HO CHI MINH CITY OPEN UNIVERSITY

UNIVERSITÉ LIBRE DE BRUXELLES
SOLVAY BRUSSELS SCHOOL OF
ECONOMICS & MANAGEMENT

MBQPM4
JUSTIN DAVID LIMON

MEETING STUDENTS’ NEEDS THROUGH
THE USE OF QUALITY MANAGEMENT AT
PSB COLLEGE VIETNAM
MASTER FINAL PROJECT
MASTER IN BUSINESS QUALITY AND PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT
Tutor’s name: Dr. Jacques Martin

Ho Chi Minh City
(2014)


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Acknowledgement

My time studying at Solvay Brussels School of Economics and Management has been a
tremendously profound experience. It has helped me to further develop myself not only
academically, but also on a personal level. I‟ve grown a lot since the beginning of the
program and it has given me the tools I need to continue growing for the rest of my life.
I am extremely grateful for the support and guidance given by Dr. Jacques Martin. Without
his vast experience and eagerness to help, this report would not be possible. His unique
insight in quality management and particularly strategic management has inspired me to

develop a strong interest in the field.
I also want to thank my wife, Ly, and my daughter, Stella, who gave me the motivation and
encouragement to further my studies and pursue a master‟s degree.
Finally, I want to acknowledge PSB College Vietnam and all of its staff and students.
Working at the school has been an extremely enjoyable experience. They‟re the reason why I
chose to write about quality management in education.


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Contents
Executive Summary ................................................................................................................................. 4
Introduction & Background ..................................................................................................................... 4
Part 1: Research, Problems, and Strategic Analysis ................................................................................ 5
1.1 Research Methodology .................................................................................................................. 5
1.2 Research Findings & Problem Identification ................................................................................. 6
1.3 Strategic Analysis ........................................................................................................................ 14
1.3.1 Porter‟s Five Forces Model ................................................................................................... 15
1.3.2 SWOT Analysis .................................................................................................................... 16
1.3.3 PESTL Analysis .................................................................................................................... 18
1.3.4 Current Strategies .................................................................................................................. 19
Part 2: Recommended Solutions ............................................................................................................ 20
2.1 Strategic Action Plan ................................................................................................................... 20
2.1.1Mission Statement .................................................................................................................. 20
2.1.2 Strategic Direction ................................................................................................................ 21
2.1.3 The Balanced Scorecard........................................................................................................ 22
2.2 A Modernized Corporate Culture Through Human Resource Management ............................... 25
2.3 Managing Knowledge at PSB College ......................................................................................... 27
2.4 Sustaining a Competitive Advantage Through Innovation .......................................................... 30
Conclusion ............................................................................................................................................. 36

List of References .................................................................................................................................. 38
Appendix ................................................................................................................................................ 40
Questionnaire for PSB College student research: .............................................................................. 40


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Executive Summary
Colleges and universities must meet the ever-changing needs of its students and employees.
When a school doesn‟t strive to meet the needs of its stakeholders, it risks falling behind its
competitors. For PSB College Vietnam, students are showing a growing concern towards the
school in three major aspects: the availability of information, the approachability of staff, and
the usefulness of information being taught at the school.
This report will provide an in-depth analysis of the root-cause of the problems along with
tackling the problems with solutions that will be both effective and long-lasting. Four areas
will be zeroed-in on in order to alleviate student dissatisfaction towards PSB College. They
include strategic planning, human resource management, knowledge management, and
innovation. It‟s strongly believed that in order to achieve growth and long-term success, PSB
College must follow this action plan. If the college continues with the path they are currently
on and don‟t invest resources towards corrective action, the school will struggle to compete
with its highly competitive rivals and will fail to meet the needs of its demanding customers.

Introduction & Background
PSB College Vietnam is a franchise of PSB Academy in Singapore. PSB College was
founded in 2004 and is a 100% foreign and privately-owned school. It has accreditation from
the Ministry of Education & Training in Vietnam and EduTrust in Singapore. PSB College
offers three awards: Certificate in English Proficiency (CEP), a Certificate in Business
Administration (CBA), and a Diploma in Business Administration (DBA).
I have been working at PSB College for over one year, during which I have grown to become
very dedicated to the success of the school. The main reason for writing this report is to help

the college be able to better meet the needs of its current students and help PSB attract new
students. I believe that by applying the tools of quality and performance management, PSB
College can not only grow, but achieve long-term success.
This report is divided into three sections. First, an overview of the research methodology,
along with a strategic analysis and identification of key issues within the organization will be
discussed. Research methodology includes student surveys, which will give a quantitative
outlook on what is expected from the school‟s customers. The strategic analysis will discuss
the current strategy of PSB College, along with a SWOT analysis and an industry analysis
using Michael Porter‟s Five Forces model. The key issues within the organization will be


5

both from gaps in student expectations, along with drawbacks often expressed by other
employees of the school. Second, an action plan for improvement will be explained. These
are based on applying quality management to the fields of strategic management, human
resource management, knowledge management, and innovation.

