developing solutions to implement the 2011 2015 differentiation focus strategy aroma professional english

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI SCHOOL OF BUSINESS NGO THI THUY LINH DEVELOPING SOLUTIONS TO IMPLEMENT THE 2011-2015 DIFFERENTIATION FOCUS STRATEGY OF AROMA PROFESSIONAL ENGLISH MASTER OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION THESIS Hanoi, 2011 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI SCHOOL OF BUSINESS NGO THI THUY LINH DEVELOPING SOLUTIONS TO IMPLEMENT THE 2011-2015 DIFFERENTIATION FOCUS STRATEGY OF AROMA PROFESSIONAL ENGLISH Major: Business Administration Code: 60 34 05 MASTER OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION THESIS Supervisor: Dr Vu Anh Dung Hanoi, 2011 TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS i ABSTRACT ii TÓM TẮT iv TABLE OF CONTENTS vi LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS viii LIST OF FIGURES ix LIST OF TABLES x INTRODUCTION 1 Research background Research objectives Research questions Research focus Data collection methodology Structure of the research report111 CHAPTER I: LITERATURE REVIEW 1.1 Business strategy 1.2 Environmental analysis 10 1.2.1 External analysis 11 1.2.1.1 Macro analysis 11 1.2.1.2 Industry analysis 13 1.2.2 Internal analysis 18 1.3 SWOT analysis 22 1.4 Strategy implementation 24 CHAPTER SUMMARY 29 CHAPTER 2: ANALYSIS OF EXTERNAL AND INTERNAL ENVIRONMENT FOR AROMA PROFESSIONAL ENGLISH 30 2.1 AROMA’s profile 30 2.2 External analysis 31 2.2.1 Macro analysis 31 2.2.2 Industry analysis 39 2.3 Internal analysis 47 2.3.1 Company structure 47 2.3.2 Current strategy 49 2.3.3 Value chain analysis 53 2.4 SWOT analysis 66 CHAPTER SUMMARY 72 CHAPTER 3: RECOMMENDATIONS TO IMPLEMENT THE SELECTED STRATEGY 73 3.1 Recommendation base 73 vi 3.2 Recommendations to implement the set 2011-2015 strategy 75 3.2.1 Recommendations related to the current service 75 3.2.1.1 Stimulate marketing and branding activities 75 3.2.1.2 Research and develop the program for individual/group clients 77 3.2.1.3 Open more new branches 78 3.2.2 Recommendations related to new services 78 3.2.2.1 Research and develop the TOEIC service for university students 79 3.2.2.2 Search the partners for education cooperation 86 3.2.2.3 Launch the service of knowledge management consultancy 87 3.3 Action plan 89 CHAPTER SUMMARY 92 CONCLUSION 93 REFERENCES 94 vii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ADB Asian Development Bank Ads Advertisements AROMA AROMA Professional English ASK AROMA Speaking Klub CD Compact Disc CEO Chief Executive Officer CRM Customer Relationship Management ERP Enterprise Resource Planning FO Front Officer GDP Gross Domestic Product GM General Manager HRM Human Resource Management IELTS International English Language Testing System IT Information Technology Mar Marketing MIS Management Information System PEST Political, Economical, Social, Technological PR Public Relationship R&D Research and Development SWOT Strength, Weakness, Opportunity, Threat TOEFL Test Of English as a Foreign Language TOEIC Test Of English for International Communication viii LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1.1: Michael Porter’s generic strategies Figure 1.2: Environmental scanning chart 10 Figure 1.3: Michael Porter’s five forces model 14 Figure 1.4: Michael Porter’s Value chain model 19 Figure 1.5: SWOT analysis framework 22 Figure 1.6: SWOT matrix 24 Figure 2.1: Vietnamese GDP growth and inflation (2005-2010) 33 Figure 2.2: Vietnam’s population structure 36 Figure 2.3: Vietnam’s Internet usage by age (2010) 37 Figure 2.4: Competitor rank in terms of tuition fee 45 Figure 2.5: AROMA’s structure 47 Figure 2.6: Value chain model of AROMA 53 Figure 2.7: Cyn.in- AROMA knowledge management system 61 Figure 2.8: List of corporate clients 63 ix LIST OF TABLES Table 1.1: Important variables in PEST analysis 11 Table 2.1: Forecast summary on Vietnam economy 2010-2015 34 Table 2.2: English training company comparison 42 Table 2.3: Survey results on Learners Feedback 64 Table 2.4: AROMA’s SWOT analysis 67 Table 3.1: AROMA’s SWOT matrix 74 Table 3.2: Action plan for the period of late 2011-2015 90 x INTRODUCTION Research background English has become the common language in the world In the perspective of deeply integrating into the world economy, Vietnam also emphasizes the importance of using English as a popular language The more needs of using English in communication arise, the more needs of learning English increase and also the more English centers appear Those centers diversify their services from academic to communicative English, from elementary to advanced levels, for different customers from children to adults, from individuals to enterprises The market is huge, the competition is rough As an English center, AROMA’s board of managers has to find out which is the best way to go, on the other words, which is the best strategy to follow in order to survive and compete with existing firms in the market Fortunately, AROMA currently has already implemented a specific strategy, so-called a differentiation focus strategy to develop itself During the period of 2008-early 2011, AROMA paid attention on providing one kind of English which is not general, not academic, but professional; for one kind of customer which is not children, not students but working people These focus and differentiation orientations have brought AROMA some certain success through customer awareness and feedback; therefore, the board of managers agrees to follow the strategy in the next five years (late 2011-2015) Besides strengthening the current service, the company has to diversify