2. What competitive advantages does Unnamed Publisher possess? 3. What are the U

Question

2. What competitive advantages does Unnamed Publisher possess?

3. What are the Unnamed Publisher’s key strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats?

4. How might the extensive textbook industry experience the Unnamed Publisher founders possess help or hinder their strategy formulation and ultimate success or failure

5. Based on Porter’s strategies summarized in the figure below, which type of strategy do you see Unnamed Publisher employing? Support your response.

5.1 Case in Point: Unnamed Publisher Transforms Textbook Industry Figure 5.4 Unnamed Publisher Cofounder, Jeff Shelstad Two textbook publishing industry veterans, Jeff Shelstad andi Eric Frank, started Unnamed Publisher, a privately held company, in 2007 to be a new and disruptive model for the college textbook market. Traditional business textbook publishers carry a portfolio of 5 to 10 titles per subject and charge premium prices for new textbooks, an average of $1,000 in textbooks for a college student's first year, according to a recent General Accounting Office (GAO) report. FWK's strategy aims to turn the traditional model on its head by providing online textbook access free to students (http://www.gone.2012books.lardbucket.org. FWK earns revenues by selling students the digital textbooks in alternate formats, print and audio initially, and also by selling highly efficient and mobile study aids. Despite the fact that professors have rated the academic quality of FWK textbooks permission from as equal to or higher than that of textbooks from traditional publishers, the cost to students is a fraction of current market prices due to the efficiencies of the FWK business model. Moreover, with FWK's open- source platform, instructors who adopt FWK books for their classes are able to pick and choose the material provided to their students, even if it is from earlier versions of textbooks that have since been revised. Source: Used by Unnamed Publisher Inc. Shelstad and Frank founded FWK because they believed that big publishers would continue to experiment and innovate, and enjoy the advantages of scale, capital, content, and brand. But the FWK founders also believed that the pace and nature of change by the big publishers of the textbook industry would remain modest and

Explanation / Answer

2. Competitive advantages of Unnamed Publishers :-

3. STRENGTH :- FREE; OPEN TO IDEAS; AUTHORED BY EXPERTS.

   WEAKNESS :- Marginal dependence on GATEKEEPER for their recommendations for the books.

   OPPORTUNITY :- Changing business environment with greater penetration on the internet. Scope for higher growth with higher growth in the industry size.

THREATS :- Traditional competitors adopting to the new business model will have the brand value advantage giving advantage over new entarents.

4. The extensive textbook industry have an advantage over the new entarent in the publication industry. The traditional Textbook publishers have a set of business network and strong goodwill to their advantage. With the introduction of the new technology in textbook industry, the industry is bound to look upwards and the traditional publishers would soon take the advantage adopt to the new ways of business opportunity.

The sucess or failure of the company will depend on the course content,number of topics available and the trust level of the students and the gatekeepers alike.

5. The Unnamed Publishers have a clear-cut business strategy for acquring new business. The reference by the gatekeeper would hold a key to the success of the company. The OPENNESS of the company would give them the advantage over other competitors in providing the latest topics and reviews to the students and the teachers alike.

This will give the company the COST ADVANTAGE over its competitiors. As a company Unnamed Publishers have a strategy to pass the advantage to its end users.

The advantage of DIFFERENTIATION LEADERSHIP is giving the company the advantage of being the innovating company in the eyes of the Gatekeepers and students alike. Now the company needs to focus on marketing penetration by enrolling more number of students and Gatekeepers.

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