The Company Case

The company that I used to work for was a service company involved in training students and professionals for various competitive exams. It used to operate in a highly competitive market. There were many players in the market none of which dominated. The profitability of all the companies depended on the number of students enrolling with them in a particular year. Since the companies operated in competition the pricing was not influenced by any individual player. There was a standard pricing mechanism which every company had to adhere to. Variations in price only happened when the product offered was different or there was an add-on provided with a particular service. More or less, the services and products offered by different companies were same and because of this the consumers did not have a particular preference.

There was no barrier to the entry of a new player and every now and then new players offering same services emerged. They too had to take the price that was offered by the market. Also, all the players as well as the customers had all the relevant information necessary for them to make assessments on buying and selling products and services. High competition made the companies utilize the resources that were at their disposal to the fullest. This made all the firms to operate at full efficiency.

The demanders were students and professional who appeared for various competitive exams in order to secure admission in top colleges and universities all over the world.

The quantity of products demanded by the students depended on various factors. Demand was greatly influenced by the rate of economic growth of the country. Good economic growth rate meant better future job opportunities which led the students to go for professional courses that would boost their career. This in turn led to increase in demand of the training programs. On the other side, in the times of recession, students and professionals were insecure about the future and did not want to leave their present job. As a result the demand for the training programs went down.

The quantity supplied depended greatly on the location. The supply in big cities was greater as students were better informed and were more career-oriented. The supply also depended on the density of professional colleges located in a city and also the presence of different industries particularly IT in the city. More the number of colleges and industries more was the supply.