its operation into other new services which are still differentiated and focused in order to get sustainable development, because five-year is a long time period However, up to now, they have had difficulties in finding the most effective ways or solutions to carry out these two strategic directions This issue leads to the work of this thesis Research objectives This study focuses on identifying and explaining basic concepts in analysis of a generic strategy and applying the theoretical background in a real case study of AROMA Professional English The main objectives of the study are to analyze the external and internal environment of the company to find out its current strengths and weaknesses, and potential opportunities and threats in the process of strategy fulfillment and then to recommend some solutions to overcome such difficulties and implement the strategy in the period of 20112015, helping the company continuously position itself in the market as a professional company Research questions In the scope of the study, the author tries to answer the main question: What are the suitable solutions to implement the set 2011-2015 differentiation focus strategy of AROMA? To find out the answer for the question, the author must clarify some issues as follows: • What are the main competitors of AROMA in the market? • What are the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats of AROMA? • What are the solutions to carry out the set 2011-2015 differentiation focus strategy? Research focus The study only focuses English centers in Hanoi market, apart from universities, institutions or any organization governed by the State The scope of the study is limited in years, from 2008 to 2015 The current situation is analyzed from 2008 to early 2011 and some forecasts are given during late 2011 and 2015 This study only focuses on recommending solutions to carry out the differentiation focus strategy which has been set by the board of managers of AROMA for the period of 2011-2015 Consequently, business strategy development is not the focus of the study Data collection methodology In the study, the author uses the following methods of collecting and analyzing the data: The most important way is case study, which includes qualitative study, analyzing and comparing to rivals During the process of suggesting the company solutions, the author also makes focus group, gathering some key managers of the company in a meeting, interviewing them and convincing them about the good solutions to follow On the other hand, a survey on leaner feedback is carried out and also some interviews are conducted to gather the information and give the conclusion well structured and internationally approved but also special designed for working environment The orientation of the service is learning English based on the foundation of TOEIC, and does not specialize in training for examination skills The program will use the course book and other materials of TOEIC and will pay attention on providing all the knowledge of vocabulary, grammar, listening practice and extra activities including pronunciation and communication skills The content will be much closed to the Professional English because it orient to the working environment and to the typical working situations Besides, it will include some further activities related to testing skills This is only the value-added benefit, not the main purpose of the service The reason is that if the program focuses on training tips for test-takers, the service will only attract the small amount of clients who are planning to attend the TOEIC test, while the general need of English training absolutely exceeds the need of test taking Focusing on test taking only means to shrink the market and the potential clients, which no company aims for Overall, if choosing this service, the students will benefit: have a good foundation of English to develop English kills and improve English mark at university; be familiar with TOEIC and test-taking skills to be willing to take the test at any time, especially when prepare to graduate or apply for jobs; and be oriented with working environment for the future career Therefore, it can be seen that the results achieved from AROMA course lie from studying at university to orienting to career after graduation This is a leading value in positioning this new service 81 Competitor analysis It can be seen via the five forces model has been analyzed in Chapter that the market is full of English training companies (500 ones in Hanoi and 200 in Ho Chi Minh City), with full of sizes, forms and prices However, generally many existing centers are miscellaneous and spread in many kinds of English course and not only focus on any special one After asking around again, in terms of TOEIC training, those companies organize classes for all ages, for various clients, for various contents such as communication, test-taking, grammar focus and for various certificates There is no specification and no special name for TOEIC and university students The orientation of marketing is also general towards every object This miscellany will cause the difficulties in educating the market of TOEIC for students Customer orientation The potential clients in the very first stage will aim at all universities and colleges students then later will develop to working people and enterprises As mentioned above, for working people, many jobs require good command of English At the same level of experience and working ability, which one has better English skills can have better promotion and higher income Therefore, their English demand can not be denied For students, sooner