Part 1: Research, Problems, and Strategic Analysis
1.1 Research Methodology
In order to fully understand what the students expected, I created a survey that focused on four
main aspects: academics, instruction, facilities, and personal information. These four
categories are the main interests in which PSB will be able to fully understand which areas of
the organization have gaps in concerns to what is expected from the students and analyze
which corrective actions, based on their strategy, will help PSB improve upon their
deficiencies.
The questionnaire consists of eleven questions across the four different categories. Under
academics, I asked the students the following questions: “When I have a problem, I feel
comfortable approaching the academic staff”; “The academic staff are effective in solving my
problems”; “It‟s easy to get information about the school (such as scores, schedules, and

events).” The answers are based on a scale of 1-5 (strongly disagree, disagree, somewhat
agree, agree, strongly agree). I chose these questions so as to not pressure the students into
feeling obligated to express too much concern or satisfaction. The questions were kept
generalized so that the answers would still give a useful impression of the academics
department while not creating controversy.
The second category involves teaching. The students were asked to evaluate the quality of
teaching, their satisfaction on the variety of courses offered at PSB, and the students‟ opinion
of how useful the knowledge learned in the modules will help them in the future. Again, a
scale of 1-5 was used with the same attributes as above.
The third category reflects the student‟s opinion on PSB‟s facilities. They were asked whether
they think the facilities of PSB (for example the library, the student lounge, classrooms, and
restaurant) are of high quality as well as how well students think that technology is being used
on campus. These two aspects are important because besides academics and instruction, the
use of the facilities on campus and the availability of high quality resources are one of the
most important factors when it comes to a student being successful. Access to good facilities
and the availability of technology are crucial for any school which wants to be competitive in
this day and age.


6

Finally, the students were asked more personal questions related to their experience at PSB
College. They were questioned about how long they had been studying at PSB, and whether
they would choose PSB College again. These factors will help to correlate trends when
compared to the first three categories.
Upon the collection of all surveys, feedback was received by 72 students. Considering that
there are about 250 students currently enrolled in classes at PSB, a roughly 30% response rate
will give a good idea of what students at the school think. Using SPSS Statistics, variables
were created for each question and all data was inputted into the variables for each student‟s
response.

In addition to the survey, informal, unstructured staff interviews were performed in order to
gather information discreetly and without causing discomfort within the organization as the
writer is a part-time employee. Thus, any sort of formal sit-down interviews with staff or
students would have seemed intrusive and might have been problematic. The writer feels
confident that the sum of all research performed, including the student survey, informal
gathering of thoughts and opinions from other employees and students, as well as thorough
review of research papers and academic journals spanning from business to psychology is
sufficient towards pinpointing problems within the organization and developing strongly
justified solutions.

1.2 Research Findings & Problem Identification
The main reason for using student surveys is because “it is evident that student evaluation,
whether of courses, teaching quality or the overall student experience, is
extremely important and has a significant role to play in the quality assurance process.
(Leckey and Neill, 2001)” After entering the data collected from the student surveys into
SPSS, extensive analyses were performed. As stated earlier, 72 respondents were recorded
out of a total of roughly 250 students at PSB College. The data should give a good idea of
what the overall consensus is in regards to the four categories surveyed (academics,
instruction, facilities, and personal information). Below is a table which shows the statistical
data of each variable (the scores are based on a scale of one to five, one being the lowest and
five being the highest):


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Descriptive Statistics
N
Mean
High Quality Facilities
Teaching Quality

Would Choose PSB
Again
Uses Technology Well
Variety of Courses
Comfort to Approach
Staff
Useful Knowledge
Staff Solve Problems
Availability of
Information
Valid N (listwise)

