Running Head: ENGLISH PLAYGROUND NURSERY 1

The English Playground Nursery

Name

Institution

Date

Table of Contents
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Responsibility Matrix......................................................................................................................2
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
An Overview of English Playground Nurseries..............................................................................4
Operation management processes in English Playground Nurseries..............................................5
An Overview of the new product.....................................................................................................6
Target Customer;.........................................................................................................................6
The program.................................................................................................................................7
Cost of night shift nursery;...........................................................................................................8
Environmental analysis....................................................................................................................8
The SWOT Analysis......................................................................................................................9
Position in the market...............................................................................................................11
Competitor analysis...................................................................................................................11
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................12
References......................................................................................................................................13

Responsibility Matrix

Responsibility Student Name ID Number

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Introduction
Company Overview
Operations Management process
About the new Company Idea
Environmental Analysis
Conclusion

Introduction

Kuwait has become a focal point of early childhood education and childcare in the

Middle East. This is due to the fact that 15 countries from the region held a conference in Kuwait

City in 2017 to deliberate on various issues that touch on the future and trends of early childhood
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education in the Middle East and North Africa region. In the same way, target 4.2% of

sustainable development goals aimed at seeing all children receive care and pre-primary

education by 2030 in order for to transition well through primary school (Towfighian & Capek

2017). The convening of the conference indicated that the governments in the Middle East and

North Africa region are committed to increasing the pre-primary enrollment of kids to nurseries.

In the same way, as a result of the economic growth various business has adopted a 24 hours

working schedule. This has also created a market for children night care for the night shift

workers. The night shift nursery that will be established by English Playground will play a role

in increasing enrolment. It will also provide high-quality care and pre-primary education in such

a way the expected benefits to the child will be realized.

An Overview of English Playground Nurseries

The English Playground Nursery is reputable in the provision of quality education and

childcare to children aged from 9 months to 11 years (English Playground, n.d). It saw the light

of the day in 1975 and it was called The English Play Group. It is a family owned business and

has a total enrolment of children of 8,000. It well known for providing early childhood nursery

care with 22 nurseries spread out within Kuwait. The nurseries run during the day and it provides

different programs on learning, playing and daycare for the young kids from 9 months to 5.5

years. The daycare nursey runs a program called Early Year Foundation Stage that take a play

based perspective. In addition, English Playground has 2 established primary school located in

Salwa and Salmiya. The management of this school is striving to achieve the mission of

providing affordable high-quality education and supporting kids to be bilingual (English

speaking) and patriotic global citizen in an evolving bilingual culture. In addition, the mission of

the school is nurturing the holistic development of kids laying an emphasis on communication,
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critical thinking, creativity, and collaboration. Lastly, the day nurseries are strategically located

in various sites in order to serve a wide geographical area. They have fully equipped libraries and

play areas.

Operation management processes in English Playground Nurseries

The nursery has adopted a system which is aimed at transforming the input to the desired

child development desired characters by the parents.

The operation management process follows the following sequence.

Input Produciton Process Output

Figure 1 Basis Operation management process in a nursery

Figure 2 English Playground production system

Administration; this is a process that involves the nursery management mobilizing the

resources in order to achieve the output highlighted in the above figure. This function is chiefly

spearheaded by the English Playground director: Sulayman Al-Bassam. The board of the
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nursery management also play a key role in the administration. In this nursery, administration

involves crafting and implementing policies (e.g. credit control policy) and plans (like the rolling

out of night nursery). A competitive administration panel in the organization has ensured there is

much success in creating and implementing the key policies. Therefore, as an operational

activity, administration manager regularly revisits the administrative policies to ensure the

company complies with industry standards.

Financial Control; the finance manager of the English Playground Nursery is responsible

for implementing the internal financial control systems. This enables safeguarding school

resources and also avoid loss and fraud in as far as financial resources are concerned. On the

financial control, the school has adopted budgeting techniques, payable and receivable policies,

implementing of internal control systems, and financial requisition policy. They also have cash

imprest policy which ensures there is a control on the distribution of the financial resources

properly among the daily operations of the company.

