DL is a firm that has been set up to deliver educational services online through the internet .

Online educating that has been known as Distance learning in recent years. To achieve goals and objective Dl must obtain a well-set up a strategy and a coherent decision-making process .This assignment will discuss all these elements in detail as well as it will discover all possible opportunities and threats, strengths and weaknesses.

STRATEGIC Management Strategy is very complex concept and to define it sufficiently within a frame of a sentence or two sentences is certainly going to miss out some key elements. Among all the definitions in the literature can be found a number of words or phrases that are linked with the notion of strategy: Purpose of mission Policies Defining what kind of business the company is in. Defining what kind of company it is. Objectives or goals Strengths and weaknesses Opportunities and threats Key decisions Key success factors Capabilities and competences Planning and scheduling Implantation

Sustainable competitive advantages The strategic management process means defining the organizations strategy. It is also defined as the process by which managers make a choice of a set of strategies for the organization that will enable it to achieve better performance. Strategic management is a continuous process that appraises the business and industries in which the organization is involved; appraises its competitors; and fixes goals to meet the entire present and future competitors and then reassesses each strategy

MODELS ARE TO CONSIDER BY DL

Components of Strategic Management Process Strategic management is an on-going process. Therefore, it must be realized that each component interacts with the other components and that this interaction often happens in chorus. Strategic decisions are the decisions that are concerned with whole environment in which the firm operates the entire resources and the people who form the company and the interface between the two.

Characteristics/Features of Strategic Decisions

Strategic

decisions have major resource propositions for an organization. These decisions may be concerned with possessing new resources, organizing others or reallocating others.

Strategic

decisions deal with harmonizing organizational resource capabilities with the threats and opportunities.

Strategic

decisions deal with the range of organizational activities. It is all about what they want the organization to be like and to be about.

Strategic

decisions involve a change of major kind since an organization operates in ever-changing environment.

Strategic

decisions are complex in nature.

Strategic

decisions are at the top most level, are uncertain as they deal with the future, and involve a lot of risk.

Strategic

decisions are different from administrative and operational decisions. Administrative decisions are routine decisions which help or rather facilitate strategic decisions or

operational decisions. Operational decisions are technical decisions which help execution of strategic decisions. To reduce cost is a strategic decision which is achieved through operational decision of reducing the number of employees and how we carry out these reductions will be administrative decision.

Strategic management decision-making process has following four steps:

scanning refers to a process of gathering, and information that help formulating the strategy. These information enable organisations to analyse the internal and external factors affecting an organization. Strategy FormulationStrategy formulation is the process of deciding best course of action for accomplishing organizational objectives and hence achieving organizational purpose. After conducting environment scanning, managers formulate corporate, business and functional strategies. Strategy ImplementationStrategy implementation implies making the strategy work as intended or putting the organizations chosen strategy into action. Strategy implementation includes designing the organizations structure, distributing resources, developing decision making process, and managing human resources. Strategy EvaluationStrategy evaluation is the final step of strategy management process. The key strategy evaluation activities are: appraising

internal and external factors that are the root of present strategies, measuring performance, and taking remedial / corrective actions. Evaluation makes sure that the organizational strategy as well as its implementation meets the organizational objectives. These components are steps that are carried, in chronological order, when creating a new strategic management plan. Present businesses that have already created a strategic management plan will revert to these steps as per the situations requirement, so as to make essential changes.

Based on the act that DL limited is lunching its services online, it will be vital to spotlight more on this trend in business namely ecommerce. This evolution in business is growing bigger and bigger alongside with the cutting-edge of technology.

The analysis In this part of the assignment as an advisor to DL, I will try to expose to seven points which are:

Possibility Possible Market The

to expand

Markets

entry strategy

role of social networks strategy development

Pricing

Product

Resources

Possibility to expand

Its vital for any type of business not to focus on the current activities factionalized by the company with the available resources to achieve the goals and objectives, however expansion strategy is not of less important for the business to achieve more success and sometimes further to survive. Firms whether they are big or small should always keep an eye open on the market to jump at any opportunity to expand.

DL is required to achieve in the first phase (current activities):

A A

great quality of the service delivered. High level of customer satisfaction profits of all tangible and intangible resources

Good

Availability

required.
Wise

allocation of resources

Mentoring

1.Quality

Educational services are unlike many other services required high quality of delivery. Knowledge is typically of first priority of customers and supplies. As any failure in this domain, put the business in a great risk and in many occasion, it put the entire business out. As DL is backed by a well-known firm namely, Sterling .Therefore, any damage to DL image might damage Sterling as well, which will lead to lose fund and customers thus the whole business would collapse.