72
72

4.1250
3.7917

Std.
Deviation
.60369
.76798

72

3.5417

.97775

72

72

3.2361
3.1111

.74101
1.04215

72

2.8472

.94436

72
72

2.7917
2.5417

.78610
.90285

72

2.0556

.62549

0


Based on a scale of one to five, the aspect which received the highest mean score was the
students‟ opinion on facilities, followed by the teaching quality and whether the student would
choose PSB again. Using the data, one can clearly see that the majority of the lowest-rated
aspects fall under academic administration, with the availability of information being lowest,
followed by staff‟s ability to solve students‟ problems and students‟ comfort level in dealing
with PSB‟s academic staff. Another important finding indicated in the table shows that
students tend to feel that the knowledge being taught to them won‟t help them in the future.


8


9

The above histogram clearly shows that important information is very difficult for students to
get at PSB. Based on the graph, one can see that there were no scores higher than 3 for the
availability of information. Most students rated this aspect a “2.” The scatterplot shows that
when comparing how long the student has been studying at PSB with their opinion on how
well information is provided to them, that there is no relationship. This means that all students
experience the same difficulties in obtaining information.
When students lack information such as their schedule or important dates for events and
scores from coursework, lots of problems arise. Information is vital in any organization, and
even more importantly, a school. When students lack information about their studies, they
tend to lose respect and trust for the institution. These results indicate a problem not only with
the level of communication between academics and students, but also school-wide. As a
lecturer at PSB, information does not flow freely and is not always shared willingly. If PSB
takes the necessary action to resolve their communication problems, which are rooted in
knowledge management, they could greatly improve the rating of students‟ dissatisfaction
with information sharing.



10

Next is staff‟s ability to solve problems. The histogram shows a positive skew, with most
respondents reporting a score of three or lower in regards to staff‟s ability to solve students‟
problems. The median response was 2.54. The scatterplot shows that there is no correlation
between how long a student has been studying at PSB and whether or not they feel that the
academic staff is able to solve their problems. This means that all students at PSB are
experiencing the same situation with staff.


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Similarly, the third important indicator in identifying weaknesses is in students‟ comfort level
in approaching staff for help. In the histogram above, one can see that while a bit better-rated
than the previous two questions, students are quite uncomfortable in requesting academic staff
for help. The scatterplot shows the correlation between students‟ ideas of the staff‟s
approachability and how long the students have been studying at PSB. As can be expected, it
shows a slightly negative correlation between the two factors as students should feel more
comfortable with staff the longer they have been at the school.
Staff must be approachable to students whenever the students need assistance. Just as a
customer service representative for a large corporation must be able and willing to help
customers whenever they have a problem, the academic staff at schools need to be available to
students. This issue can be linked to the organization‟s corporate culture. The staff at PSB
tend to hold back when communicating with students, thus creating an image of unwillingness
to help. Oftentimes, the students reach out to the teachers to help them with administrative
issues. Teachers‟ offices are on the twelfth floor while the academics department is on the
third floor. Upon visiting each department, it becomes clear that there are two very distinct
cultures happening simultaneously on each of the two floors. The culture on the twelfth floor

in the teacher‟s room is polar opposite with the one witnessed on the third floor. If PSB could
implement a change of culture within the organization; a more consistent one that more
closely matches the one in the teacher‟s room: one which is very information-sharing- and
results-oriented, while still very laid-back and centered on openness, then PSB will become an
institution that is not only more enjoyable for students to learn, but also for employees to
work. Additionally, productivity and creativity will vastly improve organization-wide.


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Next is a histogram representing the distribution of scores related to students‟ belief that what
they are learning will be beneficial towards their future careers. The generality of this
question allows us to get an overall picture of whether students are satisfied with what they are
learning in school and whether they think it will help them in their jobs. As can be seen, most
students are somewhat satisfied with their courses, while, being positively skewed towards the
right, the histogram shows that there are an alarmingly high number who rated it a 2 score,
signifying that they disagree.
It‟s important that students are happy with what they are learning. The school faces a problem
when students become too dissatisfied with what they‟re learning. The school must keep
materials and course content updated and relevant. The school has difficulties in controlling
the content of the classes because it‟s overseen by administration in Singapore. However,
PSB College does have many great opportunities in becoming more innovative and forwardthinking when it comes to course offerings as well as the variety and different kinds of
certificates and diplomas that will be awarded. The school must remain innovative in order to
sustain a competitive advantage and achieve its long-term goals.
Finally, in order to get an overall understanding of students‟ attitudes towards PSB, all of the
scale-based answers for each respondent were averaged (excluding the students‟ length of
study). The result gives a new variable, “total satisfaction.” This information will be helpful
in determining whether students are satisfied with PSB College. To begin, the mean total
satisfaction for students at PSB College is 3.11, as can be seen in the table below.