Teaching and physical activities; this forms the key part of the management’s role. This

process ensures that the company attains its principle obligations to the parents and the children

enrolled at the nursery. The management of the school has developed a curriculum that includes

English language learning, personal and emotional development. On the activities, they have

movie show, health awareness, and sleep coaching. The activities at 7:30 pm after taking supper

and the kids sleep at 9.30pm.

Marketing activates; in the quest to gain a large market share in childcare sector in

Kuwait, the nursery has implemented various marketing strategies. They have employed a

marketing team. The marketing team uses social media campaigns, broadcast media

advertisements to promote The English Playground brand. The company knows that without
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proper marketing strategies it will be difficult for the business to compete effectively in the

industry.

Picking and dropping activities; The English Playground nursery has a van that picks and

drops kids from their home. The pickup time is 5-6pm and the drop time is 11pm-12am and early

morning at 7-8am. There are two drivers employed by the school and one will be responsible for

running the nursery van. This operation ensures that children are picked and dropped securely at

the center and home respectively depending on the request of the parent.

An Overview of the new product

The business model of English Playground night nursery is to provide whole night care,

late night care up to 12 am, and early morning care starting from 4.30 am. The Kuwait economy

has recorded a remarkable growth over a period of time with a current GDP of USD 114 billion.

Various sectors of the economy like telecommunication, health facilities, security agencies,

energy, banking, and manufacturing have made a great contribution to the economic

development. Many companies in these sectors have adopted 24 hours working system, others

like banks have their customer service running throughout for 24 hours. In other organizations,

they have adopted flexible working hours. Some workers are on shift from 1 pm to 9 pm. Other

workers are in irregular working schedules like nurses. The majority of the workers working in

night shift have young children who need specialized care. In this connection, the provision of a

safe environment and additional holistic child development program will make parent opt for a

night nursery rather than having a maid back home. The English Playground nurseries have a

good reputation for quality education, nurturing children development, and offering specialized

care. Furthermore, mainstream daycare nurseries have neglected the idea of establishing a night

shift nursery making the business ideal for the venture as it has few players in the market. The
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business idea is to introduce a night shift nursery at the English Playground Abu Halifa facility.

They have a daycare nursery and this will be just an extension of the services offered during the

day. In addition, they will add more programs to keep the children entertained before they sleep.

Target Customer; the target customers are couples and mothers working on night shift

schedule and who live in the Abu Halifa area. The night nursery will cater for children between

the ages of 9 months to 5.5 years and will run the program from 6 pm to 8 am in the morning.

The other target customers are parents who leave their office at late in the night. They are going

to be offered evening childcare with pickup time at 12.00 am.

The program; the main objective of the program is to offer night care for a kid, offering

nutritious balanced diet. In addition to that, some other programs have been adopted and they

focus on enabling a kid to achieve physical, social and emotional development. Among the many

programs adopted by the school are infant sleep coaching, movie show, and healthy eating

awareness. Infant sleep coaching; the early year teachers help the kids to develop healthy

sleeping patterns.

Figure 3: Picture, Baby sleep training

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There will be moving showing session for the kids

Figure 4: Picture; Movie show for ages 4-5.5 years

Kids taught about healthy eating

Figure 5: Picture; Health eating awareness

Cost of night shift nursery; the charges are between KD 105-147 per week for each child.

For younger children, the cost will be on the high end since they require more specialized

individual care. For kids 3.5-5.5 years, they will be charged less since they do not need much

individual care. In addition, all children are entitled to 10-15 hours free childcare.

Environmental analysis
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The SWOT Analysis

Strengths Weaknesses
Good reputation Small facility

Affordable school fees Limited experience

Skillful personnel

Strategic location

Opportunities Threats
Irregular working schedules. Major companies establishing onsite

Strengthening economy childcare facilities.

Expansion of customer base Entrance on new players in the market

Legal and regulatory aspects

Strengths

 A good reputation; they have a positive reputation for nurturing the holistic development

of kids and laying an emphasis on communication, critical thinking, creativity, and

collaboration.

 Affordable fees; they are relatively cheap compared to other competitors in the market.

 Skillful personnel; the staff has a vast experience in early childhood education. Apart

from the experiences, the staff are trained from the best colleges in Kuwait.

 Strategic location; the nursery is located at a convenient location that is easily accessible

to commuting workers.

Weaknesses
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 Small facility; the Abu Halifa facility is not big enough to accommodate the demand that

is projected after 2 years of operations.

