Learning Team Project Selection

Bright Horizons is a company that brings quality early childhood education to children. As Bright Horizons has grown, they have created their own curriculum. It involves math, science, technology, social studies, the arts, cooking, and physical education. They also provide different types of services. They have client-based centers, community centers, elementary schools, after school care programs, and summer camps.

Bright Horizons (2014), states that they “strive to nurture each child’s unique qualities and potential.” As a way to extended this mission statement, I propose to offer tutoring as a part of the after school care program. This way the company can extend its mission statement to older students or past students. It is a way for Bright Horizons to extend their services to past students. Strong partnerships are a key value of Bright Horizons. I recommend that the parents get to choose their child’s tutor through a database of tutors in their area. To match another of Bright Horizons values is the collaboration with employers to build family-friendly workplaces, I recommended that the tutors going to customer’s house. Bright Horizons already has its own University to help aid in the growth of its employees. I recommend that they had more classes to aid in the knowledge of the tutors on staff.

The environmental scan involves many different categories. Through remote environment, Bright Horizons can look at the economics, social, political, technologic, and ecological factors involved in their company. Through this analysis Bright Horizons can continue to be the competitive company that they are within the child-care industry. They are consistently working to bring quality child-care to their cliental. Adding in tutoring services would just expand their strong brand and international connections.

In looking at the implementation plan, it is vital to complete for any and all short-term and long-term successes. The tasks and task ownership are there to help keep everyone accountable to their portion of the plan. This is where directors, assistant directors, and current teachers can aid in the expansion of the service. Milestones are there to have a goal to strive for within the company. Having a beta center gives the company a unique perspective. In aligning resources with the strategic plan, it allows Bright Horizons to fulfill its mission statement in a new and innovated way.

My strategic plan will be to offer tutoring through the Bright Horizon Company. To ensure the organization’s vision, mission, and people strategies and value statements are aligned, I will refer to what Bright Horizon’s strives to do for each child. They strive to “nurture each child’s unique qualities and potential” (“Bright Horizon”, 2014). Therefore, in the tutor services, I propose to develop a curriculum that will be based of each child’s learning style. Other items Bright Horizons strives to do are to support families through strong partnerships, collaborate with employers to build family-friendly workplaces, create work environment that encourages professionalism, growth, and diversity, and grow a financial strong organization” (“Bright Horizon”, 2014). Helping the company grow is another alignment of values because tutoring is a $4 billion dollar industry (“Franchise Help”, 2014). Strong partnership is a key value of Bright Horizons. I will be recommending that the parents get to choose their child’s tutor through a database of tutors in their area. To match another of Bright Horizons values is the collaboration with employers to build family-friendly workplaces, by recommending that the tutors going to customer’s house. Bright Horizons already has its own University to help aid in the growth of its employees. I will recommend that they had more classes to aid in the knowledge of the tutors on staff.

The remote environment includes factors that are a part 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). A part of Bright Horizons is client-based centers. For example, Bright Horizons goes to a company and lets them know that they can provide quality child-care to their employees. Not sure you should start a sentence out with it. This allows the employees to drop their children off to onsite 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 a part of accreditations like NAEYC (National Association for the Education of Young Children). Also, the company has some 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 day-care centers. From personal experience, the center I work at has just finished going completely paperless for our children’s portfolios. Prior to this, the company did some technological forecasting, as they wanted to protect and improve the communication between teachers and parents. Thusly, increasing the company’s probability by attracting more customers.

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 strives to offer multiple services throughout the year to include back up care, summer camps, and vacation support (school age).

An operating environment deals with the factors in the immediate competitive situation such as 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 consistent with training and attracting new customers by sharing their success stories with other companies. They are a part 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 comes from the small owner operated childcare businesses that represent most of the industry. However, in the most recent years, there has been a slight increase in the competition at the corporate end of the industry. (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 modeled after community centers, where there is a director, managers, and teachers creating the organizational structure.

Companies should complete analysis of its company’s strengths and weaknesses. SWOT is one that is most commonly used and stands for for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. Bright Horizons strengths include a strong customer base, specialized services, and a strong brand. To expand 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 day care 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 reviewed yearly, Bright Horizons and the company negotiation on a yearly bases to keep the two centers that we have onsite. Through utilization of a SWOT Analysis, Bright Horizons can work at improving their weakness and growing their strengths.

According to Pearce & Robinson (2013), “Innovation is a grand strategy that seeks to reap the premium margins associated with creation and customer acceptance of a new product or service.” Bright Horizon Family Solutions is a leader in innovation among early childhood education. It needs be consistent in its innovation. “Corporations that embrace innovation and, as importantly, manage innovation well, are able to remain buoyant even in the choppy waters of today's uncertain global economics” (“Innovation”, 2012). This can be done through the improvement of their existing services. Bright Horizon would need to development and testing of the new services. It would be recommended that they have customer surveys after they have introduced new or improved services. This would allow them to respond accordingly to the wants and needs of their customers. Therefore, it is recommended that they spend time in the improvement of existing services or the development of new services.

Although, Bright Horizon Family Solution has used the product differentiation strategy, they should continue to use it within their company. This will guarantee their mission of “providing quality childcare” (Bright Horizons, 2014). According “Product Differentiation” (2006), it is “the means by which suppliers attempt to distinguish their own products from those offered by competitors.” This would be through the promotion of the World Curriculum, which offers a variety of subjects like Art Smart (art classes), Movement Matters Zone (P.E. program), Math Counts (learning math through play), and Cooking Club (cooking lessons). They need to create and sustain a demand for their brand loyalty. This would then give them a competitive advantage over rival centers. This strategy may even serve to act as a barrier to entry to other childcare centers that may want to open within the area.