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Descriptive Statistics
N
Mean
Total
Satisfaction
Valid N
(listwise)

72

3.1157

Std.
Deviation
.31890

72

Based on the survey criteria, overall, students are somewhat satisfied with the level of service
being given at PSB College. Combined with the higher ratings of instruction and facilities
criteria, the negative impression of the school‟s academic administration has significantly
reduced the mean score for each student. The below scatterplot represents the correlation
between students‟ time at PSB with total satisfaction scores. The results clearly show a
negative correlation: the longer students have been studying at PSB College, the lower their
total satisfaction score gets.



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The correlation table below shows the reliability of the correlation between the total
satisfaction scores and length of study at the college. It‟s clear that since the significance is 0,
the relationship between the two is quite strong. The Pearson r correlation shows that the
strength is only at -.422, but this is mainly due to the fact that there are only 72 respondents,
which for the software isn‟t enough to determine the strength of the correlation using this
method.

Correlations
Length of
Study
Pearson
Correlation
Length of Study
Sig. (2-tailed)
N
Pearson
Correlation
Total
Satisfaction
Sig. (2-tailed)
N

Total
Satisfaction
1

-.422


72

.000
72

-.422

1

.000
72

72

1.3 Strategic Analysis
PSB College Vietnam is a franchise of PSB Academy in Singapore. It is 100% foreignowned. Strategic management comes from the owners in Singapore and daily operations are
managed locally. According to Austin (2002), “to be successful in any business environment,
one of course needs competency in strategic analysis and functional management.” Before
providing any sort of solutions to the problems presented earlier, it‟s extremely important that
PSB College performs a strategic analysis of their current situation. A thorough strategic
analysis has been performed in this section.
PSB College Vietnam doesn‟t have a mission or vision statement. PSB Academy Singapore‟s
mission statement is as follows: “PSB Academy is a trusted education provider, committed to
providing accessible quality education that nurtures and shapes individuals to enable them to
achieve their personal and professional best.” PSB‟s mission statement is student-centric,
promising them to become their best. It exists with the purpose of developing students and
helping them to prepare for their professional career.


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PSB Singapore‟s vision is “to become the premier tertiary education provider nurturing future
talents with global orientation.” PSB‟s long-term goal is to become the leader in tertiary
education and pointing students towards international ideology and methodology.

1.3.1 Porter’s Five Forces Model

Before continuing, it‟s important to understand the competitive environment for an
international 2-year college in Vietnam. “To understand industry competition and
profitability…one must analyze the industry‟s underlying structure in terms of the five forces.
(Porter, 2008, pg. 25)” To do this, an analysis using Michael Porter‟s Five Forces model will
be done. “Understanding the competitive forces, and their underlying causes, reveals the roots
of an industry‟s current profitability while providing a framework for anticipating and
influencing competition (and profitability) over time. (Porter, 2008, pg. 26)” The five forces
are as follows: Buyer power, which is the ability of customers to drive down prices; Supplier
power, which is the supplier‟s ability to drive up prices; the threat of substitutes, which is the
ability of customers to choose an alternative good; the threat of new entrants, which is the
ability of new firms to enter the industry and depends on barriers to entry; finally is
competitive rivalry, which tells us about how fierce competitions in the industry is.
Buyer power for 2-year colleges in Vietnam is low. Due to a limited number of schools in this
category, customers don‟t have the ability to drive down prices. Switching costs are high in
education, since once a student has enrolled in the school, the costs associated with
transferring to another school become very high. Students rarely transfer to another school
because of the price; it‟s usually due to either poor performance on the student‟s part or the
school‟s inability to meet the student‟s needs. PSB also offers a loyalty program, which helps
retain students. For example, if a student enrolls in all three programs, the costs decrease
significantly.
Supplier power for the industry is high. The ability of parent-schools to raise the franchising
fees or for the suppliers of textbooks and other teaching materials to raise the prices is quite
easy. The fact that the number of suppliers is quite low shows that they have a very high

influence on the industry.
The threat of substitutes is very high due to the fact that there are so many other options
available to students in Vietnam. Students can choose between a 2-year international college,
a local college, or even a local or international 4-year bachelor‟s degree program. There are a
number of schools in Vietnam which offer these kinds of degrees.
The threat of new entrants is low. In Vietnam, it‟s extremely difficult for foreign-owned
colleges to get certification from the MOET. Additionally, the costs associated with starting a
new international college are very high. Recently, two competing schools were forced to


