APOLLO GROUP

Apollo Group Case project

Apollo Group Case project

Introduction

According to Apollo Group Inc, Corporate Information, “Apollo Group, Inc. was founded in 1973 in response to a gradual shift in higher education demographics from a student population dominated by youth to one in which approximately half the students are adults and over 80 percent of whom work full-time. Apollo's founder, John Sperling, believed and events proved him right that lifelong employment with a single employer would be replaced by lifelong learning and employment with a variety of employers. Lifelong learning requires an institution dedicated solely to the education of working adults.

Today, Apollo Group, Inc. through its subsidiaries, the University of Phoenix (including University of Phoenix Online), the Institute for Professional Development, the College for Financial Planning, and Western International University, has established itself as a leading provider of higher education programs for working adults by focusing on servicing the needs of the working adult.”As per the Case 41 - The Apollo Group Inc., Apollo Group has enjoyed continual growth in student enrolments as well as building a strong financial record by having more than doubled its total enrolments and revenues between:

2001 - 124 800 degree enrolments

2004 - 255 600 degree enrolments.

The above figures indicate phenomenal growth in the intake numbers doubling during a four period. This translates into the students valuing Apollo Group and its education philosophy.

Core Competencies

In order to develop core competencies a company must:

Isolate or ring fence its key abilities and hone them into organization-wide strengths;

Compare itself with other companies with the same skills, to ensure that it is developing unique capabilities;

Develop an understanding of what capabilities its customers truly value, and invest accordingly to develop and sustain valued strengths; while at the same time investigating weaknesses

Create an organizational road map that sets goals for competence building;

Pursue alliances, acquisitions and licensing arrangements that will further build the organization's strengths in core areas;

Encourage communication and involvement in core capability development across the organization;

Outsource or divest non-core capabilities to free up resources that can be used to focus on core capabilities.

Uses of Core Competencies

Core competencies can be used to amongst other strategic considerations:

Design competitive positions and strategies that capitalise on a companies strengths;

Institute a cohesive working unit across business units and functional units, and improve the transfer of knowledge and skills among them;

Help employees understand management's priorities; and build a culture of communicating the same message across the organisation

Make the right outsourcing, divestment and partnering decisions. Take note of previous decisions that have not worked in the industry previously

Conduct feasibility studies and use these to either invent new markets or enter emerging markets;

Core Competencies Of The Apollo Group Inc

This report will critically analyse the following two core competencies

Skilled Workforce

Good Market Share

Although the Apollo Group Inc is a dominant player in the education sector, it is important to continuously assess the organisations current situation and to measure the effectiveness of its competitive position and strategy. Globalisation and the trend towards a borderless world affects businesses in new ways, some positive and others negative, for ...