or later they will become working people and will be at same shoes as the working people Therefore, they will have demand of learning English too The reason why they have to study English outside their universities belongs to the current situation Just very few universities which graduate students can satisfy the need of enterprise’s human resource standard 82 such as Foreign Trade University, Institution of Diplomatic Academy, or Foreign Language University Many others such as National Economic University, Law University, especially Hanoi University of Science and Technology, Construction Universities have not good English level It is not mentioned that many college, vocation, and middle students have very low English level As a result, it can be clearly seen that, students need to invest in studying English for the sake of two major purposes which are getting good mark at schools and developing English skills for future career Moreover, for many enterprises, the requirement of English level is still a major and important one They tent to use the standard grade of an international English examination like TOEIC to evaluate English level of their staff Many big companies or groups have been using TOEIC as a criteria to choose the right human resources or to evaluate their staff performance Some can be listed out as banks, petrol groups, air service companies and so on This trend is predicted to develop further in medium sized companies Meanwhile, the Ministry of Education and Training has forced some universities to use TOEIC results in cases of permission for student’s major allocation and graduation As a result, students will be under two major enforcements towards their studying English Those are a push from the requirement of the Ministry and their Universities and a pull from the requirement of the labor force market to have a certain TOEIC grade Over all, as for orientation, AROMA should put the first priority on the students at technical universities who are very crowded and have better awareness of their needs compared to college students; therefore AROMA will better educate them about the new service The students at colleges and other schools will be the later priority 83 Marketing and sales To educate the market about the new service, AROMA needs to create a new brand name, logo and slogan for it AROMA originally sticks with “Professional English for Working people” which has little impact on students Absolutely, AROMA will not change this brand name in order to approach the students because it has been AROMA’s core service and widening the brand name will definitely dilute it, creating a bad influence on customer awareness As a result, the new slogan is suggested to be “AROMA TOEIC – learning English for career” The idea is arising from the above service description and can help customers well imagine about the course and the benefits they will receive from it The design of the brand name must be suitable with the target customer The new brand identity must obviously keep core things related to the original brand “Professional English” but can be designed in a more colorful, more active and younger image AROMA need to a market research not only to find out the overall needs of the potential customers but also to notice the market about AROMA service The market is not aware of the new service, therefore the main purpose is to orient them to AROMA TOEIC program, ask them about this service and get their feeling if AROMA launches this service Other needs of them which are concluded from the research will be used in the program content building and developing later on Also the research has to include the research on acceptable prices of the course which helps AROMA quote the suitable tuition fee 84 In terms of marketing tools, this new service can use and follow the way of doing with the main service: combining between online and offline activities Furthermore, the company should open more new channels which focus on the universities that they are aiming at AROMA can hold some conferences for students in their universities or sponsor for the student’s events For sales plan, the idea is that the company can use the students to be sales persons They will work as part-time collaborators and will be responsible for introducing and consulting other students about AROMA TOEIC and taking care of their customers The collaborator network can work as a model of teamwork Each group of collaborators will be in charge of one university market and be independent with other groups AROMA will have a sales supervisor who will manage the network, make sales plan and be responsible for the sales of the whole channel AROMA should invest further in making the plan for this from recruitment, commission policy, training to sample business plan to create and develop the network Along with making plans of marketing and sales, AROMA should also pay attention to build and develop the detailed program The questions they have to answer should be: Which course book should AROMA use, how many levels the program will have, what activities should be add in, how a class will be organized and managed and so on So many things need to be done in order to launch a new service and its achievement can only be assessed after some time of implementation However, both the author and the Management Board believe on the innovation and special of the service This will definitely help AROMA position itself in the market as a talent and special education company 85 3.2.2.2 Search the partners for education cooperation Direct competition can help AROMA survive but can not help them strong in the market