16

close because of a lack of accreditation and recognition from the Vietnamese government.
PSB College‟s accreditation has become one of its competitive advantages.
Finally, the competitive rivalry in the industry is very fierce. PSB College‟s main competitors
are Kent College and ERC Academy. The three schools constantly differentiate themselves in
order to show customers that they are better than the others. A main area of differentiation in
this industry has been in building and facilities. The three schools have been constantly
remodeling their building to out-do the others. For example, these schools have 3D cinemas,
stylish classrooms with wooden floors and comfortable chairs. Additionally, they offer hightech libraries and gourmet cafeterias to students.
One can see that based on the above information, 2-year colleges are in a difficult position in
Vietnam. Although buyers have little power and the threat of new entrants is low, there is still
strong supplier power combined with a high threat of substitute products and strong
competitive rivalry. Although PSB has a firm position in the industry, it‟s clear that it should
focus its long-term strategy on further differentiating its academic offerings and building
facilities as well as alleviating the threat of alternative choices for students in order to both
sustain its position in the short-run and become the premier provider in the long-run.

High


Low

Low

Low

High

M

P

F

M

1.3.2 SWOT Analysis

“SWOT analysis can be simply understood as the examination of an organization's internal
strengths and weaknesses, and its environments, opportunities, and threats. It is a general tool
designed to be used in the preliminary stages of decision-making and as a precursor to
strategic planning in various kinds of applications” (Johnson et al., 1989; Bartol et al., 1991).
For PSB College, we can use a SWOT analysis as a tool to better understand the internal and
external environments before we continue with solving organizational problems. Combined


17

with the mission/vision, Porter‟s Fiver Forces model, and with a corporate strategy, a SWOT
analysis will help to determine which corrective actions will best fit the company‟s long-term

goals.

SWOT Analysis of PSB College

Internally, PSB College has many strengths. Its first major strength is its marketing staff.
Led by a director with vast experience, the marketing department performs well in recruiting
events and advertising campaigns. Another strength is its teaching staff. The faculty of both
part-time and full-time lecturers has a strong relationship amongst each other and strives
towards supporting the students as much as possible. Their qualifications and experience
levels are relatively high and they constantly work towards improving themselves. A third
strength is its building and facilities. PSB offers students and staff high-quality equipment and
a comfortable and enjoyable working and learning environment. In addition, PSB is centrallylocated in District 1 in Ho Chi Minh City. Finally, PSB‟s brand reputation allows alumni to
quickly get good jobs after graduation. Additionally, the school has high-profile partnerships
with universities from around the world so that students can further their education after
completing the two-year program.
PSB‟s College has a few weaknesses which need to be identified. First is academic
administration. The academics office has a high rate of turnover and each term seems to
uncover lots of mistakes that are made in arranging schedules. Another weakness is the size


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of the school‟s campus. The campus has 12 narrow floors, but as the number of students
steadily increases, it‟s apparent that the school will soon need to expand its campus, perhaps at
the cost of its location.
Externally, there are some opportunities that PSB must realize. First is that it can build more
relationships with partner universities, as well as expand its offerings to locally-taught
international bachelor‟s degrees. Second, the school can develop more partnerships with local
corporations to both help alumni get jobs and also to offer corporate training to their staff.
Corporate training could be an area of potential growth if the school applied the resources.

The school also faces a couple of threats which could seriously harm its long-term goals.
First is increased competition of other two-year international schools. Although barriers to
entry are high, there is still the threat that other schools attempt to enter the market. Secondly,
government regulations and laws could have a big impact on the future of the school. The
government constantly keeps an eye on schools like PSB and it‟s very important that PSB
College stays up-to-date and follows all regulations.
In summary, the SWOT analysis has given some basic framework in where PSB needs to
focus more resources in order to further succeed, while providing a warning of possible threats
which could hinder the school‟s growth. Combined with the other tools, PSB can formulate a
long-term strategy to set its sights on.

