Arab Open University

Tutor Marked Assignment (TMA)

Academic Year 2016 - 2017 Semester: 1 (Fall)

Branch: Antelias Program: Business Studies
Course Title: Managing in the work place Course Code: B121
Student Name:
Student ID: 151292
Rafah Abdo
Section Number:109 Tutor Name: Carla Bader

Total Mark: Awarded Mark:

Mark details
Questions Strength .Weak .Opport Threats
Total : 85
Allocated Marks Weight 25 20 20 20
Marks

MarksAddition Criteria E-Library Presentation, Referencing Total

Structure and
Wordcount
Marks 5 5 5 15
Student’s Total Mark (out of 100)

Notes on plagiarism:
A. According to the Arab Open University By-laws, “the following acts represent cases of cheating and
Plagiarism:
 Verbatim copying of printed material and submitting them as part of TMAs without proper
academic acknowledgement and documentation.
 Verbatim copying of material from the Internet, including tables and graphics.
 Copying other students’ notes or reports.
 Using paid or unpaid material prepared for the student by individuals or firms.
B. Penalties for plagiarism ranges from failure in the TMA to expulsion from the university.

Declaration: I hereby declare that the submitted TMA is my own work and I have not copied any other person’s
work or plagiarized in any other form as specified above.
Student Signature

.Tutor’s Feedback

Tutor Name: Tutor Signature: Date returned:

 The Arab Open University in Lebanon

The competition between the businesses in the market something exists anywhere , but the company
must do some research and analysis for its company and its environment in order to understand the
situation of the company or the business in the market and the model that focused on studying the
market called swot model analysis it means the mode of studying the internal and the external factor
that affect the organization from inside and outside this model consists on evaluating 4 dimension
which are strengths _ weaknesses _ opportunities and the threats and this model is very important
because it can reveal the negative things in the business in order to fix them and to put strategy for the
future ( Marilyin Helms, 2010) . And in this research we will conduct a swot analysis for the Arab Open
University in its Lebanese branch .

Firstly, I will start by discussing the strengths of the AOU IN Lebanon, the strengths of the
business which are the positive things and the internal characteristic of the business that
specialized in and make it do in very good way in the market and make it easy to achieve the
goal of the organization (castilla.G ,2006, et al. ) one of the strength in our case is the British
degree, AOU is partnership with Ou ( the open university ) in Britain and this can make the aou
too much trusted from the student because it gives a very formal certificate you can use it
everywhere in the world .the presence of an accreditation between Lebanese university and a
European university gives an added value and a competitive advantage in comparison to
another universities .Another strength is the open system which include the hour and the
flexibility of the schedule this system attracts a large number of working students and married
women because of its flexibility and short period of time spent at the university . In this type of
systems student can easily work in part-time or full-time job .it is also very convenient with
students who have strict schedules at work like the Lebanese army members or other security
forces armed members . the technology services in the university are also very important
srenght : the student can use the computer with free internet and you have a private account
on the website of the university you can use it to study or to submit you project and to know all
the news of the university . The tutorial tuition is very good comparing to other universities. The
credits fees are low and there is possibility for the student to divide his payments into 4
instalments.

However, there are some weaknesses that could expose the AOU to some threats needs to be
improved and replacing because they prevent the company from achieving its goal (Castilla.G, 2006, et
al.) At AOU , one of the weaknesses are limited number of majors there is few of majors to study which
are business and the computer and the English this can make others university have more student in
comparison with Aou . Another weaknesses is the language of learning adopted to AOU: the AOU in
Lebanon offers courses have very important problem which is the language of studying because the aou
studies the course in the English language while there are very big number of student in Lebanon French
educated this makes the French educated student moved to another university instead of aou.
 Thirdly, the opportunities which are the good steps that can make the business gain more and to
spread in the market and sometimes the weaknesses of the competitor considered as opportunities for
the business (castilla.G, 2006, et al). , and the opportunities in our case study are :First ,there is a project
to open 2 new branches one in Tripoli and the other in beqaa this can allowed to the students of those
region to study in the aou and makes the university to spread in the market and gain more profit . A
second opportunity offered to Aou is the creation of new tracks and majors for example, the HR
management and the multimedia and the investigation of the online criminal all of these tracks lead
aou to increase the numbers of the student and to spread in Lebanon . the high prices of studying in
others university in Lebanon constitute an opportunity for AOU because it is very important reason that
lead the students to choose the aou to complete their studying because the aou considered the
cheapest prices of courses in Lebanon in comparison with (LIU, NDU, AUL …..).And finally, the Difficulty
of studying in Lebanese university because of the long hours that the students’ needs to spend inside
the university makes a very big numbers of student to choose the aou to study at.

IN addition to , the threats are the external factors that can faces the business in the market
sometimes the activity of the competitors considered as threat for your business and preventing the
business from achieving the goal (castilla.G ,2006 ,et al .) and the threats of the AOU in Lebanon are
mainly : The big marketing campaign of the LIU ( the Lebanese international university ) can affect in the
mind of the student .Also the prices of the Lebanese university is very cheap this can makes the student
chose the Lebanese university for studying Moreover , the existing of universities near the aou can
attracts the student .

Finally , the swot model analysis is very important model in the field of marketing strategy because it
provides information about the company by clarifying the factors into 4 categories that affect the path
of the business which are the strength ,weaknesses ,opportunities ,threats and it show how the
strength can lead to opportunities in the future and the weaknesses can be a threat (Ansoff ,1965 .et
al )

LIST of References :
_1 HELMS, M.M. and NIXON, J., 2010. Exploring SWOT analysis - where are we now? Journal of Strategy
and Management, 3(3), pp. 215-251.

_2http://www.isprs.org/proceedings/xxxvi/4-c42/Papers/OBIA2006_Hay_Castilla.pdf 24/11/ 2016 at

10 am

_3 Hay, G.J. and Castilla, G., 2006, July. Object-based image analysis: strengths, weaknesses,
opportunities and threats (SWOT). In Proc. 1st Int. Conf. OBIA (pp. 4-5).

_4 HELMS, M.M. and NIXON, J., 2010. Exploring SWOT analysis - where are we now?
Journal of Strategy and Management, 3(3), pp. 215-251.

http://www.shell-livewire.org/swot-analysis/ 18/11/2016 (8 am)