The Raise and Fall of a University

Our recent class discussions about Product Life Cycles made me think about the rise and fall of the New York Institute of Technology (NYIT) – Bahrain. After being one of the best universities on the island, the Management decided to phase-off their program from Bahrain, leaving behind thousands of Alumni, a team of staff members and two large campuses.

If I can make it there.. I can make it anywhere! was the thought of NYIT’s Middle East Chairman, Dr. M. Husain, after he succeeded in entering the United Arab Emirates education market with the first NYIT campus in the Middle East. His next mission was Bahrain; he believed that a campus in Bahrain could attract potential students living in Saudi’s eastern provinces and other GCC countries as well.

Like other organizations, Universities have a life cycle. They introduce their products as degrees to the market.

Introduction:

In October 2003, NYIT-Bahrain opened its doors for new applicants in a medium size villa in Juffair with a small team of academics and staff members. It was the first American university in Bahrain, offering limited Majors in Business and Information Technology. Students liked the idea of studying locally and earning an international degree and many were looking forward to attend the annual graduation trip to New York once they complete their programs.

 

Growth:

A year later, NYIT had to triple its intake capacity to fulfill the increasing demand. A new campus was built, more sections and classes were offered and the many part-time professors converted to full-timers. Several universities were established in the same year, but NYIT managed to stand out and to gain a large share of Bahrain’s higher education market by introducing new degrees in Interior design and Computer graphics as well as having a very creative and active student life.

 

Maturity:

The university was running at an ideal capacity, where the number of the graduated students was equal to newly accepted freshmen. NYIT was doing great until 2009, when the Higher Education Council of Bahrain decided to come up with a new set of regulations, aiming to standardize all private universities in Bahrain. This would be done by standardizing courses, degrees and majors names and interfering with the Management and the Board’s regulations. NYIT could not adapt to the changes like the other local competitors, as all NYIT campuses around the world must follow the same American standard programs, otherwise they would be threatened to lose their International License and Accreditation.

 

Decline:

Many attempts were made with the ministry to prevent further downturn, but all were unsuccessful.

Unfortunately in May 2010 NYITs’ Advisory Board officially declared the phase-off plan of the Bahrain branch, and started cost-cutting and shutting-down departments in order to reduce capacity. NYIT-Bahrain will continue to run until all students graduate by 2013.

 

Do you think that NYIT made the right decision by closing the Bahrain Campus? Were there any alternative solutions that they could’ve taken to extend their life cycle in Bahrain?

After midnight.. Mannequins become alive!

“Where Shopping meets Entertainment” is the slogan of the mall I work at. To keep up with our statement, the management works hard to ensure visitors overall satisfaction, present a new shopping and entertaining experience and to operate at full capacity during trading hours. To do so, extensive amount of work must be done after hours, after the last customer leaves the mall.

 

So what happens at midnight when the mall is closed? The answers would be: the mall becomes alive! Over 340 stores open their doors one more time to be cleaned, new inventory moved in, showcase items are replaced and mannequins are re-dressed. The mall’s Operation Team has to provide enough security members to ensure nothing is stolen from stores, they also issue work permits for external suppliers and cleaning companies as well as create a daily working schedule covering all the activities that will happen between midnight to 8am.

 

The real challenge..

Besides coordinating stores related activities, the Operation Team plays a huge role prior to launching new promotional campaigns along with other departments. This includes Marketing, Finance and Maintenance, as they have to plan and schedule setting-up and dismantling large promotional displays in less than 8 hours, also including the following tasks:

–  Shipping the display items into the mall through loading bays, and providing proper transportation

–  Replacing signage and banners around the mall, including banners hanging from the mall’s sealing 40 meters high.

–  Monitor the storing of old display items and banners.

–  Ensure all extra waste is removed and the mall is ready to open its door for visitors.

 

We learned in our last class about project scheduling and performing Critical Path analysis. I realized that our mall management uses the same analysis while planning campaign launches. As we will be working against the clock, the management creates a Backward Pass plan, beginning with the last event that is due at 8 am and working backwards. Time is always a priority in such projects, and if extra costs are needed to meet the 8 am deadline the management can only agree to pay.

 

3am Surprises..

Although the team spends over a month planning an 8 hour project with the suppliers and assembling company, there is always a chance for unexpected errors that might affect the project’s working path. It happened in several occasions that a supplier would discover in the middle of the working progress that there is a missing piece from the display, or banners need to be re-printed as they are in the wrong size. Solving such problems is not easy, as printing and production companies are closed, arranging extra staff is challenging and some decision makers will be in deep sleep at the time of these tragedies.

 

Fortunately, the mall management was able to solve such problems, bearing extra costs of course. The question is what can be done to prevent such problems and can this be done without additional costs?