1.3.3 PESTL Analysis

A PESTL analysis can be used to better understand the external environment for PSB College.
The PESTL analysis reveals the current situation in regards to politics/legal, economic, social,
and technological factors. It‟s yet another tool to be used to further understand and prepare
PSB College in achieving its long-term goals and helps with making better-informed decisions
.
For the political and legal factors, there are some considerations to be made. First, PSB needs
to realize that the government in Vietnam has very strict oversight and regulations pertaining
to private schools that are 100% foreign-owned. When PSB makes decisions, it must keep in
mind that the government will have a watchful eye. Secondly, Vietnam in general has been
increasingly opening up to foreign investments and international standards. This is a good
thing for PSB, since its parent school is based in Singapore.
Regarding economic factors that might affect PSB College, the school should realize that
economic growth in Vietnam has been slowing down. However, salaries overall have been
steadily increasing. This is a good thing for PSB, since that makes the school more affordable
to parents who want their children to have a high-quality, but relatively pricey (compared to
Vietnamese universities), international education. In addition, PSB College‟s tuition fees are



19

almost equivalent to those of private high schools in Ho Chi Minh City. When salaries
increase, it helps the transition from high school to college not be so shocking.
Socially in Ho Chi Minh City, there are quite a few factors that could prove to be very
beneficial to PSB. First, the demographics of HCMC are ever-changing. The population is
getting younger and more-educated. Second, as the country becomes more international
commercially, so does the population. PSB College could become a choice for foreign
families who want to have a quality education. Thirdly, English is becoming more and more
widely used in HCMC. Since courses at PSB College are taught only in English, the school
becomes more relevant towards their interests.
Finally, with regards to technological factors, there are some points to be noted. To begin
with, the stability and speed of the internet in HCMC is continuously improving. As more and
more people are connected to the internet, its importance in the classroom gets higher. In fact,
internet adoption in Vietnam is the fastest-growing in Asia. PSB can make appropriate
decisions towards the internet and information technology to better meet students‟ needs.

1.3.4 Current Strategies

PSB uses Michael Porter‟s three generic strategies to establish strategic direction. The three
generic strategies are cost leadership, differentiation, and focused strategy. Cost leadership is
used when a firm wishes to increase its market share by satisfying cost-conscious buyers. To
do this, the organization needs to have a lower price than its competitors by lowering
operating or maximizing its economies of scale. For a differentiation strategy, a firm creates a
product offering that is very different from its competitors. The differentiation strategy is
most successfully used in a market where customers are not price-sensitive and the firms have
the capability of creating differentiated products that are difficult to replicate. Lastly, a
focused strategy is used when there is a narrow market in which the customers have very
specific or specialized needs. Whether the products are low-priced or differentiated depends

on the needs of the customer. According to Gess and Davis (1984), “firms oriented toward
specific strategies should outperform firms characterized by Porter as “stuck in the middle.”
Porter maintains that this latter class of firms, by failing to develop its strategy along at least
one of these three categories, is “almost guaranteed low profitability”


20

PSB‟s does not aim its product towards any and all students who are looking for a school to
study at. The college has narrowed its market to students whose families are on the wealthier
side and either: 1)want to study a bachelor‟s degree overseas, but can‟t; 2)had already began
studying overseas but had to move back to Vietnam; or 3)who plan to stay in Vietnam and
find a good job after college. Additionally, PSB‟s price is not as expensive as its competitors,
so therefore its general strategy should be cost focused, where they lure in their narrow target
market by using its lower cost as a driving force.
PSB College has chosen ample strategies which are in line with its mission and vision
statement of becoming the premier provider of tertiary education in the long run. It‟s
extremely important that when creating policies or decisions, that they match with the
organizational strategies and vision of the school.

Part 2: Recommended Solutions

2.1 Strategic Action Plan
2.1.1Mission Statement

Since PSB has established a basic strategic framework for the organization, a more detailed
strategic plan has been developed in order to further help achieve specific short-term and longterm goals. The first step is to compose a more comprehensive mission statement, followed
by choosing a more specific strategy for the organization and identifying key indicators which
will help achieve the strategy. Finally, an action plan for implementation and evaluation will