Recently, most rivals in the market choose to cooperate with other partners to create some alliances for better competition rather than directly fight with each other Once AROMA lack of capital and other resource to implement the big plan of operation, they will need some useful help from their partners if any The objective is to find at least one or two potential partners to co-ordinate with in supplying the service of education management “Many hotels or towers are built by the investors but managed by other independent side, for instance, Horison hotel is managed by SwissBelt or Keangnam tower is managed by Tai Tam Colliers” said the Director of AROMA According to the orientation of packaging all services to be products to sell, this service can be a package of full education management or split into some separated phases such as branding – marketing or sales The partners are investors and education and training enterprises For example, one investor is planning to open a chain of high class international schools from primary, secondary to high school This investor will be in charge of building and upgrading infrastructure; developing their specific academic orientation for the products and service while AROMA will be responsible for branding, marketing, sales/student recruitment and general management Another way is that the investor prepares the capital and provides for AROMA other supports when needed and AROMA will take the remaining tasks of the cooperation Besides the partner to be an investor, they not only have big amount of capital, but also have many useful relationships That will be valuable asset of 86 the cooperation and through it AROMA can take advantage of the relationship to invest more in other fields On the other hand, as to reduce the threat of substitutes, AROMA still can cooperate with some e-learning or tutoring enterprises The company, for instance, can design the program, provide teacher and teaching lesson through videos or audios for the partner and the partner can help spread out marketing and advertising clips for AROMA 3.2.2.3 Launch the service of knowledge management consultancy One of strengths of AROMA in technology solution and management, the system of knowledge management system, “Cyn.in”, has been well implemented at AROMA This opens a potential to pack the system into a full service and sell it out to the clients The system is right as its name, knowledge management, which is a place to store and share the information between the departments, a mechanism for the management to empower each task for each department, keep track and intervene anytime needed and a system allows updating promptly every situation arising in daily working time The potential clients can be groups of management who need to exchange the knowledge with each other and make it confidential for them only and corporate clients The manufacturer of “Cyn.in” has analyzed that in the world, billions of dollars are invested in annually in the management of structured data, using technology as ERP, MIS and so on However, this information comprises of just 15% of the enterprise information landscape 90% of all unstructured information remains unmanaged Knowledge workers spend 30%-40% of their time every year managing documents Businesses today spend estimated 87 $750 million annually due to time spent by workers seeking information necessary to their job.19 The author and AROMA board of management supposed that the situation in the world in this case is quite similar with that in Vietnam Therefore, it is easy to understand that Vietnam’s enterprises really demand this kind of system To further explanation about this system, it can be seen that Cyn.in is collaboration software that inter-connects your people with each other and their collective knowledge, seamlessly Cyn.in helps teams to communicate faster and build collaborative knowledge by sharing and discussing various forms of digital content within a secure, unified application It combines the capabilities of collaboration tools like wikis, social networks, blogs, file sharing repositories, micro blogs, discussion boards and other communication applications into one secure enterprise platform Cyn.in is designed to be used by businesses and institutions of all sizes Cyn.in is an open source application and is available as free and commercially supported software as well as a hosted and managed on demand service The system can be supplied freely via the home page (http://cyn.in) of the manufacturer, Cynapse India Pvt Ltd However, how to apply this system into each enterprise is quite another story Even for a person who is very good at IT, he or she has to take much time to research and implement the system in their company In this case, AROMA who has had experience on installing and applying the system into daily working situation, can play a role as a consultant to consult the company the best way to use it The biggest difficulty is not in the way of installation but in the way of guiding, forcing 19 Cynapse website, “Why Cyn.in”,http://www.cynapse.com/cynin/why-cynin 88 and checking the staff to follow The original nature of staff is lazy and not familiar with working as a team They also are not willing to report day by day what they have done, what they will and expect to get from the job They not want to be supervised too much Those problems cause many difficulties for the management to apply the mechanism of sharing information As a consultant, AROMA will analyze the root causes of the resistance and coordinate with the clients to find out the solutions 3.3 Action plan Many recommendations have been pointed out, but