High level of customer satisfaction

The 500 student for whom DL is providing the service should experience positively the whole period of the programs and that will definitely increase more opportunities for the company.

Profits
Providing good services with good quality will enable DL to retain its current customers and generate high profits in order to expand or develop the current service.

Availability of all tangible and intangible resources required

Expanding the business means that more efforts and more activities will take place. DL must ensure that it has the sufficient resources available, such as programs designers, tutors, information security and so forth, in order to ensure that the job will be well-done.

Wise allocation of resources

Resources that were previously mentioned need to be allocated wisely. DL must plan precisely to manage these resources as the matter maybe. Failure to do so, could lead to failure to provide the service to the student.

Monitoring
Having all the pre-mentioned steps achieved successfully ,requires one last further step which is about controlling the process and ensuring that the process is run according to the strategy. Many scholars consider this task is of the most significant.

Two possible markets for DL In case DLs experience in the Turkish market was succusful,the possibility to expand for them with be less challenging. As advisor, and after conducting a precise scan and research on attractive markets, I came up with the following recommendation.
1-Egypt 2-Nigeria

Justification
In Investigating the tow pre-mentioned countries markets, Ive conducted a secondary research and gathered all the data required for the right decision. Those markets are still strongly recommended despite of being unrest.

Egypt:
Size Capital city Climet Currency Population rate growth 1,001,450 sq km Cairo (Al-Qahirah) arid, with temperatures ranging from 18 C to 43 C Egyptian pound (E) 1.8% p.a 69 years Egyptians, Falahin (farmers), Sa'aedy (from Egypt)and Bedouins (dwelling in the deserts) Upper

Life expectancy Ethnic composition

Literacy rate Languages Major religions

71% Arabic (official), English, French Islam (Sunni Muslim), Christianity (Coptic Christian and other denominations)

Executive Summary Emerging economies, led by China, are set to regain growth momentum. increasing GDP growth from emerging economies should continue to attract foreign investment relative to developed countries, albeit at a slower pace over the next few years. Egypt's economy should benefit from its diversified GDP, liquid banking system, a lack of toxic financial products, relatively low-cost production, having an under-leveraged economy and from having 75% of the economic growth driven by domestic demand. Long-term growth is assured by demographics and geographic location. Given Egypt's fertile business soil and the increasing investors' confidence in a reformist government, foreign investment should still find its way over to Egypt.

Demographics and Resources in Egypt The demographic factor is the most significant factor for DL is to consider, as the increasing of the population sprawl means more potential costumer the company might have in future. As in this kind of e-business the contact could be directly held between the customer and the company. Therefore the political and economic situation could be of less effect on the business. Population

Populat 2004 ion Change % 1.8

2005 1.8

2006 1.8

2007 1.8

2008 1.8

2009 1.9

201 0

201 1

1.93 1.96

% Source: US Consensus Bureau Egypt's population is now estimated at over 81 million people. In 2005, 0.8 million Egyptians lived abroad as temporary migrants, compared with 2.2 million in 1996, reflecting the decline in job opportunities and the need greater training. Remittances from expatriates represent a major source of foreign-exchange receipts. The population continues to expanding at a fast pace, with a growth rate of about 1.8%, and it is expected to exceed 100 million by 2020. Young people account for more than a third of the population, with 31.8% of Egyptians being under 14 years of age, whereas only 6% are over 60. About 98% of the population is regarded to be ethnically Egyptian, whereas Nubians, Berbers and Bedouins make stand for 1% of the country's population, as do expatriate Europeans. The majority of Egyptians are Sunni Muslims and about 8-10% of the population are Coptic Christians.

During an interview with Reuters,

Egypt is a country that has a population of 80 million people, and as we saw in this revolution, a lot of them are very internet savvy and very much participants in the modern world. So I think we are seeing venture capitalists take heed of a market they had not thought much about. Looking at Egypts ability to be a tech hub is something that people are definitely looking at. If you end up having a functioning political system that has good rule of law and private equity investors have the comfort to make longer term bets, they could look at consumer discretionary, oil services and other sectors.

Education in Egypt and DL as a competitive :

The Egyptian government has been committed since the 1960s to provide free education for all. Around 18% of all children are enrolled in pre-primary school. Literacy among adults has increased from 44.4% in 1986 to 71.4% in 2006, and among youth from 63.3% to 85.4%, respectively.

For DL to compete, the company should have a very strong and cohesive segmentation and targeting plan. Undergraduate programs could not be attractive for Egyptians as its provided with low prices by the government, where postgraduate programs, particularly MBA programs are already expensive and of limited qualified sources.