21

be discussed so that PSB can more successfully communicate the plan and set measures to
monitor the strategic goals and use the balanced scorecard to track progress.
“The mission statement serves as more than a mere informational statement. While the
statement can serve to focus the efforts of the members of the organization, it can also serve to
focus the attention of non-members who may have a relationship with the organization. Given
the relatively ready accessibility of the Internet, many organizations have found it useful to
post their mission statements on the Web (Cole, 2002, nd).” It‟s clear that an effective will
help the organization by clarifying what the organization does and what it values.
Additionally, a clear mission statement will help with external stakeholders understand the
organization better, especially if posted online for the global audience to see.
According to Lapoint (nd), there are nine characteristics in a mission statement, which include
the customer, products and services, markets, technology, concern for survival, philosophy,
self-concept, concern for public image, and concern for employees.
Using the above criteria for a mission statement, the following statement is proposed for PSB
College Vietnam and includes all nine characteristics and is consistent with the proposed
strategy for PSB College Vietnam.
“PSB College Vietnam is dedicated to providing a high-quality international
educational experience to people from all corners of the world. It strives to
assure modern global standards and practices in respect to academics,
technology, diversity, and the environment towards its students, employees,
and Vietnam. This, in conjunction with continuously building upon its rich
Singaporean background, will ensure long-term success for the College and
its people.”

2.1.2 Strategic Direction

PSB College is pursuing growth, and their strategy matches their ambitions. Ansoff‟s

product-market diagram can be used to better understand PSB‟s strategy:


22

It‟s clear that PSB is not in a new market, as they have been established in Vietnam for ten
years. It‟s also true that PSB is not offering new products to the market, since the school has
no other products besides its diplomas and certificates, which are controlled by Singapore. As
can be seen, PSB is presently in market penetration. Although PSB has in fact been in
Vietnam for over ten years, they are still working towards penetrating the market. Two-year
colleges are a popular choice in Singapore and western countries. They‟re usually a stepping
stone towards 4-year bachelor degrees. In Vietnam, this is a concept that is slowly starting to
gain traction. Thus, the market for this kind of education is still developing in Vietnam and
PSB is slowly, but steadily, penetrating the market and establishing a good reputation.
The next step for the school to take is to align the organization with the strategy. Now that it‟s
clear what kind of strategic direction PSB College will be heading towards, all future
decisions need to be in line with this strategy. Managers must align the rest of the
organization with the strategy and set SMART (specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and
timely) annual objectives for employees and develop an adequate rewards system to motivate
workers towards helping management achieve these annual and long-term goals and
objectives.

2.1.3 The Balanced Scorecard


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Finally, management needs to implement the balanced scorecard to monitor the progress of
key performance indicators which will help PSB in achieving its strategic goals. The balanced
scorecard was designed as “a performance measurement framework that added strategic nonfinancial performance measures to traditional financial metrics to give managers and

executives a more balanced view of organizational performance.” (Sharma, 2009, pg. 8)
PSB‟s proposed strategy is market penetration. In order to achieve this strategy, PSB must set
a series of objectives through four aspects, each with its own measures and short-term target.
According to Stewart and Carpenter-Hubin (2001), “the presence of an accepted model, with
data framed in the context of performance on organizational goals, can facilitate conversation,
decision making, and ease of implementation for any strategic decision.” It‟s extremely clear
that the using the balanced scorecard will be an important tool in helping PSB achieve its
strategic objectives.

Financially, there are two objectives that PSB College must monitor in order to ensure that it
meets its strategic goals. The first objective is to increase revenue. PSB should monitor the
number of new students and set a target for an increase of 15% in 2015. To do this, the school
needs to maximize its marketing and sales/admissions capabilities. Secondly, the school must
set an objective to increase its profitability. There are two measures for this which shall be
tracked, including profit margin and return on total assets (ROTA). The school will need to
make sure that it maximizes efficiency in its use of all of its current assets, including staff,
facilities, and resources. These two objectives are in line with and will assist with its strategy


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of market penetration. By increasing revenue and reducing costs by using assets more
efficiently and effectively, the school can build a solid financial foundation to grow upon.
In regards to internal business processes, there are three main objectives that will support
PSB‟s strategy of market penetration. First, it needs to increase the number of business
partnerships it has with local corporations. This will help the school both develop a better
image within the community and create job opportunities for students after they graduate. To
do this, the school must increase its business partnerships by 35% by visiting more businesses
in the city. An added benefit to this objective is that it could help PSB realize its opportunities
in expanding towards corporate training in the future. Secondly, PSB needs to reduce teacher