due to the company’s current situation and difficulties in the near future, it is necessary to have an action plan in which state clearly the time schedule to apply each recommendation Base on that, it can be seen from Table 3.2 below that the solution “stimulate marketing and branding activities on professional English services” is the first and also the most important action in late 2011 Even in the economy downturn, it is necessary to branding AROMA Meanwhile, the solution “Open more new branches” is not the priority until the early 2012, since the economy overcome the downturn Again, researching TOEIC program for students is not damaging to the whole differentiation focus strategy of the company It helps the company dip into the market and take the advantage of the potential market 89 Table 3.2: Action plan for the period of late 2011-2015 No Activities Impo rtanc e Time schedule 2011 Stimulate marketing and branding activities on professional English services A 1.1 Maximize online marketing channels A 1.2 Invest more on traditional marketing A 1.3 Stimulate branding through improving teaching and learning quality A Research and development program for Individual/group A 2.1 Analyze the clients' characteristics and demands B Q1 2.2 Draw the program to fit with clients' demands B Q2 A B B B B B Q3,4 2.3 2.4 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 Draw marketing and sales plan Develop the service Open more new branches Data research on alternatives Make proposals Field trips Negotiate and sign the leasing contract 2012 2013 2014 2015 B 90 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 5.1 5.2 6.1 6.2 6.3 6.4 Research and develop TOEIC program for university students Market research Design the program Draw marketing and sales plan Develop the service Search cooperation partner A A A Q1 A B Draw the proposal for cooperation Call for cooperation B C Launch the service of knowledge management consultancy C Evaluate the effectiveness of applying in AROMA C Q2 Organize offline sharing meetings Search potential clients Develop the service C C C Q2 Note: - The column “Importance” shows the importance of each recommendation and of its detailed activities - The whole recommendation is marked with the bold color in the time schedule describing the expected time to implement it - The detailed activities are marked with the less bold color to mention detailed time schedule to 91 CHAPTER SUMMARY According to the assessment on current situation, analyzing causes in chapter and reviewed adaptable methods in chapter 1, in chapter of the thesis, some solutions recommended to implement more effectively the company’s strategy are divided into two main perspectives including: recommendations related to the current service and recommendations related to new services The competitive strategy of the company is differentiation focus which shows in their current service Therefore, in terms of the main service “Professional English for working people”, AROMA should take some actions to remain achievements and overcome the weaknesses by (i) stimulating marketing and branding activities, (ii) developing program for individual/group clients, and (iii) opening more new branches In order to compete and develop in the market, AROMA needs to diversify its products and services Still based on the differentiation focus orientation, the new services can listed out as (i) “TOEIC – learning English for future career” special for university students, (ii) consultancy in education cooperation, and (iii) consultancy in knowledge management 92 CONCLUSION To choose and to form a competitive strategy is a difficult and hard working task, especially in a saturated market as English training market To implement the chosen strategy effectively is even more difficult because it is related closely to the survival in the market No one can be sure of the success or the failure but AROMA has done quite well what they believe in Although AROMA has some difficulties needed to pass through, it has been a long road ahead to go Due to the limitation of the scope, the suggestions that the author recommend for AROMA are not full and enough detailed action plans to apply immediately However, they are still valuable orientations which help AROMA develop further and deeply integrated in the market Conducting the thesis gives the author a great opportunity to see how theoretical knowledge is applied into the real life By using various research methods and analyses, the author has a comprehensive view of carrying out a differentiation focus strategy that AROMA is following Soon or late appearance is not important but the importance is how the company can make it outstanding from others With the trained knowledge and self-experience, this graduation thesis was written with a big attempt of the author Therefore, the author really wishes to receive comments from professors for achievements and limitations for the sake of better improvement Sincerely thank you! 93 REFERENCES English ADB, (2009), Asian Development Outlook 2009 ADB, (2010), Asian Development Outlook 2010 Cimigo, (April 2011), 2011 Vietnam NetCitizens Report, Internet Usage and Development in Vietnam Ms Le Thi Hoang Cuc, (2004), Country report, Vietnam and education for sustainable development: reality and prospects, Vietnam National Commission for UNESCO, Head of Education Unit, Vietnam John Doherty, (1998), Pest: Model Independent Parameter Estimation, Pennsylvania State University 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Kotelnikov, “Sustainable competitive advantages, How to survive against your competition over a long period of