 Limited experience; the personnel has never had an experience of running night care

nurseries. The need to aboard new staff with the night experience will be paramount.

Opportunities

 Irregular working schedule; there is an expectation of an increase of workers in irregular

schedules. These workers are hospital workers, detectives, airline employees, customer

service representatives, and military personnel.

 Strengthening economy; the GDP of Kuwait is expected to grow rapidly in 2018. Arabian

Business (2018) in reporting BMI research asserted that the economy of Kuwait is

projected to see 3.5% growth in 2018.

 Expansion of customer base; the average household size is increasing and there is a

projection of a rapid increase of the number of children under the age of 5 years.

Threats

 Establishment of onsite childcare nurseries by major companies; major companies across

the world are increasingly establishing childcare nurseries for their staff as a means of

motivating and enhancing the performance of their staff. This is a threat to English

Playground nurseries.

 The entrance of new players in the market; the childcare industry takes a form of a

perfect market and there is a likelihood of seeing nurseries establishing a night shift

nurseries.
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 Legal and regulatory aspects; a likelihood of changes in laws that regulates the conduct

of childcare business will have implication on the business.

Position in the market

The vision of the English Playground night nursery is to be a preferred childcare provider

in Kuwait. The nursery is looking forwarding to command a leading position in the night care

market. This will be due to the accommodating business models that take care of whole night,

early morning and late night care services.

The childcare industry in Kuwait is expected to grow at a significant rate annually. There is a

high demand for childcare facilities and an increase in the number of young parents working in

flex working arrangements or night shift program.

Competitor analysis

There are three major competitors, Kid’s Kingdom Bilingual Nursery, Hamel Almesk

Bilingual Nurseries, and Cascade British Nursery.

 Kid’s Kingdom Bilingual Nursery; the nursery is strategically located in Abu Halifa in

Kuwait. The model of business is that they offer late night childcare services for parents

in flex working arrangements. This is an extension of their daycare program and the

pickup time in the evening is 10.30pm. Their charges are a bit higher, they charge KD 7.5

each hour a kid is taken care of from 6 pm. The enrollment ages are between 3 years to 6

years.

 Hamel Almesk Bilingual Nurseries; they have three facilities hosting their daycare and

night nurseries. The facility is located on Mubarak Al Kabeer Street and has a night

nursery which operates 24/7 except on public holidays. They have adopted programs that
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offer holistic development of a child by imparting life skills, problem-solving skill,

among other pre-school programs. They also have kids Quran learning sessions. They

have a flexible payment plan of twice per month. They charge between KD 95-147 per

week depending on the age and the time a kid spends in the night nursery. The enrollment

age for the pre-school care program is 1 years to 6 years.

 Cascade British Nursery; the nursery pride itself in the provision of a safe, secure, and

caring environment for all their children. In addition, they have a largest educationally

structured facility in Kuwait. They offer transport services to their clients. They pick up

and drop children to their homes but this service is optional. Last but not least, they enroll

children from age 3 years to 6 years for the pre-school day and night program.

Conclusion

The need for childcare services has increased in Kuwait as a result of advancement and

changes in social economic conditions. In addition, the trends in the childcare sector have seen

an increase in the demand for night care services. In the same way, the additional development

programs offered at childcare facilities are making parents opt for professional childcare services

rather than the conventional maids’ services. The introduction of night care program by the

English Playground nursery is a noble idea that is aimed at tapping into the children night care

services. The location of the nursery and the positive reputation are a key selling point. In a

period of five years, the night shift care program will be established in all The English

Playground Nurseries.
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References

Arabian Business. (2018, January 04th) Kuwaiti economy forecast to return to growth in 2018.

Retrieved, from http://www.arabianbusiness.com/politics-economics/386951-kuwaiti-

economy-forecast-to-return-to-growth-in-2018

English Playground, (n.d). EPG Profile. Retrieved from http://epg.edu.kw/about-us/#epg-profile-

section

Towfighian, S.N. & Capek, M. (2017, September 05). A New Vision for Early Childhood

Education in the Middle East and North Africa. World Bank Blog. Retrieved, from

http://blogs.worldbank.org/arabvoices/new-vision-early-childhood-education-mena
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