turnover by at least 65% by 2015. Reducing turnover improves the quality of teaching by
retaining good teachers and making sure that the lecturers are assisted in obtaining work
permits and other documents required by the government. Thirdly, the school needs to set an
objective to visit more high schools with recruitment events. These events help inform
students of the advantages of studying at PSB and creates sales opportunities, assisting the
school achieve its financial objectives. To do this, the marketing department needs to set a
target of visiting 50% more schools and holding at least 5 open house events every six months.
These will help attract more students to the college and increase enrollment.
As an educational institution, arguably the most important aspect of the balanced scorecard for
PSB to improve upon is teacher and staff training. Its first objective will be to continuously
train its teachers. The target for number of sessions per year in 2015 should be at least 3
sessions. When module leaders from Singapore come to Vietnam to share knowledge and
teaching techniques, as well as express what the academic expectations and outcomes are for
the students, it greatly improves lecturers‟ ability to deliver course content to students.
Moreover, the school shall set an objective to improve the level of English of its staff. The
measure for this objective is their IELTS score, which should be set at 6.5. In 2015, the target
should be 60% of all PSB staff having an IELTS score of 6.5. One of the most important
attractions of PSB is that it‟s an English-only environment. This helps lure students who insist
on having a 100% international educational experience while in Vietnam. They can speak
only in English every day while on campus. These objectives are in line with the school‟s
vision of becoming a “premier tertiary education provider.”
When focusing on the customer, there are two main objectives that PSB needs to establish.
First, the school needs to maintain competitive pricing with respect to its two main
competitors, Kent College and ERC International. At present, PSB is the most affordable of
the three schools and should constantly keep a close eye on their pricing changes. The target
for pricing should be plus-or-minus 10% of what the other schools are charging. If PSB wants
to continue with cost leadership, it should target pricing at around 10% less than the
competition. If PSB successfully differentiates its product offerings, then the pricing should
be roughly 10% higher than the competitors. Lastly, PSB needs to set an objective relating to
student retention. Although students have high switching costs when it comes to changing

schools, PSB still has a problem with student retention. In order to alleviate this problem, the
school should target only about 3 lost students in 2015 by providing better student services


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and student guidance counseling. These actions will result in happier students, while also
helping the students to feel more comfortable approaching staff for assistance.
Since PSB is a for-profit school, its focus should be on satisfying shareholders through the
achievement of its financial objectives. However, as can be seen, the balanced scorecard is
not solely based on financial metrics, but also non-financial measurements which are
interdependent and work together in helping the organization achieve its strategy and longterm goals.

2.2 A Modernized Corporate Culture Through Human Resource Management
One of the key factors in meeting the needs of its students is developing a better-performing
human resources department. If total quality management is implemented into its human
resources management, the level of organizational-wide quality will vastly improve. “The
goal of total quality management (TQM) is continuous improvements on a wide range of
measures. These multiple goals and measures include product and service quality, customer
satisfaction, income performance, cost management and productivity to name a few.”
(Zingheim & Schuster, 1992) It‟s clear that based on the goals and measures mentioned by
Zingheim and Schuster that quality is an ideology that is strongly rooted to the human
resources department.
Developing an organizational culture through the human resources department which is
forward-thinking, modern, and TQM-minded is the first step towards developing better staff
members. Presently, PSB‟s corporate culture is extremely flawed. Employees in the
academics department explained that they work extra-long hours. Contractually, staff begin
work at 8:00AM and finish work at 5:00PM. However, in reality, academic staff regularly
stay at work until 7 or 8:00PM. When asked why, the most common reason was that they
didn‟t want management to think that they weren‟t working hard enough and that they wanted

to show that they were dedicated to their job. Additionally, staff tend to perform each task
with fear in the back of their minds and it seems as though workers are walking on eggshells;
very little ideas are being shared and there is a mixture of fear and complacency throughout
the office.
A useful tool that PSB can utilize in helping to better understand the needs of its employees
and thus develop a suitable corporate culture is Haslow‟s hierarchy of needs. This pyramidshaped diagram illustrates peoples‟ fundamental requirements. At the base of the pyramid is
physiological needs, including breathing, food, and water. The second tier is related to safety,
followed by love and belonging, including friendship and family. Next is esteem, which
relates to confidence, achievements, and respect. At the top of the pyramid is selfactualization, which includes creativity, acceptance, morality, and problem solving. Through
Maslow‟s hierarchy of needs, PSB can determine whether it is fulfilling the needs of its
employees and if not, then where deficiencies exist and then decide how to eliminate the gaps.