time”, Ten3 Business e-Coach, Business Coach 16 12 Manage The executive fast tract, “What is the five forces model”, http://www.12manage.com/methods_porter_five_forces.html 17 AROMA website, http://aroma.vn 18 Cynapse website, “Why Cyn.in”,http://www.cynapse.com/cynin/whycynin 19 Institute for Strategy and Competitiveness, Harvard Business School , “Firm competitive”, http://www.isc.hbs.edu/firm-competitive.htm 20 Marketing teacher, “Value chain model”, http://www.marketingteacher.com/lesson-store/lesson-value-chain.html 21 Quickmba, “SWOT analysis”, http://www.quickmba.com/strategy/swot/ 22 Wikipedia, “Competitive advantage”, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Competitive_advantage Tiếng Việt 23 Tổng cục Thống kê Việt Nam, (2009), “Tình hình kinh tế - xã hội 2009” 24 Tổng cục Thống kê Việt Nam, (2010), “Tình hình kinh tế - xã hội 2010” 25 Tổng cục thống kê Việt Nam, (2010), “Giáo 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PEST, Five forces, Value chain and SWOT In Chapter 2, the author assesses environmental forces as well as analyses the internal strengths and weaknesses of AROMA in order to implement the set differentiation focus strategy in the period of 2011- 2015 In chapter 3, the author recommends some solutions to implement the differentiation focus strategy of AROMA effectively Chapter 1: Literature review Chapter... the next two chapters, the author will state one specific case of a company- AROMA Professional English and analyze what strategy they are following, what are their achievements and difficulties in implementing their strategy and then give them some recommendations to select the better solutions to implement the strategy in the next five years 29 ... on these areas Each identifies how they contribute to achieving the overall strategic plan They can model the steps taken by the senior team and conduct a SWOT analysis from their vantage point Once the core strategies are defined, the senior team must ensure that the overall strategy will be achieved; that is, that the sum of the parts (functional strategies) will add up to the whole (overall strategy) ... culture to fit the strategy, or (4) change the strategy to fit the culture Further, a decision to proceed with a particular strategy without a commitment to change the culture or manage around the culture (endeavors that are both tricky and time consuming) is dangerous Nevertheless, restricting a corporation to only those strategies that are completely compatible with its culture might eliminate the most... and combining with the company’s goals, once choosing the strategy to follow among lower cost, differentiation and focus, strategic implementations need to be done.; otherwise the company will be stuck in the middle of the competitive marketplace with no competitive advantage and will be doomed to below-average performance Base on the literature review, in the next two chapters, the author will state... not to do: not correct of the past problem; not capture all opportunities; not proposed to do everything.2 Depending on the scope of strategy, there are corporate strategy, business strategy and functional strategies Business strategy is narrower in scope than corporate strategy and wider than functional strategies Apart from two other scopes, in this thesis, the author focuses on the business strategy. .. retailer, or the final tune for a new car's engine Outbound Logistics The goods are now finished, and they need to be sent along the supply chain to wholesalers, retailers or the final consumer Marketing and Sales In true customer orientated fashion, at this stage the organization prepares the offering to meet the needs of targeted customers This area focuses strongly upon marketing communications and the promotions... external and internal environment for AROMA Professional English Chapter 3: Recommendations to implement the selected strategy 4 CHAPTER I: LITERATURE REVIEW 1.1 Business strategy Strategy is the process of developing sustainable competitive advantages through positioning the company in the market, and effectively developing and utilizing critical resources and competencies.1 Strategy is not about what a company... what they want are they likely to get under this alternatives? (3) What are they likely to do if they do not get what they want? (4) What is the profitability that they will do it? With answers to these questions, strategy makers should be better able to choose strategic alternatives that minimize external pressures and maximize stakeholders support In addition, top management can propose a political strategy. .. use either a cost focus or a differentiation focus Cost focus is a lower cost competitive strategy that focuses on a particular buyer group or geographic market and attempts to serve only this niche, to the exclusion of others In using cost focus, the company or business unit seeks a cost advantage in its target segment A good example of this strategy is 8 Potlach Corporation, a manufacturer of toilet ... In the scope of the study, the author tries to answer the main question: What are the suitable solutions to implement the set 2011- 2015 differentiation focus strategy of AROMA? To find out the. .. analyses the internal strengths and weaknesses of AROMA in order to implement the set differentiation focus strategy in the period of 2011- 2015 In chapter 3, the author recommends some solutions to implement. .. LINH DEVELOPING SOLUTIONS TO IMPLEMENT THE 2011- 2015 DIFFERENTIATION FOCUS STRATEGY OF AROMA PROFESSIONAL ENGLISH Major: Business Administration Code: 60 34 05 MASTER OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION THESIS