Nigeria

Nigeria is a jewel in the crown of African economies. With a market-size of some 140 million people, it is easily the biggest by far in Africa.

Area Population Capital city Other major cities People Languages Religion Currency

923,768 sq km (356,700 sq miles) 151 million (World Bank, 2009) Abuja (6 million) Lagos, Ibadan, Kano and at least 7 other cities with a population of over 1 million Hausa/Fulani, Yoruba, Igbo, Ijaw some 250 ethno-linguistic groups and

English (official) but Hausa, Yoruba, Igbo are also used in the National Assembly Muslim, Christian and traditional Naira (NGN)

ECONOMY Basic Economic Facts GDP: US$212bn (2009) GDP per head: US$1,402 (2006) Annual Growth: 6.9% (Nigerian Govt figures for 2009) Inflation: 11.0% ( May 2010) Major trading partners: US, China, Brazil, EU, UK

Trade and Investment with the UK Nigeria is the UK's second largest market in sub-Saharan Africa after South Africa. The value of UK exports has increased steadily from 535 million in 2000 to 1.3 billion in 2009. Imports from Nigeria were worth 95 million in 2000, rising to 800 million in 2009. The UK is one of the largest investors in Nigeria, with cumulative investment of several billion pounds by Shell, British Gas and Centrica in the oil and gas sector. Other large British companies active in Nigeria include Guinness, Unilever, PZ

Cussons, AstraZeneca, Cadbury, British-American Tobacco, GlaxoSmithKline, JCB, Jaguar, British Airways and Virgin Atlantic.

Marketing entry strategy E-COMMERCE B2B B2C

E-commerce Introduction In the emerging global economy, e-commerce and e-business have increasingly become a necessary component of business strategy and a strong catalyst for economic development. The integration of information and communications technology (ICT) in business has revolutionized relationships within organizations and those between and among organizations and individuals. Specifically, the use of ICT in business has enhanced productivity, encouraged greater customer participation, and enabled mass customization, besides reducing costs.

With developments in the Internet and Web-based technologies, distinctions between traditional markets and the global electronic marketplacesuch as business capital size, among others-are gradually being narrowed down. The name of the game is strategic positioning, the ability of a company to determine emerging opportunities and utilize the necessary human capital skills (such as intellectual resources) to make the most of these opportunities through an e-business strategy that is simple, workable and practicable within the context of a global information milieu and new economic environment. With its effect of levelling the playing field, e-commerce coupled with the appropriate strategy and policy approach enables small and medium scale enterprises to compete with large and capital-rich businesses. Electronic commerce or e-commerce refers to a wide range of online business activities for products and services. It also pertains to any form of business transaction in which the parties interact electronically rather than by physical exchanges or direct physical contact.

Forces are fuelling e-commerce :

There are at least three major forces fuelling ecommerce: Economic forces Marketing and customer interaction forces particularly multimedia

Technology convergence

Economic forces One of the most evident benefits of e-commerce is economic efficiency resulting from the reduction in communications costs, low-cost technological infrastructure, speedier and more economic electronic transactions with suppliers, lower global information sharing and advertising costs, and cheaper customer service alternatives. Economic integration is either external or internal. External integration refers to the electronic networking of corporations, suppliers, customers/clients, and independent contractors into one community communicating in a virtual environment (with the Internet as medium). Internal integration, on the other hand, is the networking of the various departments within a corporation, and of business operations and processes.

This allows critical business information to be stored in a digital form that can be retrieved instantly and transmitted electronically. Internal integration is best exemplified by corporate intranets. Among the companies with efficient corporate intranets are Procter and Gamble, IBM, Nestle and Intel.

Market forces Corporations are encouraged to use e-commerce in marketing and promotion to capture international markets, both big and small. The Internet is likewise used as a medium for enhanced customer service and support. It is a lot easier for companies to provide their target consumers with more detailed product and service information using the Internet.

Technology forces

The development of ICT is a key factor in the growth of ecommerce. For instance, technological advances in digitizing content, compression and the promotion of open systems technology have paved the way for the convergence of communication services into one single platform.

This in turn has made communication more efficient, faster, easier, and more economical as the need to set up separate networks for telephone services, television broadcast, cable television, and Internet access is eliminated. From the standpoint of firms/businesses and consumers, having only one information provider means lower communications costs. E

-As we have been just exposed to the concept of e commerce and the forces that drive it and have a great impact on its effectiveness, from my business and economic point of view, these factors should be well-understood and mentored by the DL directors. From a different angle, and based on the fact that the increasing growth in the technology industry as well as people are getting more literate to the use of the internet as well as and this great opportunity for DL to expand its business. Panning for these lead us unconsciously to consider the following markets