; 2) creating a virtual learning solution that included open-source content for students; and 3) investing further in research and development in order to develop innovative products to penetrate the Indian education market.

This case can be used in an MBA program for a course in strategic management in a strategy formulation module. It can be used to understand such concepts as strategic business unit analysis, industry competitive structure, strategic positioning, change management, diversification, internal analysis and external analysis. It will give students the opportunity to:<ul><li>Conduct and understand a general environment analysis and industry and competitive analysis.</li><li>Critically evaluate a firm’s strategic positioning and scope in a competitive environment.</li><li>Understand an industry’s change trajectory and its impact on a firm’s strategy.</li><li>Leverage core competence for sustainable competitive advantage.</li><li>Understand how to create and capture superior value compared with other players in an industry.</ul></li>

• Competitive analysis
• change trajectory
• strategic positioning
• core competency
• India