Learning Team Peer Evaluation

External and Internal Environmental Analysis 7

External and Internal Environmental Analysis

Trisha Eisele

August 2, 2014

Alfonso Rodriguez

Abstract

This paper is an external and internal environmental analysis on the company called Bright Horizons Family Solutions. Bright Horizons Family Solutions is a daycare and private school company. The company strives to “nurture each child’s unique qualities and potential” (“Bright Horizon”, 2014). The company is in a competitive market where parents want quality childcare for their children. Through the doors of education, Bright Horizons Family Solutions has made a name for themselves. Thusly opening the doors for innovation and forward thinking.

External Environmental Factors

External environmental factors are influenced through different factors. They are divided up into three subcategories. They are “factors in the remote environment, factors in the industry environment, and factors in the operating environment” (Pearce & Robinson, 2013).

Remote Environment

The remote environment includes factors that are apart of the company’s operating situation. There are five factors: (1) economic, (2) social, (3) political, (4) technological, and (5) ecological factors (Pearce & Robinson, 2013). Apart of Bright Horizons is client based centers. For example, Bright Horizons goes to a company and lets them know that they can provide quality childcare to their employees. It allows the employees to drop their children off to an on site daycare. According to Bloomsburg Businessweek (2014), “Child care benefits the employers who sponsor it by improving employee morale, reducing turnover and absenteeism, and increasing productivity.”

Social factors are key within the daycare business, especially when dealing with an international company. Bright Horizons embraces diversity. A number of the centers are apart of accreditations like NAEYC (National Association for the Education of Young Children). Also the company is one of the highest paid workers due to the client-based centers. They offer benefit packages even to part-time workers. Politically, Bright Horizons always has to deal with new laws and regulations. The company is an international company therefore; they have to maintain other countries’ laws and regulations.

Technological factors are faced every day with the centers. From personal experience, the center I work at has just finished going completely paperless for our children’s portfolios. The company did some technological forecasting and wanted to protect and improve the communication between teachers and parents. Thusly increasing the company’s probability by attracting more customers.

Industry Environment

According to Pearce & Robinson (2013), industry environment is “the general conditions for competition that influence all businesses that provide similar products and services.” Bright Horizons has many competitors including in home daycares. According to Lamiman (2007), “One relatively new entrant is Knowledge Learning Corporation, which acquired KinderCare Learning Centers, Inc., in January 2005. Knowledge Learning reports its network now includes more than 120 employer-partnerships centers. Another company in the field is La Petite Academy, with 29 corporate-sponsored early learning centers.” Therefore, there are a number of competitors throughout the industry. Bright Horizons works on offering multiple services throughout the year like back up care, summer camps, and vacation support (school age).

Operating Environment

An operating environment deals with the factors in the immediate competitive situation. It is looking at factors that deal with a company’s success in acquiring needed resources. According to Pearce & Robinson (2013), “Among the most important of these factors are the firm’s competitive position, the composition of its customers, its reputation among suppliers and creditors, and its ability to attract capable employees.” Bright Horizons maintains many different types of centers around the world. They are consistant training and attracting new customers by sharing their success stories with other companies. They also are apart of many accreditations and follow a number of states and countries regulations and laws. They also maintain learning and professional growth opportunities for their employees. Their competitive position is high in the daycare industry. According to Lamiman (2007), “A company spokesman reports that most of Bright Horizons' competition conies from the small owner operated childcare businesses that represent most of the industry. In recent years, however, competition at the corporate end of the industry has increased somewhat. (Bright Horizons appears to be the only publicly traded company.)” Thusly showing how their position within the child care industry is competitive. Their structure is what they call a management (cost-plus) model. In other words the client (a major corporation) provides the space, pays start-up costs, buys capital equipment, handles facility maintenance and retains more control over operations (Lamiman, 2007). Bright Horizons has about 40 percent of their centers under this model. Others are model after community centers, where there is a director, managers, and teachers creating the organizational structure.

Internal Strengths & Weaknesses

Companies should complete analysis of its companies strengths and weaknesses. A popularly used one is a SWOT analysis. SWOT stands for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. In looking at Bright Horizons, their strengths include a strong customer base, specialized serives, and a strong brand. To expanded on one of these strengths, a strong brand is a main portion of Bright Horizons. They have their own curriculum. They included state standards but they hold their centers to a company standard. Their daily letters, newsletters, and class documentation all reflect these standards which are all under the Bright Horizon brand. Weaknesses of Bright Horizons include stringent regulations and reliance on future corporate acceptance. Through personal experience, I have seen the problem with reliance on future corporate acceptance. Our contract with our company is review yearly, Bright Horizons and the company negotiation on a yearly bases to keep the two centers that we have onsite. Through analysis like SWOT, Bright Horizons can work at improving their weakness and growing their strengths.

Conclusion

Through this analysis, it has been seen that Bright Horizon is a competitive company with in the child-care industry. They are consistently working to bring quality child-care to the working cliental. Through their strong brand and international connections they are able to bring a new level of child-care to many different countries.

References

Bright Horizons. (2014). Retrieved from http://www.brighthorizons.com/about-us

Hahn, C. (2014). Businessweek. Retrieved from http://www.businessweek.com/debateroom/archives/2007/04/day_care_an_office_affair.html

Lamiman, K. (2007, January). Bright Horizons Family Solutions Inc.. Better Investing, 56(5), 30-32. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com.ezproxy.apollolibrary.com/docview/233340341/abstract?accountid=458

Pearce, J. A. & Robinson, R. B. (2013). Strategic Management: Planning for Domestic and Global Competition (13th ed). New York, NY: McGraw Hill.